1. Lower Your Debt Ratio

When debating which cards to pay off first, most financial experts will tell you to start with the ones that have the highest interest rates. That makes sense since it's the most expensive debt you're carrying.

But from a credit scoring perspective, it's better to tackle the credit cards with balances that are closest to their credit limits first. Here's why: Credit utilization -- or how much of your available credit you're using -- determines 30% of your credit score, says John Ulzheimer, president of Credit.com Educational Services, a consumer-education web site. The lower your balances in relation to your credit-card limits, the higher your credit score. (This is true for the ratio of individual card limits and balances, as well as the overall available credit that you're using across all your cards.) To be considered in pretty good shape, you should aim to use less than 50% of your available credit.

See our story Keeping Score for more details on what goes into your credit score.