When financial anxiety spikes, the impulse to aggressively pay off a car loan or mortgage seems like a bulletproof step toward financial freedom, but credit repair expert and influencer Micah Smith warns that suddenly paying off those loans can actually backfire and drag down your credit score.Instead, turning around a credit score — sometimes taking a profile from the 400s into the 700s in just one month — comes down to precise timing, strategic balance targets and leveraging forgotten rules hidden inside consumer credit law."It really takes a deep understanding of how credit works, but 400s...