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I can't think of a more worthless way of measuring my ability to pay my bills.

It's an important factor in class warfare in America.

Is it true that credit scores are better if you DON'T pay off balances on your credit cards, but instead make minimum payments?

Socnorb11 wrote:Is it true that credit scores are better if you DON'T pay off balances on your credit cards, but instead make minimum payments?

thats devious if true

I disagree with some of the components of how it is calculated, but I wouldn't call it worthless.

Socnorb11 wrote:Is it true that credit scores are better if you DON'T pay off balances on your credit cards, but instead make minimum payments?

I don't think so. They want to see a history of making regular payments, but they also want to see you have a low percentage of actual debt vs available credit. Making minimum payments isn going to help your debt load any.

Apparently I spend too much money. I have a full time job and have paid off my entire bill on time every month, but I guess since I falsely assumed that using my credit card instead of my debit card was good for my credit, my balance/limit ratio is too high, and my credit score sucks. [expletive] stupid.

Check out http://www.creditkarma.com. They give a pretty accurate estimate of your credit score, but also list each factor that affects the score, your grade within that area, and whether it's a high, medium, or low impact segment of the score. For example, going with what was mentioned here, the category of "credit card utilization" has a HIGH impact on your credit score. To get an "A" in credit card utilization, you would utilize between 1 and 20% of your credit card limits. However, I'm not sure how paying your balance in full factors into that; I assume that even if you pay in full, just the fact that you're using them is enough.

There are other factors too, though, such as age of credit history, total accounts, number of hard inquiries, and...the biggest ones...payment history and derogatory marks. Each derogatory mark over the past 7 years knocks you down 1 letter grade in that category, and it's a HIGH factor. Same with payment history - payment of 96% or less of your payments on time gives you an F, and it's another HIGH impact category.

Think of it as your personal WAR?

Schlich wrote:Apparently I spend too much money. I have a full time job and have paid off my entire bill on time every month, but I guess since I falsely assumed that using my credit card instead of my debit card was good for my credit, my balance/limit ratio is too high, and my credit score sucks. [expletive] stupid.

Get a 2nd card and don't use it ever. Then your balance/limit ratio will be better.

Still a stupid formula.