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Paying credit cards ontime and only paying the minimum amount.?*

I have been paying my credit card ontime and only the minimum for a while now. Will this impact my credit score permanently? If I pay back what I owe to the credit cards fully will my credit score be higher than it is right now? I also have a car loan.

Answers:

1) Paying your credit card bill on time, even with minimum payments, will improve your credit score over time. However, carrying a high balance on revolving credit (i.e. a credit card) is bad. If you are using more than 30 percent of your available credit, your credit score will be impacted negatively. Your credit score will improve once you pay down your balances and keep them down.

2) If you continue to pay your card on time and only the minimum amount chances are you'll never pay it off. That said, paying on time every month definitely increases your credit score, but if you pay a little more each month than what is due, creditors will see that also. A credit report shows the maximum balance on the card and the actual balance there is, as well as the highest balance there's been. My suggestion is to pay them down, even pay them off but use them to purchase throughout the month and pay them off within 30 days to avoid interest.

3) Paying your bills on time is fundamental to having a good credit score; it makes up 35% of your score. Paying just the minimum each month means it will take much longer for you to improve the 30% of your score that relates to your credit/debt ratio, or how much you owe versus how much credit has been granted to you. The longer it takes to pay down your balances, the longer it takes to improve that 30%.

4) What your doing won't hurt your credit score, but to raise it, start paying a little more than the minimum, even if it's only $10

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