• nublug@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    3 days ago

    this is not true and it keeps people paying interest they don’t have to so i’m pretty sure it was spread on purpose precisely for this purpose by the banks.

    paying off and cancelling a card lowers your credit score not because you paid it off but because you’re down one line of credit. by far the number of lines of credit has the biggest impact on your score (aside from major shit like bankruptcy or loan defaults.)

    paying off your credit card balance before it generates interest every month does not affect your score at all aside from increased age (a good thing). your utilization rate is not calculated from your end of month balance but by how much you use the line of credit regardless whether you pay it off or let it sit and charge you interest.

    so do not let debt sit in your credit card balance because you think paying it off makes your score go down if you have the means to pay it off. always pay it off if you can, and never charge more to it than you can immediately pay off except emergencies.

    • Carrot@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      Yeah, this. I have 850 credit, and I’ve never carried a balance on any of my cards, not even once. As long as you make your payments on time, even if it’s more than the minimum, your credit will slowly creep up. The annoying thing that lowers credit is paying off a loan. Wrapped up your student loans? Credit dip. Pay off the ol’ car? Credit dip. Really annoying.