Pay it all of or leave some balance -what's best for my credit score?

DonL

From own personal experience in trying to rebuild my credit the best options that I have come across from credit card usage have been any of the two:

Paying in down in full each month or
Making sure you credit card utilisation is less than 50%

I am always checking my equifac report and whenever it goes above 50% it goes from green to amber, staying below this keeps you green.

Not sure if that helps x

DonL

That was supposed to say equifax

Chrysalis

generally I think as long as utilisation isnt too high and you are meeting the credit terms, then score will rise over time, but it rises "faster" when full payments are made.

Those of us with 0% BT cards usually dont pay the cards off in full tho (otherwise whats the point of the BT cards), and still see our scores rise over time.

Whatever card I choose to use for purchases is paid in full every month tho, and my overall credit utilisation has never gone over 50%. This has been helped also by the fact I have a couple of catalogue accounts I barely use with 4 figure limits at 0 balance or close to 0 balance.

The scores are a guide but do not necessarily have a resemblance to how companies assess if they want you as a customer.