re: Paying off a credit card too soon?

quote:

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What you want here is to optimize your utilization. I would just carry a balance of $20 over from month to month to build credit. That will minimize your finance charges. If your average daily balance is $20, that's less than $0.25, even at 14% - so you would probably trip a minimum finance charge of 50 cents or a dollar (whatever) - and that would be your cost of showing some utilization.

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Not trying to be mean, but this is 100% incorrect.

There is no cost to show utilization. Utilization is the reported balance of what you owe when your statement closes. Say $100 reports on your closing statement. If I pay $100 and charge another $100 before the next statement close, I will pay no interest, and my balance will report the new $100 on the next statement, keeping my utilization the same. Again, there is no "cost to show utilization."