True or False?? A decent way to bump up your credit score.....

True.... But why not just put everything you purchase on your card and pay it off each month

I won't really make a difference as long as your balance is less than 30% (I think?) of your credit limit.

Yes

Any card will do

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I won't really make a difference as long as your balance is less than 30% (I think?) of your credit limit.

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Correct, but even if you go over 30% it won't have any long-term impact. You get dinged a small amount when your revolving balance > some percentage of your total amount, but if you are able to pay it off in full anyway whenever you need to then you might as well use the card. Eventually either your limit will get raised enough for it not to matter anymore.

Paying off your CC each month has nothing to do with your CRA Score aside from utilization. What it does do is keep the card active and in favor with the bank issuing the card. If you had a card and didnt use it for years they may close it which can hurt your debt to credit ratio. Also paying off your card monthly doesnt always result in a 0 balance on your report. It depends on when the bank reports. If you have a 500 limt credit card and its your only one and you spend 150 on it a month but pay it off on the 20th and your bank reports on the 19th then your credit score will take a hit for being at 30% even though you pay it off monthly.

There is a lot of info online about when banks report as many people watch this so google your bank. Some move around like HSBC and Capital One for example its best to pay a few days before your due date while Chase reports the day of.

Bottom line its a good idea to know the day of the month that the CC company reports. Otherwise you can do harm while you think you are doing a good thing.

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True.... But why not just put everything you purchase on your card and pay it off each month

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This depends on your credit limit I think. Whenever your balance is close to your limit, you get dinged for that I'm pretty sure. You want to have your balance regularly at 30% or below the limit. Thats at least what I have gathered from these boards and from credit people.

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To maximize your score at a point in time, have less than 10% of your utilization report. It doesn't matter whether you spend $10 or $1,000 per month, as long as you pay it down before the statement date, the credit bureaus won't know what you've spent. The credit card company only reports your balance every month and utilization percent is a MAJOR factor in determining your FICO score. So, as Bacon said, just get a rewards card and use it like a debit card then pay it off before the balance posts on your statement every month.

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One little thing - I was in a class recently about credit scores and we learned that the reporting date from your credit card to the credit agencies is NOT necessarily your statement date...so for instance if you ran it to the limit every month but paid it off you might look to the credit agency as over-leveraged even though you paid it off on time. Just an FYI