Most people realize that if they pay the minimum payment on their credit cards that it may take years upon years to get it paid off. In fact, now that fact should be in plain view on every single one of your credit card statements, exactly how long it will take to pay off the remaining balance if you were to only pay the minimum.
And paying more is much better for your finances. Seriously, who in their right mind wants to pay all that extra interest to the credit card companies if they can pay the extra towards the principal?
But you may not realize that this does not help your credit score. Nope, the credit bureaus and credit scoring people like to make money on you so they offer no benefit to your credit score for paying above the minimum balance. It doesn?t count towards your score.
What does count is your payment history, your debt to available credit ratio, the length of your credit history, recent credit including inquiries and the type of credit you have. And it all adds up to 100%, check out 5 Very Important Factors To A Credit Score.
Oh, and BTW, the best thing to do is to pay more than the minimum and get yourself out of debt faster. Take care of your own finances first, your credit score second.
