Carrying a credit card blanace

I heard someone say the other day that carrying a balance of some kind on your credit card month after month will improve your credit rating. Truth is that’s wrong, why is it wrong? Well first of all, the actual balance on your credit card makes up only a tiny fraction of your credit score. Yes, credit utilization — which is the part that carrying a balance is involved with — is one component, but so is payment history, the length of your credit history, the types of accounts you have, and how many credit inquiries you've had recently which means people checking on your credit. In fact, most credit score systems focus primarily on payment history above the other factors, not the credit utilization.

In fact, most credit scores prefer that you remain below 30% of your credit utilization. In other words, they want you to have a balance equal to 30% of your credit limit at the absolute maximum. Carrying more than that actually hurts your credit score.