Welcome to the forums.
The way credit card companies expect you to use your card is to use the card for purchases, let them send you the monthly statement (or you retrieve it online now) and then you pay the amount by the due date shown on the statement. If you want to carry a balance further, they will be happy to charge some interest, but the basic presumption is that you pay at least the minimum payment by the payment date on the statement.
Now, there are a number of people who don't think they want to leave anything on the card, they follow the pattern you describe of paying almost as soon as they get home, after swiping the card for a purchase. This is fine, except that if none of your credit cards shows any balance at all on any statement, you will have a lower FICO score than if just one of your cards is allowed to post a balance on a statement. It's one of the quirks of FICO scoring, something has to be on one of your revolver accounts for the algorithm to give you some extra points. Too many balances or too much overall debt does start to drag down the score again, but that doesn't sound like where you are headed.
So let the card report a balance, and if it is your only credit card, let it report a balance, even if just a small balance, each monthly statement. You won't be paying any interest as long as you pay that statement balance off by the due date.
@Anonymous wrote:Since getting my first credit card a few years ago, I've followed the same pattern. I would spend between 10% and 30% of my credit limit at the beginning of the month and pay it off the very next day. Back when I did my initial bit of research and brainstorming, this was suggested to be a good method. After speaking with a banker recently, I heard that it's best to wait until receiving my bill, otherwise my bill will not reflect that there was ever any activity, which is important because the activity which is posted on the bill is what's reported and analyzed on my credit report. Can someone explain why this may be correct or incorrect? I'm looking at getting a couple more credit cards to beef up my credit limit and take advantage of some rewards programs, but I don't believe in adding to the toolbox until improving your craft.
You were given incorrect advice; there's nothing wrong with paying it off ASAP.
The one exception is this: if all your cards report a zero balance in the statement, you will be losing some FICO points. So it's ok to have all cards with a zero statement balance, as long as one of them reports a small balance (less than 10% of the limit).
What the banker said about activity is baloney.
