quick note: It is of my knowledge (actually the VP of a Bank of America's knowledge) that you should have two revolving forms of credit: ie; credit cards and one non-revolving (I forgot the 'educated' word for it) form of credit: ie; car loan in order to establish good credit. it also apparently takes a year. but my question is about my credit cards: do I get better credit if I pay it all off, or if I leave a remaining balance? Or does it even matter? I generally leave a small balance, but nothing I cant pay off if I have to.