Well, making minimum payments has a negative impact because then you're carrying a debt which eats into your debt vs ability to borrow ratio which does have a big impact.

Paying off cards in full each month is the absolute best thing to do for your credit score (and saving money by not paying interest).

> making minimum payments has a negative impact because then you're carrying a debt

I think it would depend on your credit utilization %. If your credit utilization is too low, it may hurt your score. Of course if your credit utilization % is too high then it's an (even worse) issue. But who really knows? It's not like we have the formula.

Paying in full does not adversely impact your credit score, but it is generally believed that not utilizing your available credit at all can adversely impact your score.

Of course, who really knows? And the fact that we can't really know is the real problem IMO.