I have found that living within my means resulted in no credit score at all, which was treated as the worst possible credit score, when I finally started to investigate the possibility of buying a house. 45 years old at the time, $120k income, same job since '99, no debt at all, cars all paid cash etc, Didn't owe anyone a dollar, not late on any bills for decades, solid predictable longstanding income, only about 100k in the bank though not counting the 401k, ... no credit. Because I never even got a credit card let alone used one. All cash/debit whole life.
So, F this line. It's only true if it also includes "...and intentionally aquire and actually use a couple of credit cards that you don't want and don't need, for no other reason than to go through the motions." And even then it still doesn't result in an exactly great credit score if you always pay in full and never carry a balance. Even after years. 10 so far for me since the above. It's ok, but not great.
Unfortunately, it's dumb to not use a credit card nowadays. Every business marks up the cost of goods to cover CC fees, so you are just paying extra every time you pay cash (unless they offer a discount, some do).
On the other side, you get benefits and money back for using your credit card. So people are in a situation where they really should use a card for everything. It also makes it easier to get good credit as long as your treat it like cash.
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.
So, F this line. It's only true if it also includes "...and intentionally aquire and actually use a couple of credit cards that you don't want and don't need, for no other reason than to go through the motions." And even then it still doesn't result in an exactly great credit score if you always pay in full and never carry a balance. Even after years. 10 so far for me since the above. It's ok, but not great.
So yeah, F this line.