If you take on debt, make at least your minimum monthly payments, you will improve your credit score. A lender’s best friend is someone who will borrow money at a high interest rate and then demonstrate the ability to continue to make payments on that debt. I’m not disputing that taking on debt and making payments will improve your score, what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t take on debt because you want to improve your score.

I’ve heard more than a comfortable number of people claim that they should take on some sort of debt in order to improve their score. The reason why this is a preposterous reason for taking on debt is because it’s very difficult to quantify the value of your score in any real terms and thus it makes absolutely no sense to pay anything to improve your score, above and beyond smart and time-tested credit score improvement tips (not to be reckless with your credit, pay your bills on time, don’t binge on credit cards).

Sure, if you have a mortgage or you’re buying a car, making regular payments on those loans will improve your score but don’t spend money on a credit card so you can make minimum payments on a debt that is charging you 20% interest each year. That just doesn’t make much sense.