Will you get bad credit if you just pay the minimum on your bills?

Sometimes I can only just manage to pay the minimum on my credit card bills. Will this negatively affect my credit?

As long as you make a minimum payment on time your credit report will show this. Missing a payment will show up on your report and will show up for years afterword. A lot of people don't understand how much damage one late payment to their credit rating.

At the indiividual lender level paying the minimum every month may cause a red flag. I've had credit cards lower my credit limit because I only payed the minimum for several months in a row. Because of this I always try to at least pay a little above the minimum even if it is only $10 more.

The most important thing for your credit rating is to pay every bill on time but paying a little above will certainly look better to the individual lendors.

Of course, the best thing is to pay your credit card off in full every month. Of course things happen. For me it was a divorce. For others it might be an accident or illness. Your long term goal should be to pay off your credit cards every month and not pay a penny of interest.

if you were a banker would you want a customer who doesnt pay, who only pays the minimum or who pays up in full on time?

there are a few things to consider with all of this.

a young person who wishes to build a credit history would do well to have 2 or 3 cards, but with the purpose of building GOOD credit history.

dont get stuck on using the minimum payment option. you will be rated accordingly.

credit history is good but paying up in full on time is best.

So long as you pay the minimun on time every month, your credit rating itseslf will not suffer.
However, it is better to pay more than the minimum when you can afford to, because it will save you money on finance charges in the long run. Once you get the cards paid off, try to continue to pay the balance in full every month if at all possible. Many of my friends have terrible credit card debt because they continually paid only the minimum but continued to use the cards to buy things. Try switching to a card with a lower interest rate to help speed up paying off your card.