Hey everyone. I had a quick question on what is considered the best practice for utilization when you have multiple cards.
I currently have a 1k Capital One secured card, and a 300$ First Progress secured card. I always keep my utilization under 10% across both cards. Should I activly use both cards, or would it be better for me to just let me 300$ card remain at zero and use the 1k card and only occasionally use the smaller limit card just to keep it active?
Just curious 
Thanks!
Keep your $300 card at $0.00. Your $1K card, keep from 4%-9%. Look for a bump when you move it down from 10% to 9%.
Okay so this is what you do.
You can use both cards as much as you want. HOWEVER be sure by the closing date that your First Progress card has a $0 balance and since you are rebuilding, I would say be sure your Cap One card has like a $10 or $20 balance. Which is equal to 1-2% util on that card. Anything between 1-9% will boost your score with 1% resulting in the largest boost followed by 2% then 3% and so on.
Please note that the closing date is different from your due date. The closing date is when the actual statement closes and is the amount that get's reported to the CRA's. Usually you have like a 25 day grace period from the closing date and the actual due date. Be sure you are PAID IN FULL on that Capital One BY your due date. Don't worry about the due date on the First Progress because you won't have a balance (because if you have indeed used the card during that cycle, you would have already paid it down to ZERO before the closing date).
Capital One is NOT going to graduate you to their unsecured card so don't worry about feeling like you are going to make them think you don't need the card or because of your low balance, try to give you a low balance unsecured. They are NEVER going to graduate you. So don't even worry about it.
Starting Score: (FICO)(August 29, 2013) 502(EQ) 568(EX) 549(TU)