whats the best way

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My secured cards are on their way, I should receive them by the end of this week if not early next week. What's the best way to get them reporting? Should I use both on small purchases? Simply activate them? And how exactly does UTI work. One card has a CL of $200 the other $300. I will looking to get another card soon. 

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

You should use them as much as possible. Use=Bill=Payment=Building payment history.

You want your UTL to be at least below 30%, which would be $60 on your $200 card and $90 on your $300 card. Your UTL should definitely NOT be higher than that when the statement cuts. Preferably you'd have it down to <10% You can keep UTL down by making several payments each month rather than waiting for the bill to be due.

Doing this for 6 months-1 year will really help boost your scores and then later on down the road you can work on getting better, unsecured cards (depending on the rest of your credit profile).

[Anonymous]

As Rousseau31 stated, UTI 30% and lower is a great target. Best scoring seems to happen when cards report 1%-9%. But definitely use them heavy on smaller everyday needs then just use the money, that you would have spent anyways, to pay the card down. Only let one card report a small balance, for best scoring results.