Depends on different things. If you have multiple cards, it's best to have all reporting a zero balance except for one. And that one should ideally be reporting at least under 30% but optimally at <10% as you said. Either way, once you pay your balance and your debt is cleared, your scores would recover since FICO has no memory.
@Anonymous wrote:Got it! So with a $10,000 purchase that means: 1) a Credit Card with a limit of at least $17,000 along with $5000 cash...2) or more cash if I receive a Credit Card with a lower limit.
This is forum is AWESOME!
Aggregate utilization is different than individual tradeline utilization. I've had a higher individual tradeline utilization than that (you're <60% in that scenario on the individual line) and my score didn't budge over my prior utilization which was <1% on it. There's a breakpoint there but it's probably either 80 or 90% based on what data we have now, hoping to test that in the semi-near future after re-establishing my SDFCU account that I let lapse 
Personally literally ANY spend I can put through a credit card cost effectively I do so, there's no reason not to and if I had a 17K line and I had the opportunity to make a 10K purchase and let it report before paying, I would. That's me though, but lenders don't really care about instant in time, they do care about longer term patterns.
@Anonymous wrote:Got it! So with a $10,000 purchase that means: 1) a Credit Card with a limit of at least $17,000 along with $5000 cash...2) or more cash if I receive a Credit Card with a lower limit.
This is forum is AWESOME!
First question is what cards do you already have, and what are their limits? This leads to amateur observations of whether $17k is in your future.
Second, a statement, I've maxed out many cards with low interest offers, and the purpose of that is to borrow at low rates. Maxed out to me means 80+ percent. Does it lower the score? Yes. So what? During a time when you are borrowing, presuming you've got the credit available, FICO score is not that important. You've got it in your budget to pay it off fast, so use the credit, and build your credit relationship with a CCC. As it pays down, your score will come back just as fast.
