Credit Card Usage

[GoalGetter]

I am new sort of. In 2014 I had no established credit, I tried to pull my score from MYFICO and there was not enough on my credit to calculate. I had to pull from Experian to get my scores. 

During the last few years I was able to get two vehicle loans from a traditional small town bank. 
Recently, I applied for a Secured CC through BOA and was approved for $500.00.
I thought I could wing this without help. Since my main debit card has a $500 / day limit, I thought I could use the BOA card and pay it off the next day and keep a zero balance. I learned that is not the case, my scores dipped about 50 points for the 85% useage.

So I am back to listen and find some advice. Two questions:

What do I need to do to ensure I get a usuage correction as fast as possible? I was about to sell my current vehicle and purchase another, but I want my credit to be better when I go in for a loan.

Can someone tell me if usuage is an overall monthly factor or pulled at the last day of the cycle?

[Anonymous]

Whatever your usage is or balance that's going to factor into your utilzation is usally determined by your statment balance, that's the amount thats going  show to the credit agencies. So you can pay it before the statment cuts/cycle ends if you want it to report 0 balance on your credit report. Hence, the word "usually" as mid cycle reporting or other random time soft pulls they do can happen. 

[HeavenOhio]

With only one card, you want a small balance at the end of the statement period. 28.9% of your limit is considered responsible; 8.9% of your limit or lower fully optimizes the utilization portion of your score. You don't want your statement to cut with a zero balance because that'll ding you. You can use your card a lot as long as you make mid-cycle payments to stay away from your limit. Near the statement date, you'll want to get your balance down to a desirable amount and avoid any charges that might post and bump you above that desired amount.

Once you have more cards, zero balances become desirable. Less than half of your cards reporting small non-zero balances is good. Only one card reporting a small non-zero balance is best.

As mentioned, most cards (BOA included), report the statement balance on the statement date. Exceptions would include US Bank and Chase. US Bank reports balances as of the first of the month. Chase reports statement balances, but they also report zero whenever you pay to zero. That's generally a good thing unless it causes all of your cards to have zero balances. It was posted recently that DCU and Vantage West are also oddballs. It's fine that a bank or CU reports a little differently than the norm as long as you know what to expect.