I have a Cap One secured card. This is my only card. I'm working on getting my score up so I can qualify for a mortgage this year. This credit stuff can be a headache! I need help figuring out how I should handle this card. When my card first hit my credit, the balance was $172. My limit is $500. Cap One reported the card earlier than I expected. It was within 10 days of having the card. On my second statement, I let the card report a $6 balance. I got a little score boost from that. On my last (third) statement, I paid in full, leaving a $0 balance. This made my score decrease 7 points 
. I need suggestions on how I should handle my next statement. I don't know if I should go back to letting it report a small balance which would slightly raise my utility or should I let it continue to report $0? My payment date is July 2nd and it closes on the 6th. I have the funds to pay in full if that's the best thing..but I don't know. Any suggestions?
@Anonymous wrote:I have a Cap One secured card. This is my only card. I'm working on getting my score up so I can qualify for a mortgage this year. This credit stuff can be a headache! I need help figuring out how I should handle this card. When my card first hit my credit, the balance was $172. My limit is $500. Cap One reported the card earlier than I expected. It was within 10 days of having the card. On my second statement, I let the card report a $6 balance. I got a little score boost from that. On my last (third) statement, I paid in full, leaving a $0 balance. This made my score decrease 7 points
You've seen in your experience that showing a zero balance causes a small ding to your scores because FICO likes to see a card being used. Going forward you can have $1 report if you want to and you'll probably get the same benefit as keeping the utilization under the 9% level generally recommended here.
You can play around with the percentages for a few months and see what seems to help your situation the most. Some people say that 1% utilization gives them the biggest boost, others 3-5%, still others 7-9% utilization.
From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".