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Hi Everyone,
I am in the process of rebuilding my credit. Part of that means I need new credit. The best way for myself to build new credit, I believe, is to open more credit cards. I am not very knowledgable though on the most proper way to use them to build my credit??
I have read that I am only supposed to use a certain percentage of my limit. Is that for each month? Also, how often should I pay it off?
Can anyone help me with this? I want to use and pay my credit cards properly to build my scores.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
J
You can use however much of your limit as you want, the key is the balance that is reported. If you want to max out a card it's fine as long as you pay it off before the statement cuts. If you want to carry a balance keep it below 9% utilization when it reports for optimal scoring.
I guess that is where I get confused. When does the balance get cut or reported to me?
Example: If my OpenSky credit card has a $200 balance, what is the best way to use it? I charged $64.65 to it on 5/5/16. On 5/23/16, I had a Total Current Balance of $64.65, but a Statement Balance of $29.65.
Where does the $29.65 come from? That is over the the usage that I want reported right??
Thank you in advance!
@ba6412 wrote:I guess that is where I get confused. When does the balance get cut or reported to me?
Example: If my OpenSky credit card has a $200 balance, what is the best way to use it? I charged $64.65 to it on 5/5/16. On 5/23/16, I had a Total Current Balance of $64.65, but a Statement Balance of $29.65.
Where does the $29.65 come from? That is over the the usage that I want reported right??
Thank you in advance!
Look on your statement...There's a statement closing date. That's the date that the statement closes and the balance that shows is usually the one reported to CRAs....That differs from your due date. What I found is your due date is usually within 5 to 7 days before your next statement close date.