Pay in Full of Partial?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am into the first month of my building process for my credit. I have always paid cash for most of my assets and if I needed a loan then my wife would cover the credit end. I recently applied for a loan and ws turned down due to lack of recent credit history. 

So I have as of January set up 3 secured credit cards to start the revolving credit game.

My question is simple: Should I pay off my balance in full or pay more than the minimum and leave a balance over for next month? 

Additionally, is there any truth to people saying that I should not charge more that 30% of my available on any given month?

What is the most efficient and best way to raise the FICO over a 12-18 month period? 

Thanks for your responses in advance! This site is very helpful.

[Repo-ed]

If you have 3 cards, then pay 2 of them to $0 before the "Payment due date".  Then pay the 3rd one down to around a 9% util%.  Then ON the "Payment due date" pay the balance off in full, and then do not use that card until roughly 5 days +/1- (YMMV) days, so that the correct amount and low util reports to the bureaus.

[Anonymous]

So, the score is determined by a culmination of all credit cards and the % util? 

Let me understand this.

Card 1 = 450/500

Card 2 = 250/300

Card 3 = 200/300

when the statements come in I should pay these as follows?

Card 1 = 0/500

Card 2 = 0/300

Card 3 = 30/300 ( until due date then pay off in full and wait 5 days before using again)

Is that what you are saying?

[Anonymous]

Also, when do the CC companies report the card?

Is it on the due date, or 5 days after?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

What cards do you have? Most report your balance on the statement cut date. So if you have 3 cards during the month you can charge how much you want on all of them, without going over your limit of course. Then about 5 days before the statement cut date, make sure to pay two of the cards in full before the statement date, and pay the 3rd one down to about 10% of the limit, let the statement report, then pay the remaining in full to avoid interest charges.

Of course this is only necessary if you are planning on applying for more credit within the next month or two. Even if you max out your cards and let them report one month, if you pay them down to 10% the next it is like the previous month never happened.

[RobertEG]

+1

In my opinion, aside from the issues of interest, keeping the balance at a level such that, if and when you decide to app for new credit, you can get your utils under 10%, is the key.

The 30% level is a fairly good level to shoot for, as being too much over that level will make it harder to get util down when needed.

Another factor apart from the pure, monthly FICO numbers is the consideration of how the creditor will view your usage patterns.

Keeping a high balance over a period of time probably wont help you get credit limit increases, and if they reach a very high sustanined level, may lead to CL decreases.

They want to see usage, but under-control usage.