@Anonymous wrote:
I do apologize if this has already been answered, I couldn't find the answer.
So I have been told I should start building credit so I applied for and got the 99/500 BofA Secured card. I don't want to start my credit off poorly but I have been advised to place all my daily purchases on the card and then just transfer the money the same day- my question is will doing it like that hurt my credit Utilization or is it only a factor at the end of the month or on carried balances?
This is the key thing to understand: You are starting your credit file. You only have the one card. The utilization measures are point in time, and if you let $400 report on the $500 available, yes, there will be some negative temporary effect on your "FICO score" which, at this point in your journey, is really going to be volatile anyway, as it tries to figure you out.
Just make sure you only charge items you can pay, from normal spend like groceries and gas you would buy otherwise. Never go over the limit. Pay it down if you feel you are getting close to the limit and it would restrict a charge you have planned, but I would not worry if it reports $400 or $450 on any one statement. Make sure you never miss a payment due date, ideally PIF by the payment due date.
After several months of this (and your score gyrating due to new activity and the first months of good payments being added) then you may want to watch the utilzation at the statement print, it will help your score if you keep the statement reported balance to less than 30%. In that case, you will want to pay prior to statement cut to manage that reported balance. In regular months, however, you only have the one card and BofA really only cares that you pay down the balance you have borrowed. They know it's only $500, they have $99 of security, they aren't going to give you a hard time as long as you are paying the amounts you owe.
I don't know what they would see in a SP of your credit file, since this is the only card you have, that they don't already know better based on your actual payment activity of their account that the see all the action directly. 
As you get more cards, with higher limits, then you may decide to manage more closely the utilization. Even then, I'd be recommending not to overdo the tendency here to keep balances reported at $5, because that isn't how you used the card, is it? Why not show off that borrowing and payment? There's no cost from the historical display of that data, and may be some benefit to it. Your Right Now utilization is all that matters for the current FICO score, and if in those past months you weren't apping, then you had no reason to keep the reported amount to $5.
Good Luck!
It will only hurt if you keep going and don't wait for your next statement to cut before you start charging again. Remember, pay on the due date, wait for your next statement, and start to charge/pay again. 
Good luck on your journey to great things.
