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Just out of curiosity what does "You've shown recent use of credit cards or open ended accounts". I had a significant boost and this was one of the factors. I am using the AZEO method and was keeping the 1 card that I did have reporting around 1% utilization. I bumped my utilization up to 5% this last reporting period. I try to keep my 1 card reporting very low. Like 20 bucks. Should I go a little higher from now on and then pay the balance down every month?
All this really means is that you're reporting something other than all zero balances on your revolvers, thus you are reporting non-zero utilization. This constitutes "recent use of credt cards" and means you're overcoming the 15-20 point penalty that's usually associated with all cards reporting $0 balances.
If you're allowing just 1 of your credit cards to report a $20 balance, there's nothing more you can do to help your FICO scores. A $20 reported balance on 1 card will maximize your scores with respect to the utilization sector of the FICO pie. Lowering that $20 balance to $10 or raising it to $40 will make zero difference on your FICO score.