Hello all, Thanks to the advice of all of you on this forum, my credit scores have creeped up into the low/mid 600s, and I was able to get approved for an unsecured Barclay's credit card for $500. Not much, but I'll take it. I don't plan on actually "using" the card at all. I'm thinking of auto paying my gas bill with it every month (usually $50-100) and then auto paying the CC from my bank. However, I'm hoping you can tell me if this is the right approach. I haven't had a CC in a long time, and I'm really thinking that this could be a good opportunity to really raise my score, so I want to do it right. First, is it a good idea to pay the balance off in full starting from the first month? I know that the sweet spot for utilization is 1-10%. If I'm auto paying the CC off every month, it's always going to report a 0 balance. I'm almost thinking that I should just pay the minimum payment on the CC for the first month, and then start the cycle, so a small balance always carries over. Second, do you think this bill would be a good choice? Like I said, the bill usually hovers between $50-100. However, $100 is a 20% utilization, which is too high. I have some other options. There are a couple of little $10 charges that I pay every month (one for Microsoft Office 365 and another for a subscription that my son has) that I could maybe do instead. Sorry if I'm overanalyzing this. I just want to make sure I'm doing this right. Thanks!
