Originally Posted by
spanky
I did get a secured credit card through capital one and i do plan on paying all but a small portion ($10-20) every month to try to help build things that way as well.
You are better off paying the full balance every month. Most places that run your credit (car dealers, mortgage, etc) will review the full report and not just the score. It's much easier to explain paying a balance off in full opposed to leaving a small balance every month.
Ive been in banking my whole career, and these are my general tips for building credit:
- Pay your bill off every month
- Use a maximum of 30% of your total credit available
- Maintain two CCs; one for daily use paid off every month and one for emergencies that could be paid over time. The card with the lower rate should be the emergency card as interest rate doesn't matter when you pay in full.
- Don't cancel the card with the longest credit history.