You are better off paying the whole thing off, and then using it for small purchases after that – pay these purchases off during the billing cycle to avoid finance charges…it will build you score as fast if not faster than paying the current balance slowly and also save you money. The best way to do this is buy a few things you would normally pay cash for, put the money aside and when the bill comes in, just use that money to pay the bill.

Pay off the whole balance. Carrying balance on your credit card does absolutely nothing to improve your credit score. It just costs you interest. Instead, use the card every month for small purchases and pay in full. This gives you a good payment history and saves all that interest.

You should pay it down to under 10% of your total credit limit. The lower your debt utilization ratio the higher your score.

Also once again, the myth that paying it off every month in full does not mean ones score increases any faster, in fact it does little because the credit card companies may only report your current balance before the payment due date and that you made your payment on time, not that you paid in full! This makes it look like you constantly carry a balance and this keeps your average daily balance high.
If you pay it off in full and do not use it for a month or two, it will then show a balance owed of $0.

I will quote from FICO “The amount owed on all accounts. Even if you pay off your credit cards in full every month, your credit report may show a balance on those cards. The total balance on your last statement is generally the amount that will show in your credit report.

You can read more about this at this FICO web site: