Mortgage Lender tells me to not pay full credit card balance?

[Eric Lind]

I recently filled out a pre-approval application for a mortgage, however, the lender did a hard pull and told me they came back with no score. Credit karma gave me a score of 711, I know it is an estimate but I found it weird one had a score yet the lender got none. The lender told me they got no score because I was paying my credit card balance to zero. They told me to get a Capital One secured card and never pay it to zero. I could not find any affiliation between the lender and Capital One. Is leaving a $10 balance at all times a real strategy to gain a credit score or a possible reason the lender did not get any score when they did the hard inquiry? Everything I have read and learned says to pay off credit cards on time and to a zero balance since that is the point of credit and how you show you are financially responsible. I would appreciate any advice you can give me!

[Erik Estrada]

You should have a variety of revolving credit and preferably a long history. If you just have a couple of recently opened credit cards and you pay them off in full every month, it may not be enough credit history/mix for a mortgage. I am not a credit expert, but I noticed with many clients, the more credit mix, higher available lines of credit, and low utilization, helps out with mortgage credit.