I don't think you guys are answering his question. His question is whether paying a balance off before the statement cuts will result in a $0 balance on his credit report for the purpose of utilization.

In my experience, the answer is yes 100% of the time, across every bank I've tried (including Citi). I use this tactic heavily to keep my utilization under 5% regardless of the amount I'm actually charging -- I let one reasonable sized balance report (but still <20% of the individual credit line), but pay off all the rest before the statements cut. This is generally agreed to maximize FICO score.

The one variable that I'm not completely sure of is the "high balance" that appears on credit reports. I don't know if that is only calculated when the statement cuts, or whether that's the high balance ACROSS the statement period, in which case that would report 2k even if the actual balance reported is 0. If that's the case, then it still might be a reason not to charge 2k on a card with a 3k credit limit, since the "high balance" would report 67% utilization on that card.