Hmmm. My Citi card reported $0 today (down from $310/8K), which means that I now have one card reporting a $10 balance (on a $14K CL), and the rest reporting zero. And ... nuthin'. Nada. Niente. Rien. Nicht. SFA.
Where's my friendly AZEO boost? 
Gonna go make coffee.
Before I opened this thread, I was imagining the angels from heaven descending upon you after nailing the AZEO. lol
Get me a cup while you're out.
@dragontears wrote:
Not every profile gets a score boost from going from 2 cards with balance to 1.
For example, I have 10 cards and my scores are the same if 1,2 or 3 cards report a balance.
How many cards do you have?
Six cards reporting (I have a 7th, Amex, which is new and, I've read, slow to first report).
@Anonymous wrote:I think the boost occurs if you have less than 50% of your cards reporting a balance, not if only one card. ..
Given the score fluctuations I've seen recently, I'm thinking that the threshold may be no more than 1 in 3 (which would also account for the behavior dragontears has observed). That said, I also recall being dinged when a card that had been dormant for a year or more reported a balance.
@Gmood1 wrote:Before I opened this thread, I was imagining the angels from heaven descending upon you after nailing the AZEO. lol
Get me a cup while you're out.
Out? The beans, roasted locally, are ground in my kitchen, lovingly, by hand, then placed in the French press carafe to await water just off the boil.
I meant out of the forum. 😂
That sounds like terrific coffee!🤤
That sounds like terrific coffee!🤤
wrote:Hmmm. My Citi card reported $0 today (down from $310/8K), which means that I now have one card reporting a $10 balance (on a $14K CL), and the rest reporting zero. And ... nuthin'. Nada. Niente. Rien. Nicht. SFA.
Where's my friendly AZEO boost?
Gonna go make coffee.
It's not in FICO 8 that you would see an important difference, if you had let's say 10 credit cards, and 1 reported a balance as opposed to 3 reporting a balance. It's in the mortgage scores that you would see the biggest difference, if I am not mistaken.
@HeavenOhio wrote:The idea behind AZEO is that it's safe and that there are no surprises. Most people have some leeway and can get the same score while falling a bit short of AZEO.
I'd suggest doing "true" AZEO to get started, just as you did. After that, see what happens with another card reporting a small balance, increasing your utilization, etc. That'll allow you to come up with a plan to optimize or mostly optimize your FICO8s without a lot of inconvenience. Of course, if you're not monitoring scores other than FICO8 and an important credit app is coming up, you should go back to "true" AZEO again.
Only one of my three FICO8 scores gets dinged if I let two cards of six report small positive balances instead of one. Back when I had seven and/or eight cards, I could let three cut with positive balances without affecting my score on those two bureaus.
Well, in fact, I'm gonna see what happens when that nominal $10 (fraction of a percent) jumps to 35%, 'cause it's my BT card, and that's what's gonna happen next month. Month after that, I anticipate that I'll have it below 28.9 (or whatever that threshold is), and continue to see it decrease to zero over the next 4-8 months (well before the 0% rate expires in 14 months).