Chase and AZEO

[kshurika]

I've read that Chase cards should not be at zero in your AZEO calculation. Why is that?

[SouthJamaica]

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@kshurikawrote:
I've read that Chase cards should not be at zero in your AZEO calculation. Why is that?

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It's ok for it to be one of your zero balance cards; it's not ok to use the Chase card as your card needing to report a balance.

Reason: if you make a payment before the statement cuts that brings the balance to zero, they will report that mid-cycle.

[HeavenOhio]

You don't want all of your cards reporting zero balances as you get dinged for that. It's better to use the fact that Chase reports zero whenever you pay to zero to your advantage rather than having it work against you.

If you must have a Chase card continuously report a positive balance, it can be done by allowing a charge to post before paying your statement balance and never allowing your current balance to reach zero. That'll still avoid interest. But it's a whole lot simpler to choose a card from another bank to report your positive balance if you have the option to do that.

[UpperNwGuy]

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@HeavenOhiowrote:

If you must have a Chase card continuously report a positive balance, it can be done by allowing a charge to post before paying your statement balance and never allowing your current balance to reach zero. That'll still avoid interest. 

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If you use a Chase card as your primary card for everyday spending, this is not hard to do.  Pay the card once a month, and make that payment a week after the statement cuts to allow time for a few more transactions to post.  Then pay the statement balance (not the current balance).  You will always have a positive balance, but you will never pay interest.

[Anonymous]

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@UpperNwGuywrote:

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@HeavenOhiowrote:

If you must have a Chase card continuously report a positive balance, it can be done by allowing a charge to post before paying your statement balance and never allowing your current balance to reach zero. That'll still avoid interest. 

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If you use a Chase card as your primary card for everyday spending, this is not hard to do.  Pay the card once a month, and make that payment a week after the statement cuts to allow time for a few more transactions to post.  Then pay the statement balance (not the current balance).  You will always have a positive balance, but you will never pay interest.

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I had a half smile on my face. I can't believe you have to teach people how to do this these days. This is the standard way 99% of people pay credit cards. Statement issues, you pay the statement balance by the due date, you get zero interest charges. There is so much convoluted nonsense going around here about multiple payments per month and paying before your statement generates which is just bizarre. Then they come to find out 'oh we shouldnt pay all of it before the statement generates because $0 balance'. If they had just used it like a normal person it wouldnt even be an issue. I suspect all this multiple payment, $0 at statement has a negligable if any effect on scores if it outright doesnt hurt them.

[Anonymous]

My CSR does not seem to report in this manner.  I have paid down to $0 multiple times during different months and it seems to only report the balance at closing.  In fact, I paid it down this way just a few days ago (2 days after closing) and it's still reporting the closing balance.

[Anonymous]

Hi ETX.  What tools do you use to determine what your CC balances are at the three bureaus?

[Anonymous]

As of right now, I only have availability to the free Equifax reports through TrustedID.  I have subscribed to CCT in the past, but recently canceled.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how often Trusted refreshes their report.  It might be useful to obtain a couple more free tools for evaluating your credit reports (which would also give you all three reports):

Credit Karma (EQ and TU, weekly)

creditScore.com (EX monthly also gives you a free FICO 8)

If you were to enroll in the EX tool about 5 days before your Chase statement typically prints, it would be easy to catch a mid-cycle balance.  You could pay to zero a week after the statement prints, and then see the updated $0 balance on the EX report.  Such a test would also involve leaving the card at a true zero balance for at least three business days to make sure the mid-cycle update was triggered.  Karma would let you see EQ and TU weekly so there would be no problem there.

Your experience of Chase doing no mid-cycle updates at $0 is very unusual -- almost no one has that experience.  It'd be worth ruling out other possibilities first.

[Anonymous]

The CSR is my daily usage card, so perhaps that is why I've never noticed a $0 balance reporting.  I don't pay attention as much as I used to prior to the CSR though since I am no longer rebuilding.