topic Re: AZEO hurting credit?? in Credit Cards

AZEO hurting credit??

S1992 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 16:01:13 GMT

I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

OmarGB9 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 16:19:50 GMT

Are you sure that's the only one that reported a zero balance? What were your other cards reporting prior to this card in question?

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

M_Smart007 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 16:31:32 GMT

Unless you are applying for a Mortgage?

IMO, AZEO does not do a lot for you,

I rarely practice AZEO ..has not hurt my Approvals for CC's.

I hate micro managing

Some people do it to eek out every last point.

To me ..a strong profile does more than 850 scores.

My all time (current) highest, ...850 will never happen.

(Click image to enlarge)

(Please don't send hate mail^^^)

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Bmom — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 17:41:14 GMT

My score dropped when they all reported zero, went up when 1 card finally updated with 1% utl. 🤷‍♀️

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

SouthJamaica — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 18:36:09 GMT

@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

If you have low utilization and all 3 cards reporting small balances, that won't hurt your scores much.

But if you have 2 reporting zero and 1 reporting a small balance, that will improve some of your scores slightly, especially your mortgage scores.

The 1 card reporting a balance should NOT be a store card or a Chase card, and it's probably best to avoid Synchrony cards as well.

AZEO will NOT hurt your scores; something else caused the dip. I would need to know how and where you're getting your information as to (a) what balances are reporting, and (b) what your scores are, in order to help you figure it out.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Horseshoez — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 18:59:53 GMT

@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

I'm thinking you haven't provided us with enough information to go on; what are balances and limits on all three cards?

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

FireMedic1 — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 23:01:00 GMT

I just got back 18-23 pts this week for a brain synapsis short circuit and paid all my accounts last month in full and didnt do AZEO. Aviod having them all report nothing. Just one and done. Whoever is the first statement close of the month. Use that card as the AZEO card.

Many of us live by AZEO. If we chose to do so. The non- believers and nay-sayers should leave us be. Newbs and rebuilders it helps see that score rise and rise. For me it taught responsibility to pay each month. Not pay interest. No slackin.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Horseshoez — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 12:13:22 GMT

I'm in the following clubs:

No credit card interest
Don't practice AZEO (but happen to hit AZEO about half the time)
Try to avoid AZ (but have hit it twice over the last year)
Practice, "Finances over FICO"

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Jnbmom — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 01:27:33 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
Unless you are applying for a Mortgage?
IMO, AZEO does not do a lot for you,
I rarely practice AZEO ..has not hurt my Approvals for CC's.
I hate micro managing

Some people do it to eek out every last point.
To me ..a strong profile does more than 850 scores.

My all time (current) highest, ...850 will never happen.
(Click image to enlarge)

(Please don't send hate mail^^^)

@M_Smart007

I am right there with you . I never practice AZEO I don't have enough time to micromanage that 😂

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Gmood1 — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 04:32:41 GMT

I'm down with the no AZEO group.

It's not always about the score IME. As some have already alluded to.

Unless you're applying for a mortgage loan or you're right on the edge of getting a tier 1 rate. The AZEO thing is way overblown IMHO.

Use your credit as much as you want to or need to. You can't take it with you in the end. If you don't have enough in CLs, add a little bit over time, until your normal monthly reported usage has almost no affect on your scores.

Your scores will still rise. No AZEO necessary. Plus you'll have an actual track record of using your credit that creditors can see, not just a score.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Gollum — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 07:55:41 GMT

@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

I have five credit cards. Two of the five always report a balance (they're cash back credit cards that I use for my main spend). I alternate monthly between two of the other credit cards, so I always have three or four out of five credit cards reporting a balance. Once or twice a year, I charge something on my fifth credit card (my Capital One credit card), so I occasionally have all five of my credit cards reporting a balance.

I have excellent FICO scores, so I always let all my credit cards report. On rare occasions, only three of my credit cards report a balance. For me, at least, this seems to be the difference between a FICO score of 847ish and 850.

So for me, AZEO (All Zero Except One) seems to only make a difference of three points in my FICO score.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

LittleGreyCells — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 09:16:54 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

If you have low utilization and all 3 cards reporting small balances, that won't hurt your scores much.

But if you have 2 reporting zero and 1 reporting a small balance, that will improve some of your scores slightly, especially your mortgage scores.

The 1 card reporting a balance should NOT be a store card or a Chase card, and it's probably best to avoid Synchrony cards as well.

AZEO will NOT hurt your scores; something else caused the dip. I would need to know how and where you're getting your information as to (a) what balances are reporting, and (b) what your scores are, in order to help you figure it out.

Question: Why should the one card reporting a balance not be a Chase card? Novice here. ☺️

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Adkins — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 09:54:50 GMT

@LittleGreyCells wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

If you have low utilization and all 3 cards reporting small balances, that won't hurt your scores much.

But if you have 2 reporting zero and 1 reporting a small balance, that will improve some of your scores slightly, especially your mortgage scores.

The 1 card reporting a balance should NOT be a store card or a Chase card, and it's probably best to avoid Synchrony cards as well.

AZEO will NOT hurt your scores; something else caused the dip. I would need to know how and where you're getting your information as to (a) what balances are reporting, and (b) what your scores are, in order to help you figure it out.
Question: Why should the one card reporting a balance not be a Chase card? Novice here. ☺️

Chase will report a zero balance to the CRAs whenever you pay the card off. Since you need one card to report a balance (and stay that way for the CRAs), it's not the ideal one to choose. Most creditors don't update a payment until the billing cycle ends, but Chase isn't like that.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

SouthJamaica — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 12:01:34 GMT

@LittleGreyCells wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@S1992 wrote:
I have 3 credit cards, pay them off monthly, and try to leave a small amount reporting each month. Each card is due at a different time of the month. Recently, I tried to start doing AZEO. So I paid my first cc down to $0 and had it report $0 for the month and my score went down a few points. What did I do wrong? I thought AZEO was supposed to help and now I'm nervous to do this with my second card for fear it would go down again. Is it better to have all of them reporting? I feel like that is the opposite of what I've heard on here.

If you have low utilization and all 3 cards reporting small balances, that won't hurt your scores much.

But if you have 2 reporting zero and 1 reporting a small balance, that will improve some of your scores slightly, especially your mortgage scores.

The 1 card reporting a balance should NOT be a store card or a Chase card, and it's probably best to avoid Synchrony cards as well.

AZEO will NOT hurt your scores; something else caused the dip. I would need to know how and where you're getting your information as to (a) what balances are reporting, and (b) what your scores are, in order to help you figure it out.
Question: Why should the one card reporting a balance not be a Chase card? Novice here. ☺️

As Adkin pointed out, if you pay a Chase card down to zero in the middle of the cycle, they report it. So while that's helpful if you're shooting for a zero balance, it's unhelpful if you're counting on your Chase card to be the balance-reporting card in AZEO. The only way to use the Chase card safely as the balance-reporting card is to make sure you never pay it down to zero.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 19:33:33 GMT

@Gollum wrote:

I have excellent FICO scores, so I always let all my credit cards report. On rare occasions, only three of my credit cards report a balance. For me, at least, this seems to be the difference between a FICO score of 847ish and 850.

So for me, AZEO (All Zero Except One) seems to only make a difference of three points in my FICO score.

When I cared enough, I got all 850 scores (Fico 8 and/or 9) and I saw I had three or four cards reporting. So it doesn't always cost you even a point.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 19:37:31 GMT

@FireMedic1 wrote:

Many of us live by AZEO. If we chose to do so. The non- believers and nay-sayers should leave us be. Newbs and rebuilders it helps see that score rise and rise.

Sorry to hit on the poor abused AZEO minority, but! I disagree. From time to time, unthinking memes grow here ("Amex doesn't like...", "Never do X or you get an FR" and AZEO as the One True Way is often mentioned, so newbs and others might think that they HAVE to do it. And, as I have said in the past, EVEN if it works with the modern scoring systems, it comes at a small cost, giving up part of the grace period on all but one active cards each and every month. And as interest rates rise on savings accounts, the cost of AZEO increases too. People need to be sure it is a worthwhile approach, rather than just the right thing to do.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

yoda42 — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 19:54:57 GMT

I accidentally ended up all zeros and my score went down 22 points just recently and still that way. Not a biggie.. but having one or two report small amounts keeps it higher. Few years back I always paid in full after statement had the full balance posted, then paid in full on each card, however my score always stayed under 770, as it looked like I had large balances I was keeping open with large debt on cards. Started AZEO (or MZES Most Zero Except Some) after that and it jumped into 800s after that. Need to report balances once in a while on cards otherwise they look like they are inactive/unused.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Bockrocker — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 20:01:10 GMT

Many cards will assign an APR when you get it and won't let you lower it later. It might not ever be needed, but why not try with best possible score? I have all cards synced up pretty closely in terms of payment/statement dates. It's really not difficult to make a few extra payments and/or shift everyday spend to one single card for a week to get the best odds/rates.

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 20:15:59 GMT

@Bockrocker wrote:
Many cards will assign an APR when you get it and won't let you lower it later. It might not ever be needed, but why not try with best possible score? I have all cards synced up pretty closely in terms of payment/statement dates. It's really not difficult to make a few extra payments and/or shift everyday spend to one single card for a week to get the best odds/rates.

I think most of us that are "anti-AZEO", or at least not wholly with the program, don't have an issue with attempting to optimize the scores for an important application (especially mortgage). It may or may not have a measurable impact, but the cost is small. It's when you do it every month, for a long time, that at least I think you need to review the value that this is giving you.

And for those that do it long term, it's worth remembering that scores might go up anyway with increased account age, inqs dropping off etc, so shouldn't all be credited to AZEO

Re: AZEO hurting credit??

Gmood1 — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 20:38:56 GMT

@Bockrocker wrote:
Many cards will assign an APR when you get it and won't let you lower it later. It might not ever be needed, but why not try with best possible score? I have all cards synced up pretty closely in terms of payment/statement dates. It's really not difficult to make a few extra payments and/or shift everyday spend to one single card for a week to get the best odds/rates.

Because the score depending on the lender may not be a real factor.

If a lender has set parameters to give a person with a 740 the same as one with a 850. A couple of points with in that range won't make a difference.

I've seen folks in the forum denied with 800 plus scores for a credit card. I have been as well. 🤣

I've also seen those very same people admit their credit file may fit on one sheet of paper. Which is really thin.

You can be denied for not enough payment history, it's like having no credit at all.

I've also seen folks in the 650 range approved for the very same CCs. And get a better rate than I or some else with more than a 100 point advantage.

After you've been through enough lenders and talked with enough loan officers.

You realize some of this stuff hinges on how good or bad of a day the loan officer is having. Or how someone programmed the algorithms into a computer to approve or deny.

I have CCs setup on monthy bills. Normally 15 or so are reporting balances monthly.

I see no reason to take a bill on a CC that gives me 5% cash back on utilities and put it on one that gives 1% for a couple of FICO points. Points that in most cases give zero advantage.

Same goes for inqs. I've had loan officers tell me inqs mean nothing to them. Some folks in the forums lose their minds over 1 or 2 Inqs. 🤣