topic Re: Credit Card Payment Method in General Credit Topics

Credit Card Payment Method

Jordan23ww — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 18:04:00 GMT

Does anyone intentionally leave a small balance on all their cards each month and then just pay them off after they report? Wondering if you have seen significant score growth doing that?

I have been following the "All Zero Except One" (AZEO) method since May with some very minor score growth. In May I noticed after having no balance on any of my cards for the 1st time in many years that I got a negative factor on my 3 bureau report for lack of use of my revolving credit.

Well in August I decided to switch up the one card I always have a balance report on. I left a balance on one of my other cards though. I guess my timing was off because after paying that card to 0 all 3 bureaus took a dip after it reported. Although the amount I dipped wasn't enormous it was disappointing as my Equifax score was 3 points away from 700 prior to the dip. I was on the cusp of having 700's in all 3 bureaus for my first time ever. Also with the dip I basically lost all the small progress I had made doing AZEO, so I'm back to square one. Now I'm wondering if having small balances of $2-10 on my cards when they report would be more effective going forward?

Re: Credit Card Payment Method

M_Smart007 — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 18:58:15 GMT

Yes, having all your TL's report at "ZERO" gives you a FICO scoring penalty,

I usually have some kind of 0% Balance transfer going at all times.

Then ..I don't have to worry about implementing "AZEO" .. just my 2 centavo's.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/General-Scoring-Primer-and-Version-8-Master-Thread-pub-5-17-20/m-p/6023350#M169681

Re: Credit Card Payment Method

Jordan23ww — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 00:02:49 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
Yes, having all your TL's report at "ZERO" gives you a FICO scoring penalty,
I usually have some kind of 0% Balance transfer going at all times.

Then ..I don't have to worry about implementing "AZEO" .. just my 2 centavo's.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/General-Scoring-Primer-and-Version-8-Master-Thread-pub-5-17-20/m-p/6023350#M169681

Thank you so much for all the information! I appreciate it!

Re: Credit Card Payment Method

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 03:15:00 GMT

Prolonged AZEO doesn't result in score growth. Any gain realized by the implementation of AZEO happens all at once and will stay in place until one moves back away from AZEO toward their starting point pre-AZEO. Implementing AZEO and staying at it since May hasn't caused your scores to grow any more today than if you had just gone to AZEO now.