I forgot to mention that fixed payments like loans I have on autopay... though I paid both my installment loans off now. Once I get the HELOC balance down where I want I'll set that up on a fixed autopay as well... right now I'm throwing extra at it each month until I get it down under $22k or so.
My internet bill is always the same every month so I could/should set that up on autopay as well.
Variable bills like gas, electric and credit cards I prefer doing manually, since depending on balances and which Fridays I get paid that month (biweekly) I may not have enough to pay them on the same day every month. For my two low-limit BoA cards, I may pay them ahead of the statement cut so utilization reports low, depending on balances... for the $500 limit one I pay it to zero before the statement cuts. For my new (high-limit for now, but expected low usage) Chase card, I can pay that off anytime and have it report a zero balance, so those will be my report-as-zero AZEO cards. The BoA Visa will report a balance, hopefully small, every month.
What would be ideal is if I had enough to keep an extra month's worth of pay in my checking account so there's always enough in there to pay the next months' bills... then I could pay everything on the same days every month. Unfortunately I haven't gotten there yet... it will only happen if I have a few months of "low spending," easier said than done these days with everything being so expensive. :/ It would also require strict balance caps on the credit cards... hence my desire for low limits. 
P.S. I just looked at BoA's autopay... it works like my bank's bill pay... you specify a date and amount to pay, so the only way to automate it is with a fixed amount. There's no option to "automatically pay statement balance" or "automatically pay minimum due". The amount would have to be higher than your minimum due would ever be, and if you pay a lot more with the intention of PIF, you might overpay if your balance is low... guess I'm stuck doing those cards 100% manual. We'll see what Chase offers once I get that card and can set up online access.
P.P.S. Found another thread here... apparently the "e-bill" option makes it possible to autopay the statement balance on a BoA card... I'll have to decide if I want to do this... having payday on different days each month makes this difficult.
@Anonymouswrote:How do you keep track of all of them? 2, 3 or 4 cards is easy enough, but if you have 20... how do you keep track of all those balances, due dates, etc? Do you pay each one at a certain point ahead of statement cut or due date? Or do you group them and pay several at a certain time of the month, based on where their close/due dates fall?
And what about usage? Do you SD most of them? Do you only use some of them for certain things? Do you rotate them? I don't think I even produce 20 swipes in an average month, so it boggles my mind at least.
Also, what is (generally speaking, I know everyone's situation is unique) the optimum number of open cards to have to maximize FICO? I currently have 3 cards, an open HELOC and a paid-off mortgage and car loan reporting.
IMHO it depends on the person; some people are ok with monitoring a lot of cards, some aren't.
3 cards is perfect.
