How do you guys manage spending on your AZEO CCs?

[Bogey1975]

For you guys that are at AZEO, how do you manage your spending on your CCs. Do you just spend on your one card with a balance, or spend on others and pay them off before the billing cycle? Should my except one card be my higest credit limit  card to keep UT down on that one card?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I guess it depends if you're the type of person that wants to arrive at AZEO at one point in time, or if you plan to stay at AZEO for a prolonged period.  Credit limit on the AZEO card doesn't matter so long as you report a small balance, say $5-$20.  You want to make sure that it's a bankcard (not a store card, AU card, etc).  If you are zeroing out cards to arrive at AZEO once, you just want to pay them down to $0 a few days before your statement cuts and ensure no new charges are made during that period of time.  If you are staying at AZEO for a prolonged period of time, it is probably "easiest" to roll with the same AZEO card all the time and just ensure all of the others report $0 balances.  I guess it really just comes down to what works best for the individual.

[Bogey1975]

I want to stay at AZEO, but on cards like my costco visa, we get a reward check every year, I use that card when ever I go to costco and pay it off when I get home. 

[JNA1]

When I did AZEO, I used all the cards I had at the time, I just made sure to have them paid off about 3 days before the closing date and didn't use them again until I saw the $0 balance reported on my CR - then I commenced using them as usual until 3 days before the next statement cut. It was a PITA and the reason I don't do anymore. I would probably do it again for one month if I was applying for something that I thought I was close on, but not doing it hasn't affected my last several negatively. I have gotten high SLs and the lowest or very close to the lowest APR offered on my last several cards. I am able to keep my reported to usually 2% or so since I have higher CLs now. 

[Kforce]

When I was playing with "AZEO"

(About a year of playing with varying percentages and different number of card reporting)

1)  Moved all due dates to 25th or 26th of the month, or as close as issuer would allow.  Many CU's and some banks have a fixed due date at or near the end of each month.

2)   Set up my CU's billpay and payed each CC issuer by pushing money.

3)   Pushed enough money to zero out plus cover pending plus extra weeks spend to each card I wanted to zero.  With this method I could use my cards with no need to rotate spend, etc.  Example: BofW card: (Averaged  1000 month). On 20th. $600 balance, $60 pending, average weeks spend 250, would push $1000. The overpayment would force a zero reporting and leave a hundred or so credit for next months spend. This method let me benefit from rewards and provided no need to rotate or stop using each card.

4)  One card that was used for only a small monthly recurring charge was left to report and paid on the 5th of the following month.

I don't do AZEO anymore but still move due date on any new card.  I also set up billpay service to push payments for each.  This leaves me set to use AZEO any time I want in the future. 

I like paying all my cards from one account, the same day every month.  Makes it easy to see what you are spending and not miss any payment. (I have auto monthly payments for each card, and just change the amount the 18th or 19th each month.)  This is also my emergency safety as if something happened, last months payment will go out every month until changed.

[cashorcharge]

I have been AZEO since January.  I have a balance I've been carrying on the same card since then...it's not my highest CL card but it's been posting at 1% utilization for several months now...it was at 4% in January.  This has kept my total util at 1% and my score has increased and stayed high all year.  I tend to shift spend to all my cards during a week so I can share the love with everyone.  I've gotten a few "You're not eligible for a CLI because your existing use of your CL is too low" so I try to offset that.  At any time, I usually don't get over 20% during a month.  It is a chore to keep track of the dates things close and when to use cards etc.  To keep things easy, I have tended to lean towards cards that allow me to make the payment even though the transaction hasn't posted so I don't have to "remember" to watch for it later in the month.  Not every bank allows this...BofA, PenFed, Barclays, Cap1and Citi do not.  Wells, NFCU, AMEX and Chase do.

[HeavenOhio]

I wouldn't restrict my spending to one card for the sake of AZEO. That kind of defeats the purpose of having the cards.

Simply stop spending soon enough before the report date so you can control the amount of the balance that will report. That means allowing time for pendings to clear and for a payment to be made the day before the card reports. If a weekend is involved, allow yourself another day or two as a cushion until you know how your cards deal with weekend payments.

[wasCB14]

Constant SUB chasing. After I meet one bonus, I get a new card and put all my spend on that.

(No, I don't do AZEO. My credit report shows a history of big balances reporting...and getting paid off.)

[KJinNC]

When I am trying to do this, I check when the last statement cut, and make sure to pay off the current balance three or four days before that date comes up again, and avoid using the card until the statement cuts, with one card being the exception that I let report a balance.

AZEO is overrated on this board IMO and is a niche technique for specific situations, not something you need to do as a lifestyle. But you could do it for any length of time, as long as you pay attention to statement closing dates.

Note that if you forget to leave a balance on one card, your score is likely to dip until a card reports a balance. FICO doesn't like it when you have $0 balance on every card.

JMO, good luck!

[ccquest]

I have a spreadsheet and know when each card reports so I just go by that. My recurring charges hit well before statement date and can be paid off in time no matter what, Altitude Go and Propel are close enough in earning that if I want one of those to be $0 I can just switch.

Generally I like to keep my actual bank account balance "live" and pay throughout the month though which makes it really easy to do AZEO.

@cashorcharge BoA lets me pay whenever I want, whether it's posted or not. Not sure if you're using bill pay feature, but on the card page I can make payments at any time.