AZEO with 2 cc?

[Anonymous]

I heard a lot about AZEO with 3 and more cards. But does that make sense with only 2?

[kdm31091]

If you want to eke out every single point of FICO I believe you would have to do AZEO with 3 cards. With 2 cards, you will either have half of your accounts with a balance or none, both of which are penalized by the algorithim (IMO this is not a major factor and unlikely to prevent you from qualifying for anything you'd otherwise qualify for, so I wouldn't stress over it).

[Anonymous]

There is a score penalty for 50% of cards having a balance so yes, AZEO makes sense for two cards. It’s one of the only times I would recommend AZEO when it comes to FICO 8 and 9. 

[Anonymous]

@Saeren

"penalty for 50% of cards having a balance" this is what I get with AZEO, right (1 card show balance and other one don't)? So how that makes sense? Or I misunderstood something.

Now I am using both cads showing ~2% utilization on both and combined. Will I benifit of showing one of them 0 or I'll be penalized for that?

Thanks for all answers

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@Saeren

"penalty for 50% of cards having a balance" this is what I get with AZEO, right (1 card show balance and other one don't)? So how that makes sense? Or I misunderstood something.

Now I am using both cads showing ~2% utilization on both and combined. Will I benifit of showing one of them 0 or I'll be penalized for that?

Thanks for all answers

---

You’ll minimize the damage if you just keep a low balance on one of the cards. When you have just two cards, it’s very easy to get above the 8.9% aggregate threshold and take an additional hit on your score. 

Ideally you would add a third card but if you’re running with two for awhile, have one always report $0. 

[Anonymous]

Ok then. I'll show 0 on one of my cards. Question is - should I show 0 on the same card each time or I can rotate them?

I've got my 2nd just recently (June) so I would like to wait 4-5 months before applying for the 3rd one.

[HeavenOhio]

By definition, you can't do AZEO (all zero except one) with two positive balances AZEO entails leaving a tiny balance on one card (at least $5, but not much more) with the rest reporting zero.

That said, it's very common for one to achieve the same score as one's AZEO score with two or more cards reporting positive balances. That varies from score to score and profile to profile.

For scoring purposes, there's no need to rotate how your cards report. Do what's convenient for you.

With two cards, one should report a positive balance and the other should report zero. All cards at zero will result in a fairly substantial penalty. It's important to realize, however, that the penalty is temporary. There's no need to panic unless an important application for credit is in the immediate future.

[Anonymous]

With exactly 2 revolvers, having one report $0 and the other report a small balance will maximize Fico scores for that profile.  This is of course 50% of revolvers with a balance.  It's arguable as to whether or not moving to 100% of cards with a balance (letting the $0 balance card report a non-zero balance along with the other) would create a greater ding, or reporting 0% of cards with a balance (no revolving credit use) would.  It's probably around the same penalty on most profiles, but one would have to test it on theirs to see which is "better."  Without question though in terms of Fico scoring, this individual would want to have a small reported balance on just one of the two cards.

[wasCB14]

---

@HeavenOhio wrote:

By definition, you can't do AZEO (all zero except one) with two positive balances AZEO entails leaving a tiny balance on one card (at least $5, but not much more) with the rest reporting zero.

That said, it's very common for one to achieve the same score as one's AZEO score with two or more cards reporting positive balances. That varies from score to score and profile to profile.

For scoring purposes, there's no need to rotate how your cards report. Do what's convenient for you.

With two cards, one should report a positive balance and the other should report zero. All cards at zero will result in a fairly substantial penalty. It's important to realize, however, that the penalty is temporary. There's no need to panic unless an important application for credit is in the immediate future.

---

I heard a while back that if a card has had 0 balances for 6-12 months or whatever, scores could suffer if it was treated as "inactive"...even if the account was remaining open.

Not that I'm an expert on scoring. I'm an "All Zero Except Eight" practitioner (no denials since I first got a FICO score 5 years ago, though) and treat an 800 FICO as an indication I should get another bonus.

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I heard a lot about AZEO with 3 and more cards. But does that make sense with only 2?

---

Yes it does.