Managing AZEO

[Anonymous]

For everyone doing AZEO, what methods are you using to time your spending so your balance reports as 0?

[HeavenOhio]

Pay your balance down to zero a couple of days before the statement cuts. Then don't charge anything new to the card until the statement becomes available.

Chase offers extra opportunities because they report zero whenever you pay to zero. If your statement doesn't cut at zero, pay to zero when you don't have any pending charges. When you see that your payment has cleared and your current balance is zero (generally after the business day ends), go ahead and start charging again.

US Bank doesn't report the statement balance. Instead, it reports on the last or first day of the month. (I'm not exactly sure which.) Bring your card's balance to zero by the last day of the month. Then feel free to start using it again on the 2nd of the following month.

[longtimelurker]

Also evaluate whether you really need to do AZEO every month.   There are opportunity costs in not taking advantage of the grace periods (where you could be earning interest in a high-yield savings account)   What are you getting in return, and is that worth it.....

[Anonymous]

Nice observation by LTL.  It's always important to remember that AZEO is not a long term strategy; i.e. it is not help you build a better score over time.  It won't hurt you to do it for 36 months in a row (say) but it won't help you either.

Many people just put their cards on autopay (statement balance in full) and then forget about it.  Then, when something crucial comes up and they want to squeeze out every extra available point, they implement AZEO in the 40 days prior to get all the extra points.

Our OP may already understand that, but worth mentioning in case another reader doesn't.

Note too that you can solve the problem of timing payments by over-paying.  A negative balance is reported as $0.  For example, I am always buying groceries on my 3% Amex Blue Cash.  I also have another card that always reports a balance (BOA BBR).  Therefore if I ever do need to implement AZEO I just pay my Amex down to $-100 five days before.  That gives me the freedom to buy more groceries 1-2 days before the statement prints without making the card report a balance.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 Many people just put their cards on autopay (statement balance in full) and then forget about it.

CGiD, I realize that I'm taking your sentence out of context, but I cringe every time somebody uses "autopay" and "forget about it" in the same sentence.This is just asking for a 30 day late. However unlikely, computer glitches and other screw-ups happen. There are two basic rules to follow with autopay:

1. After setting up autopay: Watch your account carefully and make manually payments as necessary, until you are sure that autopay is set-up and working correctly.
2. Once a month:  Check that the auto-payment was really made.

Don't get my wrong, I do love autopay. All my credits cards and bills are on autopay. But one should not completely forget about payments which are on autopay.

[Anonymous]

Just finished my last round of AZEO experiment and probably never bother again even prior to credit applications, just not worth the trouble, energy, time and cost for a few measly points. Here are the results going from AZEO @ 1% UTI to 6 out of 6 (closed 2 recently) naturally reporting @ 3% UTI (highest individual 10% UTI).

EX 829 - 829

TU 841 - 834

EQ 827 - 823

Vantage 812 - 806

[rbentley]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous finished my last round of AZEO experiment and probably never bother again even prior to credit applications, just not worth the trouble, energy, time and cost for a few measly points. Here are the results going from AZEO @ 1% UTI to 6 out of 6 (closed 2 recently) naturally reporting @ 3% UTI (highest individual 10% UTI).

EX 829 - 829

TU 841 - 834

EQ 827 - 823

Vantage 812 - 806

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I agree!  That was my experience also.  The point gain was minimal, but the technique requried a lot of work and some inconvience in not at times being able to use my best card for that occassion.  AZEO is very much hyped on here, but it is not a panacea and may not be worth the work entailed.  It is my belief that most of the point gains commonly attributed to AZEO are really more explained by deceased utilization.

[Anonymous]

I am currently in the process of waiting for last 2 cc to report zero. I am interested to see what the difference is for me. I know it is most likely a handful of points, but as others have said those points can be the difference between what interest rate you get on a loan. So while I won't be doing it all of the time, it will be nice to know what to expect movign forward when it is needed.

Personally with 6 cards it was pretty simple to cycel through the month. I was particular cards based on categories and for a week I have to switch to the 2nd best points wise for that category. 

[SBR249]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 Many people just put their cards on autopay (statement balance in full) and then forget about it.

CGiD, I realize that I'm taking your sentence out of context, but I cringe every time somebody uses "autopay" and "forget about it" in the same sentence.This is just asking for a 30 day late. However unlikely, computer glitches and other screw-ups happen. There are two basic rules to follow with autopay:

1. After setting up autopay: Watch your account carefully and make manually payments as necessary, until you are sure that autopay is set-up and working correctly.
2. Once a month:  Check that the auto-payment was really made.

Don't get my wrong, I do love autopay. All my credits cards and bills are on autopay. But one should not completely forget about payments which are on autopay.

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While I do agree that one needs to keep an eye things in case there's fraud, I think issuers would be more forgiving if you set up autopay through them and then a glitch occurs. In that case, it's likely their problem in the first place that caused a late payment. If you set up auto push bill payments through your bank then you should keep a closer eye on things to make sure they go through as scheduled. 

[Anonymous]

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@SBR249 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 Many people just put their cards on autopay (statement balance in full) and then forget about it.

CGiD, I realize that I'm taking your sentence out of context, but I cringe every time somebody uses "autopay" and "forget about it" in the same sentence.This is just asking for a 30 day late. However unlikely, computer glitches and other screw-ups happen. There are two basic rules to follow with autopay:

1. After setting up autopay: Watch your account carefully and make manually payments as necessary, until you are sure that autopay is set-up and working correctly.
2. Once a month:  Check that the auto-payment was really made.

Don't get my wrong, I do love autopay. All my credits cards and bills are on autopay. But one should not completely forget about payments which are on autopay.

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While I do agree that one needs to keep an eye things in case there's fraud, I think issuers would be more forgiving if you set up autopay through them and then a glitch occurs. In that case, it's likely their problem in the first place that caused a late payment. If you set up auto push bill payments through your bank then you should keep a closer eye on things to make sure they go through as scheduled. 

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1)  If you made a mistake setting up the auto payment, the issuer might not  be  that forgiving.

2)  If it takes you more than a month to realized that  payments have not been made,   you can end up with a 30 day late on your  credit report, which will be a hassle to remove.

3) If you combine 1) and 2) you are in real trouble.   Search the forum,  you will find many cases where this has  happened.