I will mention this because you said you're rebuilding, I have found that my dirty credit (past COs and Lates) leaves me no difference between having total utilization under 9% and AZEO. I went through all the pain trying, when that card hit me with $8 interest and reported, then this card hit me with the annual fee I wasn't expecting and reported, etc etc. I ended up seeing no score difference when I finally got it all together and had my AZEO month.
It honestly wasn't worth the hassle for me and I just end up paying the statement balance from month to month on my cards. I save a ton on interest and my scores just keep getting better over time.
Now, I will say that if I was going for a big credit event like a mortgage I would be sure not to get an ALL ZERO penalty. Other than that I would shoot for AZEO, but know that if I end up with a couple of accounts with a small balance it won't really make a difference.
YMMV, but I hope this helps take the "pressure" off.
@Binbinimiwi wrote:So, AZEO is killing me! I've been paying the Discover down to zero and using the AmEx for the small balance at statement close and then PIF before the end of the billing period. So, I decided to flip everything and use the AmEx as my zero card beginning this month since I met my SUB last month. Problem is, AmEx always has some weird floating amounts and no matter how many times I comb the statement and do the math, it never adds up. So, two days ago I added up all of the transactions that posted and the pending ones after my last payment to get a total. Then I tried to see how different it would be by subtracting the total CL from the available credit. I then decided to pay the amount that was higher which happened to be subtracting the total CL from the available credit. This resulted in a credit on the account that I figured would resolve itself a day or two after statement close, except that today I ended up with $.33 on my statement ... arrrgghhhh! And the weird thing is the max custom amount I can pay is $140.32 (so crazy) but the pending charge is for more than that. So, I'm going to have to do the $0 on the Disco again this month.
Anyone have any recommendations for how to do this in an efficient manner so that I'm not knocking my head against the wall? I was thinking I might need to stop the auto payments to fix the issue since the timing of them could be the issue, but I'm afraid I'll miss something and end up with something being canceled because I missed a payment. My college aged kid is home for the summer, so I can't miss payment on any of the streaming services, grocery services, etc. b/c it would be considered the end of the world! LMBO! Or I might just have to continue letting AmEx be the card that posts a balance.
Thanks for any helpful tips!
Good luck ..
@Miikawaadizi wrote:@Binbinimiwi Just remember that utilization has no memory. Remember this and know if you flub up and one of your cards that isn't your "azeo" card reports with a balance, it's not the end of the world and you can fix it next cycle!
I don't think doing AZEO every month gets you extra points either. So if you do AZEO one month and then not the next month and do AZEO again the third month, you aren't leaving points on the table by having one month without AZEO. FICO literally has no memory when it comes to utilization.
I will say after all that, that you will find people here with amazing scores that don't practice AZEO every month. There are also people here with amazing scores that practice AZEO every month. It's a personal choice.
Personally, I do TRY to practice AZEO every month but I'm just getting my bearings in this new credit world. I went from low 400s in 2021 to mid 700s the last few months(except for the month I went to 98% utilization on a $350 CC
ouch, no more Victoria Secret for me). The mid 700s came right back strong as ever after it was paid off.
Sorry for the novel, again.
Hope that helps!
Alicia
Thanks so much for giving me two whole lectures as if I were in school. I really needed the first one and the follow up, and they helped me so so much! I swear this place is so awesome and everyone is so helpful. Now that I have a better understanding, I will simply focus on paying my bills in a normal fashion and not worry about the pending items if I miss statement cut. Most of the straggler items are small fees (less than $10) that hit on random dates (Apple charges, HP Instant Ink, local paper, etc.) that usually end up totaling less $30. So, it appears I was worrying about nothing apparently and can relax a little. So, AZEO will be a goal to avoid interest, but I won't flip if I miss it. I also get that I need to avoid the AZ penalty at all costs.
BTW, it appears that AmEx reported the $.33 as a $0 balance, so the freakout I had was just waaaayyyy overboard and I def need to chill 
THANKS SO MUCH!!
@TheKid2 wrote:I will mention this because you said you're rebuilding, I have found that my dirty credit (past COs and Lates) leaves me no difference between having total utilization under 9% and AZEO. I went through all the pain trying, when that card hit me with $8 interest and reported, then this card hit me with the annual fee I wasn't expecting and reported, etc etc. I ended up seeing no score difference when I finally got it all together and had my AZEO month.
It honestly wasn't worth the hassle for me and I just end up paying the statement balance from month to month on my cards. I save a ton on interest and my scores just keep getting better over time.
Now, I will say that if I was going for a big credit event like a mortgage I would be sure not to get an ALL ZERO penalty. Other than that I would shoot for AZEO, but know that if I end up with a couple of accounts with a small balance it won't really make a difference.
YMMV, but I hope this helps take the "pressure" off.
Thank you! This make so much sense to me now and I realize that I can relax a little and just go about paying my statement balances prior to statement cut and not worry about anything else. And also, it does indeed take a lot of the pressure off b/c I literally felt like I was a college student on the edge of my seat every month waiting to find out if I passed my final exams (nail biting tension)