@Anonymous wrote:As you can see from my siggy, I only have 2 bank cards and 2 store cards. Discover, Cap1, and Fingerhut are paid in full with Overstock reporting a small balance. Does it make a difference (score wise) if the card reporting a balance is a retail card or a bank card? Also, what role, if any does my secured installement loan play in all this? I'm looking to get the most bang for my buck.
Many thanks!
1. No it doesn't matter which card reports the small balance.
2. The secured installment loan plays no role in "all of this" but is in a separate scoring category. If it's your only installment loan, in FICO 8 it (a) gives you points for "credit mix", (b) gives you the most points when you're at 9% or less but above zero, and (c) costs you points when it's paid down to zero. The effect on other FICO scoring models is less clear. In my experience I was able to observe it apparently reacting similarly, but in a much more muted way, in my TU FICO 4 mortgage score, but not at all in my EX FICO 2 mortgage score. Others have observed the opposite.
Yeah adding to what CGID said, what you want is to PTZ (pay to zero) the non-AZEO cards BEFORE the statement cut date so that the statement shows a big fat 0, and only report a small balance (<8.9% of limit) on your lone AZEO card.
@Anonymous wrote:Does it make a difference (score wise) if the card reporting a balance is a retail card or a bank card?
It's possible that it may make a difference, but there isn't enough evidence to say it's probable. A couple of us have reported slight dings (like four points) when a retail card reports the small balance rather than a major card. The ding would be small enough that you can feel safe testing a retail card vs. a major card to see if it applies to your profile. (Please report back if you choose test. 
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