AZEO IS $1 Enough

[Anonymous]

Excellent advice above, BBS.

@Yeliaba1 Didn’t you just say Experian CW reported this morning? With the PenFed balance EX2@706? Is that the only balance showing on your EX CR? Go back and look and tell me what your EX2 score was when you had either one more non-credit union account reporting or just a non-credit union card reporting. I just need to know your EX2 score when you had a non-CU card reporting. Or even a couple cards reporting. Then we can determine whether or not Penfed is counting and whether or not you should put a balance on Discover. Please be specific in your answers so that we can help you.

[Yeliaba1]

@ Birdman Yes. EX is reporting a $1 balance this morning along with balances on Discover and NFCU.  Penfed is my balance xfer card so it’s probably had a balance for at least the last 6 months with a 2nd card reporting as well.  It seems it would be hard to uncover the scenario from prior months.

Interesting that card went from 14% to <1% and not 1 ancillary score changed or FICO 8.

[Anonymous]

No that’s not strange at all that individual card did not pass any threshold; the first threshold is 28.9%. If it had went to zero, it may have caused a score change because of the lesser number of accounts with a balance. But then again we don’t even know if it’s counting for EX2.

How long have you had EX CW? Every day you login it stores a report for that day. So you can go back to previous dates, if you opened it on that date.

How long before you do the mortgage app? How long before NFCU reports zero balance?

[Anonymous]

"AZEO" is a simplified foolproof method of maximizing util score but isn't the whole story.. 

It is actually "less than half of revolving accounts posting a balance", but more than zero..

So you have to have atleast 3 cards to AZEO, letting a balance report on only one for "less than half".

If you have 5 revolving accounts you can let a small balance report on 2 of the 5 cards, "less than half", and it does the same thing as AZEO..

If you have 7 accounts you can get the AZEO boost with 3 cards reporting, and so on.. 

[Yeliaba1]

 @Credit1Ed thanks for sharing. I’ll meet that criteria as only 2/6 will report.

@Birdman I went back to old EX CW reports and Penfed was always reporting a balance.  NFCU will report $0 on the 24th, FNBO $10 on the 23rd, and Discover $0 on the 22nd.   I’ll likely app for the mortgage after May 15th now.  My BOA card is my youngest account and will also be one year old early in May.  There will be a variety of factors (I.e, útil, AoYA, baddies falling off) changing my scores shortly and they should only improve.  I’ll be patient .

[Anonymous]

@1CreditEd I don’t know if the percentage has been nailed down exactly. I think there’s some debate about that. And depending on bureau, it’s different, I think. That’s why it’s safest to only have one reporting. Some people have experienced three point drops for a second card reporting.

@Yeliaba1 Patience pays!! If you’re AoYA is going to be one year in May, you will get those points May 1. You should definitely wait for that!

Preferably utilization under 28.9% on the individual card and under 8.9% aggregate.

OK is there any day when PenFed is the only card reporting? If so, what is your EX2 score on that day?

[Yeliaba1]

@ Birdman looking at old EX CW reports, it seems I’ve had at least two cards reporting since Sept18.  PenFed is always one of them.  On May 14 PenFed will report a $0 balance, FNBO $10 and all others zero.  I have a small auto loan as well.  I don’t think I can improve on that but, I truly appreciate the guidance.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"AZEO" is a simplified foolproof method of maximizing util score but isn't the whole story.. 

It is actually "less than half of revolving accounts posting a balance", but more than zero..

So you have to have atleast 3 cards to AZEO, letting a balance report on only one for "less than half".

If you have 5 revolving accounts you can let a small balance report on 2 of the 5 cards, "less than half", and it does the same thing as AZEO..

If you have 7 accounts you can get the AZEO boost with 3 cards reporting, and so on.. 

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This is not completely true above.  First, many report a first ding on EQ at 33% of accounts with balances not at 50%.  Second, you're only considering revolvers here, not total accounts with balances, which is a factor that may be considered by the FICO algorithm.  For example, someone may have 2 open installment loans, meaning they'd by default have 2 accounts with balances.  If they have 3 credit cards and let 1 report a balance, they're at 3/5 [total] accounts with balances, or 60% of their total accounts.  Depending on the scoring model this can definitely register a "too many accounts with balances" negative reason code.  Chances are, though, that the penalty associated with this would be less than the one associated with "no revolving credit use" so it would still be best to let 1 of 3 cards report a balance.

[jamie123]

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@Yeliaba1 wrote:

@Jamie Has that $3 balance been on a CU credit card?  It sounds like I would have been fine if my $1 balance was on a major bank CC.

My $3 AZEO card was always a major bank card like my BoA Rewards card or Cap1 card.

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[HeavenOhio]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"AZEO" is a simplified foolproof method of maximizing util score but isn't the whole story.. 

It is actually "less than half of revolving accounts posting a balance", but more than zero..

So you have to have atleast 3 cards to AZEO, letting a balance report on only one for "less than half".

If you have 5 revolving accounts you can let a small balance report on 2 of the 5 cards, "less than half", and it does the same thing as AZEO..

If you have 7 accounts you can get the AZEO boost with 3 cards reporting, and so on.. 

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On several FICO scores, I'm dinged for a second card out of six (and two accounts out of six) reporting a positive balance. Two that come to mind without checking are Equifax FICO 8 and Experian FICO 98. On the other end of the spectrum, my Experian FICO 8 will allow me to report positive balances on three of six cards/accounts without a ding.

There's also the lesser known factor that has to do with the amount of one's balances. There isn't a lot of testing on this, but "balances too high" and "amounts owed" are in the reason codes.

So, to avoid any surprises, AZEO instructions call for a tiny balance on one card, with some cards being preferable over others as the one with the balance. Oftentimes, we can achieve our AZEO scores without bringing ourselves completely to AZEO. But that varies from profile to profile and score to score.