AZEO Method

[Anonymous]

It depends though on how much one uses their cards.  If someone has a lot of cards and uses all of them frequently, yes AZEO can be some "work" to manage for sure.  If someone has fewer cards and goes cycles where they don't use some of them or don't swipe them often, AZEO can often be accomplished with simple auto-pay settings and little to no work on the end of the user. 

[Anonymous]

It can be simplified, just for most people it’s not worth the extra effort. I do if I’m testing or have a purpose, otherwise I try to keep the number down, but I don’t worry about being all the way down to one. but everyone has their own preferences whatever works for you works for you.

[Anonymous]

Yes that is true.

I will likely end back at AZEO today when my Discover card reports ($0).  My Citi card is the only one that I tend to float a balance on since I generally pay the statement balance at the time the statement cuts (it's my daily driver) where my other cards I often have the current balances paid off a few days before statement cut, so many tend to report $0.

[Anonymous]

i can't find any reasoning or explanation for why this AZEO method is supposed to work, or the expected point-gain results for doing it. all i keep seeing is azeo azeo azeo, do azeo and scores go up! and if you search online, it doesn't exist! it's only on this forum that people are talking about it.

so please explain why would this be any different than just keeping your individual util low on all your cards + the overall util low? because i think the real reason behind people seeing any point gains with azeo, is because they were carrying balances on multiple cards and have now paid it all off.

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i can't find any reasoning or explanation for why this AZEO method is supposed to work, or the expected point-gain results for doing it. all i keep seeing is azeo azeo azeo, do azeo and scores go up! and if you search online, it doesn't exist! it's only on this forum that people are talking about it.

so please explain why would this be any different than just keeping your individual util low on all your cards + the overall util low? because i think the real reason behind people seeing any point gains with azeo, is because they were carrying balances on multiple cards and have now paid it all off.

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Because there's two scoring metrics found on different flavors of FICO algorithms, some even apparently have both:

• Accounts with Balances
• Revolvers with Balances

That both look at your total number of open tradelines (accounts is revolvers + installment) and count the number of them with a balance... that's taken in a ratio, number with balance / number of open tradelines and spits out a metric which factors into your score.

It can matter a great deal on some scores, like for example with two recent mortgage scores that I've been tracking going from 7/18 to 3/18 resulted in 20 points on one and 27 points on another, and I think 14 on the third but I'd have to double-check that; in terms of impact, that moved my mortgage midddle score from a 740 to a 767, which incidently gets me into the highest tier for PMI if I'm not cutting a 20% downpayment.  Also I have had minimal utilization for over 5 years, I just have too many revolvers and the ones I really use have outsized limits... basically it's nearly impossible for me to move my FICO score for utilization metrics except with this accounts/revolvers with balances one, even $5 on a given card will count as a balance.

The "Except One" part is simply that if every single one of your revolvers is $0, you take the all-zeros penalty, and that exists on literally every single FICO model and industry option released in the last 20 years if not more.  That penalty is about -12 on my file but exact amount is profile dependent (prettier you are the more you lose generally).

When it counts (like a mortgage, or auto loan) do it, but if nobody is looking at your score it doesn't have any value.

As for being just here on this forum, well it is a convenient shorthand vs. writing out a whole bunch like this every time.  Every community has some lingo to it, this is part of ours .

[srloring13]

You dont have to make multiple payments throughout the month to keep your UT below 29%.  The balance on the statement date is what matters unless the creditor does a mid cycle balance reporting.  If the goal is to keep your reported balance below 29% UT make sure you pay the account down at least a few days before the statement date.  Less work.