AZEO fail

[Meanmchine]

Without even planning, I finally hit AZEO status, or so I thought. Today, a small balance on one of my cards hit $0. This left only 1 account carrying a balance

Account Bal $742  CL $10500 or 0.071%

Total       Bal $742  TCL $155,000 or 0.005% rounded

NOT A SINGLE POINT on EX ir TU movement.  EQ hasnt reported yet

I am really getting pizzed at being the FICO scoring exception

[Gmood1]

For the life of me I can't figure out why you guys even bother with it from the start? 😂😂
With your scores, what difference will it make on a real world app? They'll either approve or deny.
IMHO, Unless buying a home, that AZEO is a waste of time and effort.😆

[Revelate]

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@Meanmchine wrote:

eqWithout even planning, I finally hit AZEO status, or so I thought. Today, a small balance on one of my cards hit $0. This left only 1 account carrying a balance

Account Bal $742  CL $10500 or 0.071%

Total       Bal $742  TCL $155,000 or 0.005% rounded

NOT A SINGLE POINT on EX ir TU movement.  EQ hasnt reported yet

I am really getting pizzed at being the FICO scoring exception

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FICO 8 is a percentage of accounts (or revolvers) for this particular metric: if you have a bunch of accounts then yes you don't need to get down to a single revolver with a balance and your breakpoint based on my data would be 1/3 of revolvers for EQ FICO 8, though that wasn't tested personally on a clean file anecdotally we got further data from Yes-Its-Me confirming that. 

EX/TU are even less finicky on that.

That said, AZEO is optimal for everyone, and as such it's the typical recommendation.

[Meanmchine]

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@Gmood1 wrote:
For the life of me I can't figure out why you guys even bother with it from the start? 😂😂
With your scores, what difference will it make on a real world app? They'll either approve or deny.
IMHO, Unless buying a home, that AZEO is a waste of time and effort.😆

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My retirement income prevents me from getting $35k+ CLs on my cards

My budget doesnt permit $10k plus monthly spend so no churning for me

I dont have a job that reimburses expenses so no free rewards

This leaves either credit rebuild ( not really viable at my current level ) or Score Improvement. 850 score is my only realistic credit goal that I can shoot for, or at the least 840.

One thing surpressing my scores is my AAoA being 5.5 years  I can only effect this in the negative way (opening new accts). Nothing I can do actively except wait.

My oldest account is 14 years old ( luckily still open ). Again no control over this

My mortgage is in year 13 of a 30 year mortgage so unless I make a balloon payment my ding for high loan balance wont disappear for years.

My AoYA wont hit 1 year til June so again, can only wait. Last time my AoYA hit one year, didnt get a score movement on EX  but did on EQ and TU

AZEO was my only chance of raising my scores now

Maybe I should go the AJC route.  Forget the rules, forget the scores, just app for whatever you want and have fun.  Or maybe app for Simmons and Banco Do Popular.  Gotta find a new credit target to aim for

At least tomorrow is March 1st.  Some accounts eligable for CLIs. 

[Gmood1]

@Meanmchine,
Well you have great scores now. I say live a little and enjoy that retirement!
If you want a CC, go for it! You can't take these scores with ya, when that time comes.
You already are at a level where your score isn't a factor in approvals.
If you're denied, it will be for other reasons.
My AAoA is 3 years. And has been that way for quite some time.
I haven't been over 3 years of AAoA in 4 years.😂

[Meanmchine]

Thank you G-Man

[Anonymous]

FICO 8 Classic is far less sensitive to the scoring factor "number of accounts reporting a balance" than are the old mortgage models or the Bankcard Enhanced flavors.  There have been people who went from 1 out of 10 cards reporting a balance (say) to 9 out of 10 with little scoring impact in FICO 8 Classic.

Certainly for most people here going from 2 cards to 1 card rarely results in a score change of any kind.

As Revelate observes, the point of AZEO is simply to have a simple easily stated rule to help a person know that his credit profile is optimized with respect to CC balances -- a rule that works for all people across all scoring models.  AZEO does not claim that every other configuration of CC balances will always result in something worse -- just that you can't do better.

[Anonymous]

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@Meanmchine wrote:My retirement income prevents me from getting $35k+ CLs on my cards
My budget doesnt permit $10k plus monthly spend so no churning for me

As far as 35k+ credit limits, they have no value for most people, so you are certainly not missing out on anything there.

As far as "churning" goes, people often use this to as a synonym for bonus chasing.  That's not quite right.  Churning involves getting the signup bonus from the exact same card over and over again.  Many bonus chasers have never churned a single card -- I am an example of that. 

But let's assume we interpret your use of Churning as meaning Bonus Chasing.  There is absolutely no need to spend 10k per month to get most of the great signup bonuses.  Some very nice ones are targeted at ultralow spenders: e.g. a signup bonus of $200 after a minimum spend of $500 (that's 40% cashback).  A common minimum spend is $3000 over a 90-day period.

[Anonymous]

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@Meanmchine wrote:

My mortgage is in year 13 of a 30 year mortgage so unless I make a balloon payment my ding for high loan balance wont disappear for years. 

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If your mortgage is already paid down below ~75% or so utilization (which it should be based on nearing half its term) it's quite likely that your already seeing all or at least most of the FICO score benefit from it.  My only open installment loan is a 30 year mortgage paid down about 10 years and I've been able to max out some FICO scores (all Classic 8's, anyway).

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

AZEO does not claim that every other configuration of CC balances will always result in something worse -- just that you can't do better.

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Summed up very well by CGID in a sentence above.