Azeo question

[Anonymous]

I know it's probably been stated and I tried searching with mixed results.

I just recently paid all my charge offs which were causing my Util % to be high. All of my current revolving cards are under 30%... but with the charge offs I was sitting around 100% Util. (Current cards all have low limits in rebuilding).

(Hoping for a decent score increase)

My question is do store cards count in Azeo? Is it all revolving? Or just Visa, Mastercard etc?

I was considering kicking out the extra $ to put all my cards at 0$ except one. Obviously it would be much easier if it was just major cards and not store or retail cards. I just wasn't sure. 

Thanks for the help and advice!

[Anonymous]

The scoring factor in question is:

       Number of Accounts reporting a Balance

Store cards are considered the same as major credit cards by FICO.  Each counts as an account with a balance (if it is showing a positive balance).

BTW, you want each of your cards to be under 28.99% -- not under 30%.

And if you consider all your credit limits together, you want that total utilization to be under 8.99%.

[sarge12]

Although all credit cards go into utilization, store credit cards are looked on less favorably by creditors in general, and I would advise most people to avoid them if possible. The discounts obtained on them might be attractive, but Synchrony and Comenity have a slew of complaints. It would be my advise to stick to major credit cards and always PIF, but that is just my personal opinion and some would disagree. I have actually been denied a credit increase before because Honda credit showed up on my credit report as a sub-prime lender from when I bought a Goldwing. I actually redid the financing 2 days later with my credit union, but it still shows on my credit report, and was given as the sole reason for the CLI denial as my scores were all over 800.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Sarge.  Additionally, the non-FICO Model used by the insurance industry penalizes a person for having store cards.

[Anonymous]

Good to know!

I originally did the SCT when my scores were garbage to try and offset / build through new credit. Once I age my report and get into a more favorable position I'll be dumping most of the store cards.

I was always curious how the AZEO worked when multiple cards cut statements at different times. Does Fico know? Or waits until the end of the month to calculate? It seems my score changes after a couple statement cuts but then the others do nothing... whether it's drastic or not. Curious on how my score will reflect paying off all my chargeoffs. (They were still reporting as CO and not sold to a collection yet)

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good to know!

I originally did the SCT when my scores were garbage to try and offset / build through new credit. Once I age my report and get into a more favorable position I'll be dumping most of the store cards.

I was always curious how the AZEO worked when multiple cards cut statements at different times. Does Fico know? Or waits until the end of the month to calculate? It seems my score changes after a couple statement cuts but then the others do nothing... whether it's drastic or not. Curious on how my score will reflect paying off all my chargeoffs. (They were still reporting as CO and not sold to a collection yet)

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Your credit report utilization is based on what shows on your report when the report is pulled. If you pay in full before the statement cuts it will show 0 for that card. If a statement cuts showing a balance, that is what will be figured into utilization even if you PIF before the due date. That is why we PIF before the statement cuts if we want that card to show zero balance. Keep in mind utilization is a point in time data point that only affects that credit pull. If you pay AZEO before the statement cuts, you will have the same score as if you had AZEO for years.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous

I was always curious how the AZEO worked when multiple cards cut statements at different times. Does Fico know? Or waits until the end of the month to calculate? It seems my score changes after a couple statement cuts but then the others do nothing... whether it's drastic or not.

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It's all based on the reported balances on your accounts at the time your report is pulled and your score generated.

If you decide to switch your AZEO card, assuming the card you are switching to and the card you are switching from have different statement dates, you'll either have both of them reporting a balance at the same time or neither of them.  For example, your current AZEO card has a statement cut date of the 10th.  You want to switch your AZEO card to one that has a statement cut day of the 20th.  If you take your current AZEO card down to $0 and it reports, you've got until the 20th that you'll have no card with a reported balance.  If a pull is done and a score is generated during that period of time, you'll see around a 15-20 point score drop due to "no revolving credit use."  Then following the new AZEO card reporting a balance on or about the 20th, you'd get those 15-20 points back should you do another pull/score generation following the 20th.  Conversely, you could leave a balance on the original AZEO card, then allow a balance to report on the other card on or about the 20th, going from AZEO to AZE2.  You'd avoid the 15-20 point drop potential between the 10th and 20th, but now you've got 2 cards reporting balances until the 10th next month comes around and you allow the original AZEO card to report $0.  Then you're back to AZEO again, just with the new card.

[HeavenOhio]

As mentioned, all cards count equally for utilization purposes.

A couple of us have reported slight dings on one bureau when a store card was the only one to report a positive balance. For me, it was on Experian. The ding was about four points, and the points came right back when another card reported with a balance.

Most people don't report seeing this, though. Given that a ding is likely to be small (if it occurs at all), you can safely test it for yourself to see if it's applicable to you.