You'll need to get a min of 3 cards to practice AZEO. With one card it cant be done. Use it but let it post less than 8%. It comes down to FICO likes less than 50% of your total cards reporting a balance. So with 3 cards 33% is reporting. With 2 cards at 50% reporting your right on the edge.
@credit8502020 wrote:Hi All,
So I really want to improve my scores as much as possible. For some time I have been using the AZEO method. However, I've only left $10 on my one card. Has anyone found the sweet spot for how much you should actually let post on your one card in order to get the most points possible? Should I ideally at least let 2% of my balance post? These are the days I wish I had a simulator. LOL!
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
You can't effectively do AZEO with anything less than 3 cards. You can do an abbreviated version with 2. You're doing the right thing leaving a small balance on your 1 card, bc it's better than the 'all zero' penalty. In addition to the utilization metrics, there's also the Accounts With Balances (AWB) metric. You have 100% of your revolving accounts reporting a balance, and FICO penalizes you for that. This is why 3 cards are necessary to optimize AZEO. Even with 2 cards, 1 with a balance and one at $0 is 50% AWB which still triggers a penalty. When you get to 3 cards, and can have 33% AWB, you can optimize AZEO. As for your question of an amount being too small, there's no such thing when it comes to FICO. It's either zero or non-zero for AWB in the FICO algorithm. You just need 1 non-zero revolver to avoid the all zero penalty. Where the confusion comes in is that some lenders (like Discover) will sometimes 'forgive' a tiny balance, and report your account at $0. $10 is fine, and shouldn't be forgiven by a lender.
Oh. Census says 4-5% is ideal. Simulators are for entertainment, not accurate in any way. Best simulators are here in the forum.
@SoonerSoldier33 Thank you for replying. I updated my original post. By one card, I'm referring to the one card you should leave a balance on. I have 6 credit cards where I am the primary and 1 AU Home Depot CC.
Oh, well that certainly changes things. LOL. So, yes, you can effectively implement AZEO with 6 cards. A few things...the thresholds for individual revolving utilization seem to vary by scorecard. The lowest known individul revolving threshold on any scorecard is 5%, but it doesn't seem to be true on every scorecard, so as long as the balance on your AZEO card is lower (and doesn't get rounded up) to 5%, you should see your best scores on any scorecard. For the FICO algo, the balance can't be too low. It's either zero or non zero that triggers the all zero penalty. What I said in my previous post still applies though. If you leave $2 to report on a Discover, they sometimes 'forgive' the balance, and report $0. At least $10 is recommended to ensure any lender won't 'forgive' the balance so this doesn't happen. Since utilization has no memory, feel free to have different balances report each month, and find out where your score loss occurs if you're so inclined. The known thresholds where you might incur a score loss are 0% (of course), 5%, and 9%. Who knows, maybe you'll discover another one. LOL. AZEO can act weirdly to anything other than a major bankcard being the one left with a balance, so use a Chase, Discover, Cap One, etc. rather than any kind of a store card, and a true charge card definitely won't work correctly. Also, because you have an AU card, you should know that the FICO algo has 2 different all zero 'pools' for cards you are the primary card holder and AU card holder of. While the CL of primary and AU cards are all lumped together for utilization purposes, it seems you can be assessed 2 separate all zero penalties if your primary and AU cards all report 0. Moral of the story, if you're an AU on one card, you want it to report a balance to avoid the AU 'pool' all zero penalty.
Since you have 6 of your own cards. You really dont need the AU card since your practicing AZEO. Less worries. FICO only cares about whats reported. Total credit lines or the name on the card dont mean anything.