Can I employ AZEO?

[sixstringcliff]

I have a Cap1 Platinum card and an Apple card. I am also an AU on my parents Navy Federal cc. Can I employ AZEO now or do I need one more card of my own before I can do that? I'm pretty sure that I've read that you have to have three credit cards minimum to do so but I don't know if an AU account also counts.

[AllZero]

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@sixstringcliff wrote:

I have a Cap1 Platinum card and an Apple card. I am also an AU on my parents Navy Federal cc. Can I employ AZEO now or do I need one more card of my own before I can do that? I'm pretty sure that I've read that you have to have three credit cards minimum to do so but I don't know if an AU account also counts.

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@sixstringcliff  Which version of FICO is more important to you; FICO 8s or mortgage model, e.g. EX2, TU4, EQ5?

[rostrow416]

Is there any particular need to max out your scores?  AZEO is great when you are trying to ring out every single last point you can, but it's not necessary to employ it constantly.  If you have an app coming up, AZEO the month before.  Without anything coming up, it's effect is minor.  Since utilization has no memory, points can be added or subtracted from month to month based on whether you employ it or not.

[sixstringcliff]

Roger that. I was just thinking that it was the best practice when gardening one's credit score. And yes, naturally I would love to squeeze every point possible.

[SouthJamaica]

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@sixstringcliff wrote:

I have a Cap1 Platinum card and an Apple card. I am also an AU on my parents Navy Federal cc. Can I employ AZEO now or do I need one more card of my own before I can do that? I'm pretty sure that I've read that you have to have three credit cards minimum to do so but I don't know if an AU account also counts.

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Definitely you can; just let the Capital One card report the small balance.

There is a separate metric for AU cards, but if there's only one I don't know if it's better to report zero or to report a small balance. I'm guessing a small balance is better, but I don't know.

[Anonymous]

You will want the AU card and one of your cards to BOTH report a small balance. You will lose points on F8 models if you have all authorized user accounts with zero balance reporting. For my profile, I lose about 12 points of my AU card doesn't report a balance.