First month AZEO

[Caught750]

655/686/670 EQ/TU/EX

I had a discover showing but it hadn't cut a statement yet, that will definitely show. Two new from Amex may or may not be reported in this round.

[Anonymous]

     You have one score in the Fair range (580 to 669) and two in the Good range (670 to 739). This will probably give you a better boost than if you were in the 740+ range. But you have a few other things that may affect you.

     First, you said you had a Discover (card I’m assuming) showing but you don’t have a statement yet. Do you mean the inquiry is showing or the account is not showing on your CRs?  Secondly, you have two new AMEX accounts correct? This combination could have either a neutral or negative affect on your score. It will definitely not help you and could hurt you more under certain situations. Let’s look at those.

     If Discover is a new inquiry and you get two more from your Amex cards, and you had no inquiries under 12 months; you’re going to take a hit. If you had more than two inquiries under 12 months before, then these 3 will have no effect (until you get to the next higher category).  Since your utilization was so low before, the additional CL will have virtually no effect now.

     Now here come the big hits. First, your AAoA is going down with 3 new accounts. How far depends on how many accounts you have to factor into the formula and what is the proportional disbursement of those accounts; but with 3 new accounts it WILL GO DOWN! Maybe not this report but the next one once they all catch up.

     Next, your Age of Most Recently Opened Account is going to give you a hit. How hard? Well, check what you have now on your “scores” page for each CR (it’s under “Amount of New Credit”). If that value was say, 2 years, you’re going to take a bigger hit than if it were 2 months (probably very little, a few points, if it is 2 months).

     On the positive side you may get a little help with your credit mix and of course your AZEO utilization now.

Y

[Caught750]

All three cards totaled two inquiries. I had at least 2 on all CRAs w one showing 6 but they didn't get pulled. AAoA was 5.5 years with 20 showing accounts. New account age was 1 month (kind of a spree). Discover reported the account not just the inquiry immediately giving me a 2k bump on availabile credit but had no activity on the account. I think they reported the account as soon as I activated the card.

[Anonymous]

     Well that is all great. It looks like the only hit you’ll take is on the AAoA and that should be offset by your new AZEO. You may see a nice bump too since the latter is a stronger category. As for your new CL, with your utilization, that should not give you anything (at this time). Definitely in the future it will because your % total util will be based on the total (new) CL.

     You seem to have a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Now let’s see if it works out.

Y

[Caught750]

Thanks, I'm not gonna lie, this forum is responsible for my education! I'm excited to see what I can do with the wealth of new found information!

[polaris2011]

I just hit my first AZEO data point last week and got really weird results. One CRA was flat, my lowest score bumped up 4 points, and the third got a whopping 41 pt increase (my credit karma score saw an almost identical movement for the same CRA). I don't believe there were any other factors contributing to the score changes, but I did have 1 inquiry age to 12 months but since the HP initiated February 2017 I don't believe it would be reported as 1 year old until March 2018. Not sure, however.

I have a score tracker and I plan to collect data points for 6 months using AZEO.

Good luck!

[Caught750]

That's crazy. My CK scores are generally very close to the FICO 8 scores I get. If my lowest jumped alot or my middle jumped alot I'd be in great shape! Discover uses TU which is my middle and Amex uses EX which is my lowest. A big jump in either and I'd be ecstatic!

[HeavenOhio]

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@Caught750wrote:
Thanks, I saw that too but I need to report a balance on a card that has a 500 limit so if I go with lower I dunno if I'll even hit 1% overall lol

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Any non-zero balance will do as long as it isn't so low that the lender will forgive that balance and not bother to bill you. When a small balance waiver kicks in, zero ends up being reported. Otherwise, percentages round up, e.g. 0.000001% rounds up to 1%.

$5 should keep you safe from the small balance waiver unless you have a BoA Better Balance Rewards card. They've been known to waive $5 balances. Actually, the small balance waiver threshold is generally much lower than $5. But since it varies from issuer to issuer, we frequently recommend $5 as the safe minimum amount. In the credit cards forum, BBS has a thread where he's tested his cards and has provided exact numbers for several banks.

[masscredit]

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@trustywrote:
The consensus for the ideal amount of the one card reporting appears to be somewhere between $2 and 8.9%.

Perhaps it starts at $2 because some credit issuers will forgive balances under $2?

I tried $2, and it works like a charm.

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I wasn't sure if the ideal number is 9% or less than 9% so I go for less to know I'm good when my utilization is that low. 

[Caught750]

Perfect, thanks for the info Ohio! It's Amex so I'm sure I'll be good at $5