Is everything I've read here wrong? Or is it YMMV?

[Anonymous]

Back in August I only had a local cu cc. I app'ed and got 5 more cards in a 3 week span. I have been waiting for all of them to report and get my dates so I could try AZEO to see how it affects my score. Now in the process of doing so, my original cc hasn't reported since August 31 and is showing a balance of $362/$1000. They told me it was an issue with them upgrading their computer system and to dispute. So I did.

Prior to the dispute my cu cc was 36% util and overall util was 9.55%. I was also at that time AZE2. So once the dispute came back I went to AZEO, total util 8.2% and individual util 22%. Based on everything I read I could expect as low as 2-3 points for AZEO or as high as maybe 10. I could also expect 5-10 points for crossing over each util threshold. At the low end of things I was looking at 12 points for all 3 factors and possibly as high as 25. 

Well the dispute came back and everything fell into place as it should. Yet I only gained 3 points! 3. Now I had never planned on AZEO long term. I just wanted to see what I could roughly expect moving forward if I ever needed to pick up some last minute points. And crossing total util and individual util didn't seem to matter for anything. I figure there really is no purpose in paying off my cc's and keeping util low at this point. 

Earlier when I first started tracking I had dropped 27 points when my cu cc went from $150 to $362. I didn't really understand the thresholds at that time and once I did I chalked up the point drop of 27 points to crossing over total and indiv utils since that was my only card reporting at that time it took both to 36%. But now I am thinking there may have been something else going on that I wasn't aware of since I had just started tracking.

Cmon 3 lousy points?

[Medic981]

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@Anonymous wrote:

total util 8.2% and individual util 22%.

Cmon 3 lousy points?

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AZEO is meant for individuals who are purchasing a home or car and are trying to milk out as many points as possible to potentially get a lower interest rate. With an "individual util of 22%," you are not below 9% needed to get the additional bonus FICO points. 

[Anonymous]

Yes I know what AZEO is meant for which is why in my post I said it wasn't something I was going to do long term but wanted to see how it would effect my score. It seems as though I should've gotten the 3 points just from AZEO.

And I also know that 22% isn't below 8.9%. But that is why I am questioning if everything I have read here is wrong. I have read and been told in numerous posts that individual 28.9% is a key number and not 8.9%. And that 8.9% is a key for total. So that is where I was striving for. 

Even if 8.9% is an important one for individual I did cross the 8.9 for total, 28.9 for individual, and lets just say for poops and giggles I was going for a mortgage right now. I still only picked up essentially one point for each of those. That seems like a lot of work and time to pay everything down and only get 3 points. I mean that is only a very small window you have to sitting in to have that benefit you. If you go from 707 to 710 or 680-683, or 729-732, you won't benefit at all from doing all of that. You have to be within 3 points of a score change. How many peopIe are that close where it'll benefit them? I had a thread a few weeks back asking what I could expect for hitting all of those specific numbers and based on everything I had read on those specific criteria, 15 points was very realistic. 

I know every profile is different. But 3 points for those key numbers doesn't really seem like the positive effect others talk about.

[Anonymous]

It is quite possible that any possible gains from AZEO is being cancelled out by the new accounts penalties (lowered AAoA, reset AoYA).  I saw benefit from AZEO when my youngest account was at minimum 3-4 months old.

[Medic981]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And I also know that 22% isn't below 8.9%. But that is why I am questioning if everything I have read here is wrong. I have read and been told in numerous posts that individual 28.9% is a key number and not 8.9%. And that 8.9% is a key for total. So that is where I was striving for. 

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FICO scoring does not give or take points for utilization > 8.9% or < 30% for individual accounts or aggregate utilization. FICO scoring does reward utilization < 9% and begins to penalize utilization > 29.9%. 

As you can see, AZEO is very tedious and time-consuming. Get All of your accounts to Zero utilization Except for One and the one account reporting needs to have utilization at or below 8.9% to receive the maximum scoring benefit of AZEO.

[thornback]

I tend to see a larger AZEO benefit in my mortgage and Bankcard scores than my FICO8 scores. FICO8 scoring increases range from 2-7 points for my profile, depending on how dramatic the decrease in util, while mortgage & bankcard score increases are between 6-12 points. Also, optimum results require your reporting card to be below 8.9%.

Did you happen to check your mortgage / bankcard scores?

[Anonymous]

Maize is right that you have a lot going on (it sounds like) on your reports.  Very recently opened accounts, new accounts still appearing, accounts being disputed.  Testing is best done on a credit profile that is very stable, where the only scoring factors that might be affected is the one you are trying to test.

Secondly, it's important to point out that AZEO really comes into its own (contrasted with small balances on many cards) on the far older mortgage models (and possibly the Bankcard Enhanced flavors).  You are looking for changes to your FICO 8 Classic score.  We have had a lot of people posting that "number of accounts reporting a balance" seems not to matter nearly as much on FICO 8 Classic compared to the other models I mentioned.

Thirdly, it is crucial to remember that AZEO is a practical strategy, not a theoretical claim about how all models will work for all people.  It's a simple acronym to ensure that prior to the rare major loan app you aren't leaving some points on the table.  Ensuring that I don't lose points is very different from ensuring that I will gain points (much less ensuring that I will gain many points).

[Anonymous]

A fourth (but essential) point for anyone discussing the effect that AZEO appears to be having on his particular credit scores....

The wording of the negative reason statement (that AZEO is intended to address) is "too many accounts reporting a balance."  It does not call out revolving accounts specifically.  Just "accounts."  Therefore it is important for anyone trying to report testing results to let us know how many accounts of any kind that have a balance.  That includes open loans in particular.

Earlier this year we had a person with exactly three cards and eight open student loans trying to test AZEO and of course that was a very dirty test tube: even with exactly one card showing a balance he still had nine accounts reporting a balance.

[Anonymous]

OP, everything you've read on here is not "wrong."  The only thing I see going on here is that you're not considering the other variables outside of your utilization improvement... basically, your age of accounts factors that other have mentioned above.

If you had a stable profile where you took your aggregate utilization down across the 8.9% threshold, perhaps you would have seen a (say) 15 point gain.  If you're only seeing a 3 point gain, it simply means that other factors reduced your score by 12 points.  -12 + 15 = +3.  With many things going on with your profile, it's extremely difficult and next to impossible to determine the exact scoring impact of each individual CR change.

Rather than see the glass as half empty, see it as half full:  Due to your utilization paydown your net gain after your new accounts is still positive (3 points) where if you didn't pay down your utilization, your net loss would have been 12 points.  Again, the numbers I gave above are just for the sake of discussion and aren't intended to be exact.

[Anonymous]

Like already said, you simply have too much going on to correlate each event to scores, you could have been more successful if you had access to daily score and report update and was monitoring daily like EX paid subscription, but even then, events can still overlap.

Let all new accounts report and settle for a cycle or two, then retest one scenario at a time. First report on all cards then re-implement AZEO while keeping UTI under 8.9, after that test UTI (individual and aggregate) across different known thresholds. The key is to ISOLATE individual events.