Lost 6-8 pts After Discover (AU) Reports $0 Balance

[Gladius]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Gladius there is also an "all zero" penalty for having $0 balance on all AU cards. Let a small balance report on the AU card.

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I think I may have it figured out.

Discover:  AU, balance $0

Sams Club MC: AU, balance $0

Gap: AU, balance $389

Macys: AU, balance $0

USAA Visa: Joint accouunt, balance $10k

So since the Gap & Macys are "retail" cards, they fall into their own category.  The USAA Visa is a "joint" account (not an AU) and falls under another category.  Discover and Sams are in the "AU" category and their combined balance is $0 so I am stuck with the "all zero" penalty?  Is this correct?

[Anonymous]

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@Gladius wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Gladius there is also an "all zero" penalty for having $0 balance on all AU cards. Let a small balance report on the AU card.

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I think I may have it figured out.

Discover:  AU, balance $0

Sams Club MC: AU, balance $0

Gap: AU, balance $389

Macys: AU, balance $0

USAA Visa: Joint accouunt, balance $10k

So since the Gap & Macys are "retail" cards, they fall into their own category.  The USAA Visa is a "joint" account (not an AU) and falls under another category.  Discover and Sams are in the "AU" category and their combined balance is $0 so I am stuck with the "all zero" penalty?  Is this correct?

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Gap gives less points if it is just the store card version vs a bankcard, but are still included and are not seperate.

Joint means you are jointly responsible, not an AU.

[Gladius]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gladius wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Gladius there is also an "all zero" penalty for having $0 balance on all AU cards. Let a small balance report on the AU card.

---

I think I may have it figured out.

Discover:  AU, balance $0

Sams Club MC: AU, balance $0

Gap: AU, balance $389

Macys: AU, balance $0

USAA Visa: Joint accouunt, balance $10k

So since the Gap & Macys are "retail" cards, they fall into their own category.  The USAA Visa is a "joint" account (not an AU) and falls under another category.  Discover and Sams are in the "AU" category and their combined balance is $0 so I am stuck with the "all zero" penalty?  Is this correct?

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Gap gives less points if it is just the store card version vs a bankcard, but are still included and are not seperate.

Joint means you are jointly responsible, not an AU.

The Gap card is just the store card (not bankcard).

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[Anonymous]

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@Gladius wrote:

Yes they are FICO scores and what do you mean by "keep balance on Am Ex card and first reportings"?  

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I mean i have a delta platinum card about to report for first time on my report...

Are they saying keep a small balance on the card to show usage when it reports? ( isn't most AMEX cards ones you want pif every month ?) 

[Anonymous]

@Gladius It might be possible that your AU card with the balance reporting on it was picked up by an anti-abuse algorithm and therefore it isn't actually contributing to your score. Have you had that AU card be the only one with a balance and lose points before? 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a quick way to tell if an AU card has been flagged by the anti-abuse algorrithm other than trial and error, someone please chime in if they know of a way.

[Gladius]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Gladius It might be possible that your AU card with the balance reporting on it was picked up by an anti-abuse algorithm and therefore it isn't actually contributing to your score. Have you had that AU card be the only one with a balance and lose points before? 

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a quick way to tell if an AU card has been flagged by the anti-abuse algorrithm other than trial and error, someone please chime in if they know of a way.

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That was the only one with a balance.  A month ago it was at 95% usage and was recently paid down to 1% (gained about 25-30pts across the board at the time).  Now when it reported 0%, I lost the 6 pts.

I don't know what you mean by "anti-abuse algorithm and therefore it isn't actually contributing to your score".

[Gladius]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Gladius wrote:

Yes they are FICO scores and what do you mean by "keep balance on Am Ex card and first reportings"?  

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I mean i have a delta platinum card about to report for first time on my report...

Are they saying keep a small balance on the card to show usage when it reports? ( isn't most AMEX cards ones you want pif every month ?) 

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I guess so.  I didn't think the all zeros punishment included AU cards though.

[Anonymous]

@Gladius There is a sector of credit repair services that promote purchasing authorized user tradelines so they will show a very high limit and long account history on a profile that has either young age, low limits, high utilization, or any combination of negative factors. FICO realized this and the score is designed to where you can't buy a score, so they developed an algorithm that dismisses some AU cards and doesn't count them as legitimate for scoring purposes. My understanding is these cards still display on your report and there isn't realy any known criteria for what cards might be dismissed by this anti-abuse algo.

But there is an All Zero penalty for Authorized User accounts. So if all of your AU accounts report a zero balance you will lose points. I think I lost around 10 or 12 points when it happened to me, I can't remember exactly. Post 3 in the General Scoring Primer has more details on the AZ and AU AZ penalties, definitely worth a read!

[Sandman771]

I had a new card show up this month and I dropped 5 points. It had a zero balance. 

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[Anonymous]

Yes tradeline renting led to the anti-abuse algorithm and yes, AU cards have a separate AZ loss for those that are not discounted. 

it is correct that some AU tradelines may be discounted while others are not.