Question for Score Experts- 0% uti but....

[Pikaboo-icu]

All of my cards reported at zero balance except I left a balance on my Amazon Prime card (the store version).

My recent score dropped by 14 points and details cited 0% of credit used.

Huh? Do I have to leave a balance on a bankcard? Does a store card such as Amazon not count in that equation?

Confused...

Please advise.. Thanks a bunch.. 

[Anonymous]

I've seen this topic argued both ways in that for some a "store" card works just fine for AZEO, where for others it is ignored or not counted, meaning that the algorithm views such a profile as having no revolving credit use.  This is why one of the recommendations and best practices that you see on this forum is that you should always use a bank card for AZEO.  The same is true of AU accounts... they count for some and don't count for others.  The third exception would be a bank card with a very high credit limit, say over $50k.  Sometimes people say that those very high credit lines are excluded from the algorithm.

[Pikaboo-icu]

Thank you so much BBS  

I will have to start allowing one of my visas to report & just pay off Amazon, I had intentionally let it report.

I had no idea that some cards might count & others not. It's a learning experience~ as usual.

CHEERS

[Anonymous]

Absolutely.  I have only 1 store card and come to think of it never tried using it as my AZEO card.  I think I may do that later this month for S&Gs just to see if it "counts" on my profile or not.  I like doing quirky little tests such as this. 

One thing I've never been clear on though that perhaps someone else can chime in on is whether or not a store card "counts" has to do with the specific store card, or does it have to do with something profile-related?  For example, the OP references the Amazon store card.  If that card is ignored by the FICO algorithm against his profile, can we assume that the same card would be ignored for everyone across all profiles?

If that's the case, it would be cool to have a which store cards "count" and which don't thread if one doesn't exist already.  While there aren't too many people out there with only store cards, those people do exist.  If someone has just 3 store cards and 2 out of 3 of them are known to be ignored but the third one isn't, such a person would want to use the third card as their AZEO trade line.

[jamie123]

First time that I've ever heard that a store card, especially one as well known as Amazon doesn't count in AZEO. I'm thinking that it was more of a computer glitch than anything else. Are you sure that the Amazon card reported with a balance?

[Anonymous]

The thread  Store-card-AZEO-store-curiousity   (in particular posts 23 and 24)  provides  evidence that some store cards report as charge cards and then are excluded in the count of credit cards with balances.

 Pikaboo-icu:   Does your store card report  as charge card?

[Pikaboo-icu]

Yes, it's reported as a charge card and the balance was $345. 

It's rather strange.. /shrugs

Next month I''ll have it report zero and allow a visa to report and see what happens.. 

[Anonymous]

I would think then if reporting as a charge card is the issue, we'd have to look no further than store cards that are reported as charge cards and thus eliminated from FICO scoring.  This leads me to believe that the issue is product-specific and not profile-specific.

[Pikaboo-icu]

I will add for DP my limit is $10,000  & the balance reported was $345. so uti is low but not zero. 

I'll try to swap that amount with a bankcard and see what, if anything, changes next month.

CHEERS

[Anonymous]

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@Pikaboo-icu wrote:

Yes, it's reported as a charge card and the balance was $345. 

It's rather strange.. /shrugs

Next month I''ll have it report zero and allow a visa to report and see what happens.. 

---

Hi Pika.  Charge cards do not count toward utilization in FICO 8.  That's why, from that algorithm's perspective, you had all your credit cards at $0.  Because you did in fact have all your credit cards at $0 (a charge card is not a credit card).

When AZEO is formally described, there's typically the disclaimer that the one card that reports a balance should be...

(a)  A true credit card (not a charge card)

(b)  A card in your name (not an AU card)

(c)  A card with a balance of at least $5

(d)  A card with a credit limit of at least 34.9k

Much of the time, however, people omit those four caveats.