The AZEO Method...

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i just saw your posting.

i am VERY new on here. 

i noticed that your American Express card was being reported. I thought AMEX does not report to the credit agencies. I am correct? Is this perhaps a different type of AMEX card?

thank you

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The penalty does not specifically relate to AZ cards reporting. It is for: "No recent revolving account activity". AMEX charge cards are not included in revolving account activity (Fico 4, Fico 8 and Fico 9 models). For some people AU cards are not included either (Fico 8 and Fico 9 models). Others have reported having a store card excluded as well.

So potentially you could report AZE3 with an AU credit card, AMEX charge card and a store card showing a balance and still experience the: No recent revolving account activity penalty. Store cards appear to be a mixed bag on how they are treated.

If one wants to play AZEO, the card reporting should ideally be a personal card (not AU) and be a known revolver (Visa, Mastercard, Discover card, cobranded store card or AMEX credit card). Not sure about Diner's Club and some other odd cards.

*** Although confusing, AZ is optimal for the # accounts with balance scoring factor. The score drop which happens as a consequence of AZ relates to a completely different scoring attribute - lack of recent revolving activity.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have a Discover IT, CapOne Quicksilver, and CapOne

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Each of those reports the statement balance.

So all you have to do is let one of the 3 report a small balance before you pay it off, while you pay off the others prior to the statement date.

[Anonymous]

I am still learning but I was made to understand by calling my cards that the due date and the date they report are also two different dates which may or may not be helpful info.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am still learning but I was made to understand by calling my cards that the due date and the date they report are also two different dates which may or may not be helpful info.

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Right.  Here's an example, drawn from how a typical credit card works.  Suppose you have a card that prints its statement on the 2nd of every month.  That is the Statement Date.

On the date that the statement prints, the CC issuer will report the statement balance (aka the Amount Owed at the top of the statement) to the three credit bureaus.  This is the Date Reported. 

Thus, the Date Reported and the Statement Date are (for almost all CC issuers) the same date.

Imagine in this example that you have a statement balance of $400 on May 2.  That $400 has been reported to all three bureaus.

Roughly 25 days after the Statement Date is the DUE DATE.  The CC issuer is giving you a "grace period" of about 25 days to make a payment on that $400.  If you pay the full $400 during that period, then you will not owe any interest.  Paying that full $400 is called Paying In Full or PIF.  Note that when I person is PIF-ing he often is NOT paying the card to zero.  In this example, if you paid $400 on May 15, your card might will have new charges that have brought the balance to (say) $500.

So to recap, the Due Date always refers to how long you had to make a payment on the last statement.  The Due Date has nothing to do with the date the CC issuer reports to the three bureaus.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have a Discover IT, CapOne Quicksilver, and CapOne

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OK. All 3 of those report the statement balance.

So for optimal revolving utilization, all you need to do is pay 2 of them down to zero before the statement date, and let 1 of them report a small balance which you then pay off shortly after the statement date.

The primary purpose of AZEO is to make sure you're not hurting yourself on revolving utilization across all FICO scoring models. AZEO has more of a positive impact on your mortgage scores than it does on your FICO 8's and 9's.

[Anonymous]

Hi.  Brand new to this forum. 

I have groomed my credit to the Exceptional level (some months even a perfect score).  I just saw AZEO mentioned on this forum.  The card I use most is a Citi 2x card with a $65k available line.  Some months the balance gets  rather high & I make interum payments to keep the balance at a resonable level.  This month I paid the entire balance before the statement cut off.  Because I haven't used any other credit cards this cycle, my revolving credit usage this month will be 0 - I never knew that this could be a bad thing.  How many points  can I expect to lose?

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum. You'd expect to lose maybe 15-20. Those points will immediately return once one of your cards again reports a small balance.

As an aside, starting your own thread in the future if you have a question will likely yield you more exposure and responses relative to bringing an old thread back to life.

[Anonymous]

Yikes!  But great that it's a quick fix.  I think I might have freaked if I saw that drop without knowing why it happened.

Thanks for the quick reply & the posting advice.

[grower1]

I was expecting a score drop today and it came right on time. I downgraded my BCP to the non AF version and Amex gave me a partial refund for the Annual fee. (I didn't know this at the time of the downgrade). Since this is my AZEO card that I carry a small balance on my score tanked. Once they refunded me, it was too short of notice for me to prevent the damage because the statement closed at the same time. TransUnion is slower to report, that will happen in the next few days. I will quickly correct this, by letting a small balance report on another card.

[Anonymous]

What credit monitoring system is this ? 

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@grower1 wrote:

I've been trying AZEO since learning of it here on the forum. Does this look about right? My next goal is to grow my CLs on my cards.

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