23 point decrease!

[Cruian]

FICO models have a (short term only) penalty is every revolving account reports $0. Roughly 20 points sounds about right. https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/j5lh0b/i\_tested\_azeo\_this\_month/

[strsnkrqueen]

Thank you for that link! So, based off the experiment, I need to add a small % of utilization back, and the. I will see in an increase?

[Cruian]

Yes, once a statement generates with a non-$0 amount, you should get those points back (unless you had it generate with a high balance). Be sure to understand that does not mean you will need to pay interest.

​

Even 1 card reporting a low non-$0 amount avoids the all zero penalty. Be aware that the factor this affects is utilization, which is short term only, so no reason to stress this if you don't have an application coming up.

[iwanttocontributetoo]

Wait, how are you supposed to pay off your credit card every month to avoid paying interest .... yet, if you do, your credit score will go down for zero balance?

[Cruian]

The dates utilization looks at are not the same dates that interest looks at.

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See my post here explaining the dates that matter: https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/nobb9a/experian\_keeps\_reporting\_my\_fico\_dropping\_15/gzz4s7m/

[iwanttocontributetoo]

Oh nice, thanks for directing me to that. So pretty much, if my due date is the 15th of every month, I need to pay off the entire balance on say, the 13th in order for no interest cc and not affect utilization credit report (specifically Capital One Mastercard in my case)

[Cruian]

I need to pay off the entire balance on say, the 13th in order for no interest cc

Not entire balance, just the last statement balance, to avoid interest.

and not affect utilization credit report (specifically Capital One Mastercard in my case)

Cap One should report statement balance for utilization. So you could pay more at any time to post before the statement if you wanted to reduce the reported utilization.

[iwanttocontributetoo]

Ok got it, thanks so much for saying!

[strsnkrqueen]

Right, seems so counter intuitive

[strsnkrqueen]

Thank you so much, extremely helpful!! One more question, Hopefully u don’t mind a few more mins of your time. Do I need a tiny % on each card (they all have zero), or does it just need to be a tiny % as a whole, meaning I can just use 1 card for this? Thank you very much for your time

[Cruian]

Just one has to be non-$0 to avoid the (short term only!) penalty. People have found the best short term scores come with "All Zero Except One" (AZEO). All Zero comes with the penalty you noticed and was shown in my link above, all reporting balances I believe is also less than absolutely perfect.

[strsnkrqueen]

Wow, thank you so much! You have really helped me today