The AZEO method
Each of your cards sends one number to the credit bureaus every month. AZEO is choosing what those numbers say: zero on every card but one, and a few dollars on that one.
Your card takes one picture a month.
Every card has two dates. On closing day it photographs your balance and sends that number to the bureaus. Due day, about three weeks later, is when the bill for that picture is due.
Closing day is the picture
Whatever the balance is that day is what gets reported. A charge made on closing day itself still lands in it.
Due day is the bill
Paying on time keeps you clear of interest and late marks. It does not touch the picture that already went out.
The due date is your cue
The next closing day typically comes a few days after the due date. Pay in full by the due date and the next picture shows it.
The number in the picture.
Utilization is how much of your limit the picture shows you using: $600 reported on a $6,000 limit is 10%. The score checks it card by card and across all of them, and it likes it low.
Card by card, and all together
One card near its limit hurts even when the rest sit at zero. The total across every card counts too.
Under 10% is the sweet spot
Under 30% keeps you out of trouble. Somewhere between 1% and 9% reported tends to score best, and the exact point varies by file.
It has no memory
In FICO 8, the score most lenders pull, each new picture replaces the last one, so a single low month is enough before you apply. The newest formulas also read the trend, which only rewards the habit.
All zero, except one.
Pay every card to zero before it closes, and let one card close with a few dollars on it. That is the whole method.
Why not all zero?
A row of zeros looks like cards you do not use, and the score gives a little more for one card in use than for none. Only a little, but it is free.
Why one small balance?
It keeps the total tiny and every other card clean. You pay it next month like any bill, with no interest, because it was this month’s spending.
How to do it, card by card.
Three moves on every card, in this order, and one more on the card you pick to do the reporting.
Stop using the card two days before its due date.
Charges can sit pending for a day or two. Let everything land before you pay.
Pay the full balance by the due date.
From the card’s own app it posts the same day. From another bank, give it a few days.
Leave it alone until the day after it closes.
Closing day still counts. The day after, it is yours again.
On your one card, leave a little.
About 1% of its limit, out of this month’s spending. On a $12,000 card that is $120.
When it matters.
Most before you apply for a card, a loan, or a mortgage: the picture the lender pulls should be the tidy one. The rest of the time it is a good habit, not a rule. Miss a month and nothing is lost, because the next picture replaces it.
Let the app time it.
The AZEO planner picks the card, works out the balance for its limit, and reminds you before each close.