4 Credit Cards???

[Johnworker1]

Just to be clear, if you want to play the AZEO game, the one card showing a balance should be < 9% of the limit of that card (which obviously is a fraction of your total credit limit of all cards).

Thanks for you and JustBroke clarifying it is <9% of that particular, individual card. I mistakenly thought it was of all the cards but only did that for one month.

[Johnworker1]

I have been doing this correctly for a few months successfully. I have been trying to let a different card report the small balance which becomes a juggling game on which card to charge on and which card to pay. In May the card I let report was Chase credit card and I left a $50 balance on the due date after making a payment. Well that was in the middle of the month and on 5/30 I paid that balance off so not to incur unnecessary finance charge. Well Chase reported that payment on 5/31vto the credit bureaus (2 weeks after Chase normal reporting date) so that made all 3 credit card balances $0 and of course I get notices from Credit Karma and the bureaus that my credit score went down shortly afterwards. My lesson learned is to keep the balance until the next month next cycle.

[shipo]

To level set, it is easiest to pick just a single card (not Chase, more on this below), and let it report a small balance; there is no need or benefit to rotating cards.

Regarding Chase, they are a very poor choice to use for the reporting card as unlike most other lenders, Chase reports on A) the statements date, and B) whenever your balance hits zero.

[Johnworker1]

A few comments:

• Having 3 cards is considered the minimum for optimal scores; adding another card won't really do much for your scores except may depress them for a bit because of the additional hard pull on your credit and the new credit line on your reports.
• As I understand it, getting a card from Chase will not help you when it comes to an auto loan as there appears to be a lot of anecdotal evidence indicating completely separate and distinct underwriting groups.

Chase showed me that I was preapproved for credit cards and vehicle loans on my Chase app after I got my initial 3 credit cards and paid using the AZEO method for a few months. I passed on them but I eventually accepted their 9k credit limit credit card (my highest limit so far) and charged it up and paid it off for a few months then noticed my approval amount for vehicle loan initially went away but then came back after a few more months. After a few months I bought a 2nd used car with them for less interest rate (6.5% APR) than Capital One that I have used in the past for 2 car loans. The dealership salesperson said that was a good rate and I noticed the loan officer didn't try to offer me one of theirs after I told them if they can match or beat that I would go with what they offered. In the meanwhile Capital one preapproved me for a 2nd credit card (6K) from them and this one gave me 20,000 points if I charged a certain amount in a certain time which I did so I got $200 credit on top of my accrued reward points. So I technically have 5 credit cards but the $400 one I stopped using and added my daughter as authorized user to it so she can use it in college for emergencies (and build her credit) so I technically use 4 in the AZEO method and that $400 one I pay off her incidental charges as soon as they post.

So far Chase has been generous with supporting me build my credit and recently they gave me preapprovals for additional 22K or 25K credit cards but both of those had annual fees ($95 and $495 respectively) so I passed on them. I went from zero credit post discharge to 2 used cars (55k) and 4 active credit cards (19.8k available credit) in the 10 months since discharge plus an installment loan. After these accounts age I hope to move from my current good to the excellent category as far as my scores. On sidenote I went from buying new to used cars to find cars that are under valued yet with warranties so I don't worry about expensive repairs nor being under water if I have to trade or sell them.