AU good vs. bad

[Anonymous]

Trying to decide if the wife and myself  should add each other on as AU's to each others cc's if this would be a good or bad thing. For our scores and credit reports in general.

We probably maintain a 500 to 2500 balance on the cards in any given month.

so the question are,

1.what would be the plus side and the down side, and would this help our scores any?

2.how hard is it to remove a AU user from the cc and from the credit reports?

3.If one of us should have a 30 day late pay how will it affect the others credit?

4.if I add my wife to a card with a couple 30 day lates from 07 will it affect her score?

had to edit this a few times to make the questions more understandable to myself lol.

Message Edited by ezover on 03-29-2009 02:36 PM

[Anonymous]

Message Edited by ezover on 03-29-2009 02:37 PM

[y0rascal]

my wife is an AU on all my cards and vice versa, i do the finances, so i make sure the bills are paid on time.. =)

[haulingthescoreup]

---

ezover wrote:

Trying to decide if the wife and myself  should add each other on as AU's to each others cc's if this would be a good or bad thing. For our scores and credit reports in general.

We probably maintain a 500 to 2500 balance on the cards in any given month.

so the question are,

1.what would be the plus side and the down side, and would this help our scores any?

No telling --we need to know the CL's on each card. $500 on a $20K card is 2.5% util = great. $500 on a $700 card is 71% = awful.

2.how hard is it to remove a AU user from the cc and from the credit reports?

Generally, it's very easy. Sometimes an AU can remove him/herself; sometimes the cardholder has to do so. The AU should come off the next time the card updates.

3.If one of us should have a 30 day late pay how will it affect the others credit?

The other will have that same 30-day late and be penalized as well.

4.if I add my wife to a card with a couple 30 day lates from 07 will it affect her score?

Yes! Don't do it.

---

An AU card should be:

1. As old or older than your AAoA.
2. Squeaky clean! Maybe one ancient baddie, if you already have baddies.
3. 0% - 9% util, preferably 0%.

You're trying to add credit lines that will help you, not hurt you. 

[life101]

I am the primary card holder but my husband is an authorized user. We use it for everyday expenses and pay it off every month. Just got our Fico scores and my score was lower because of the use of low limit and usage. A little eye opener, I handle the bills every month and do a good job making sure we pay on time, make sure we do not over extend etc... ouch. Either way, we both have good scores so its all good.

[vanillabean]

Neither my wife nor I have ever had a late, so I can't speak of that. But if the talk is on util, it works to share/double the good and separate/single the bad.