Best place to applying for a couple starter cards.

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

In the last 18 months my credit has gone up 100--130 points between the 3 firms. I owe about 90 percent of that to advice from this forum. Thank you all !!!

Now it is my girlfriends turn. I would like to start by getting her a couple cards. She literally has NO credit, and what little bit she does have is bad. What is the best place for her to apply for a couple cards to get her credit going in the right direction. Her scores need to come up before we get married.

When I applied for my cards a couple years ago I just did some un-informed random searching. Is there a preferred site for someone in her situation to apply for credit?

Thanks !!!

[score_building]

perhaps the most expedient method would be to add her as an AU to one or two of your completely clean accounts with the longest history, this boost may place her in a much better position to subsequently app successfully for her own cc. 

it will also depend on her scores and what kind of baddies /how recent.  off the cuff, if she has only negative info. on her reports, it may behoove her to post in rebuilding first to see if she can get any negative info removed before applying.

---

catadm123 wrote:

Hello all,

In the last 18 months my credit has gone up 100--130 points between the 3 firms. I owe about 90 percent of that to advice from this forum. Thank you all !!!

Now it is my girlfriends turn. I would like to start by getting her a couple cards. She literally has NO credit, and what little bit she does have is bad. What is the best place for her to apply for a couple cards to get her credit going in the right direction. Her scores need to come up before we get married.

When I applied for my cards a couple years ago I just did some un-informed random searching. Is there a preferred site for someone in her situation to apply for credit?

Thanks !!!

---

[Anonymous]

OK, maybe I'll look into adding her as an AU to one a couple of my cards. Will that negetively affect my score to add her onto my cards?

[score_building]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
OK, maybe I'll look into adding her as an AU to one a couple of my cards. Will that negetively affect my score to add her onto my cards?

---

no.  unless you give her the cards they send for the au account and she abuses them.

[haulingthescoreup]

---

score_building wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
OK, maybe I'll look into adding her as an AU to one a couple of my cards. Will that negetively affect my score to add her onto my cards?

---

no.  unless you give her the cards they send for the au account and she abuses them.

---

I'm AU on my husband's Discover (for the age), and although I have a physical card, it lives in the sock drawer. I think I've used it maybe twice, each time for something he would have used it for --paying the car mechanics when he was out of town, etc.

My personal beliefs: if a couple uses AU's because they have agreed to do this to run the household finances, fine. But if someone goes AU on an account to help scores, that person should not use the account at all, and preferably should not even get the card.

[Anonymous]

Add her as an AU

2 month ago I didn't have a file with Equifax. My wife added me 2 weeks ago. Now I have a 781 fico score with them (my wife is in the 500's). I had no idea one could do that until I read this forum.

The key when you r new is the average account age. Mine was like 8 months old. When she added me it jumped to 3 years and 11 month. Add her on your oldest account(s). Of course this is provided they've always been in good standing.

[mphan]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Add her as an AU

2 month ago I didn't have a file with Equifax. My wife added me 2 weeks ago. Now I have a 781 fico score with them (my wife is in the 500's). I had no idea one could do that until I read this forum.

The key when you r new is the average account age. Mine was like 8 months old. When she added me it jumped to 3 years and 11 month. Add her on your oldest account(s). Of course this is provided they've always been in good standing.

---

congrats. I wished someone could do that for me but I had no one. But I'm in 700 club now.

Message Edited by mphan on 02-16-2009 09:59 PM

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

In a couple months I'll go apply for a car loan. I hope it will help.

How long did it take you to get to 700+?

[mphan]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks!

In a couple months I'll go apply for a car loan. I hope it will help.

How long did it take you to get to 700+?

---

2 years. I started at 620, after 2 years my score grew to 700 and 15 inqs. Half of the inqs will be gone by the end of this month, 3 left by the end of this year if I don't app anymore. Expecting a big jump. I focused on prime cards only, never had a secured card.

[Anonymous]

Actually she is the one that uses the cards anyway. She pays all the bills. We keep both cards at a very low balance. That's part of how I got my scores to increse. We just decided to work on my credit first, as I work and she is in school still.

So she would never abuse them, as she is the one that uses them (to pay little bills 20-50 dollar bills each month) anyway.

So it sounds like I have nothing to lose to have her added as an AU right?  Even though her scores are way lower than mine? That sounds to good to be true!! 

The one thing I have learned from this site is that CC compnay's and the reporting bureus are a game. One that you have to play if you want good credit. Seems like they would have a way to stick you for doing this AU thing. But you guys haven't steered me wrong yet. Thanks!!!