First nonauthorized user credit card?

[Anonymous]

My mom has no credit of her own except an auto loan both her and my dad are on and have refinanced. Both my parents stayed away from credit for about 30 years after being irrisponsible in their 20s. My dad was approved for a couple of gas cards, the oldest being oct 2014, that shes an authorized user on. In april he was approved for a chase freedom and my mom is an authorized on that one as well. A month earlier i added her to me new cap one quicksilver one card to give her a utilization boost, but the age of account obviously isnt helping. Her credit karma reflects all this however her fico on discover scorecard shows 671 with nothing reporting other than the auto loan and refinanced, both within the last year. Obviously she doesnt have any baddies and her utilization is 34%. Aaoa is 9 months.

Since she knows i lurk on here she wants me to help her find a good card she can be approved for. I have a few in mind but i dont want her to waste inquiries so i thought id go ahead and ask since i really dont know what authorized user accounts do for you or dont do. My husband and i each started with secured cards and have several unsecured at this point in our own names so this is completely uncharted territory for me. She will not accept a secured card or one with an annual fee. As she says "im on all the same things as your dad. I should be worth as much". Stubborn parents huh?

[jsucool76]

Capital one is usually a good starting point for people. They'll give a card to damn near anyone, but they're far less predatory than banks like credit one and first premier.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since she knows i lurk on here she wants me to help her find a good card she can be approved for.

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We don't have the details for the underwriting criteria for any credit product out there and cannot tell anyone what they will and will not be approved for.

It's never just about score but you can refer to the Credit Pulls Database (Google to find) if desired.  However, if you're going to try to use scores you need to know the model & CRA used for the product (the Credit Pulls Database can help with that) and then pull the specific score for your mom.  Discover ScoreCard provides an Experian FICO 8 which is only relevant to products where an Experian FICO 8 is used in the decision.  Same sort of thing applies with any score out there.  The VantageScores provided by Credit Karma are only relevant to products where a TU or EQ VantageScore 3.0 is used in the decision.

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@Anonymous wrote:

She will not accept a secured card or one with an annual fee.

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She may have to go secured if she can't get approved for unsecured.  As for AF, everyone should consider total cost/bemefit and not just the AF itself.  That said, her first card probably won't provide any sort of benefit (i.e. rewards) to offset an AF.

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@Anonymous wrote:

As she says "im on all the same things as your dad. I should be worth as much".

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If she knows better then why as us? 

Seriously, though, she can't just assume that her credit profile is the same as her husband's.

[Anonymous]

Thin file...no baddies. Maybe Discover?