Current credit situation: Transunion has no score for me but my Equifax score is 600.
I have two old car loans on my credit that are paid off, Both positive accounts. A few old collections that are about to fall off. My only open credit line is a secured CC $200 limit. I haven't needed much credit. I work full time and pay everything with cash. I received an inheritance about 5 years ago and purchased my home so I don't have a mortgage.
My grandma wants to add me as an authorized user to her credit card to increase my score. I have been researching AU vs. co-applicants and found that if she adds me as a AU it may not report to the credit bureaus. The CC I'll be added to is a Chase AAA Visa opened in 1994 with a limit of $26K that has utilization of about 2% right now.
What is my best bet with being added? Should I go for the co-applicant? Will this give me retroactive history? Can my applicant be denied and can it affect her interest rate? The rep from the CC company said it would report on my credit and it won't affect her account but she is just a phone rep afterall.
Thank you!
Starting Score: 600
@Siobhanmairead wrote:Current credit situation: Transunion has no score for me but my Equifax score is 600.
I have two old car loans on my credit that are paid off, Both positive accounts. A few old collections that are about to fall off. My only open credit line is a secured CC $200 limit. I haven't needed much credit. I work full time and pay everything with cash. I received an inheritance about 5 years ago and purchased my home so I don't have a mortgage.
My grandma wants to add me as an authorized user to her credit card to increase my score. I have been researching AU vs. co-applicants and found that if she adds me as a AU it may not report to the credit bureaus. The CC I'll be added to is a Chase AAA Visa opened in 1994 with a limit of $26K that has utilization of about 2% right now.
What is my best bet with being added? Should I go for the co-applicant? Will this give me retroactive history? Can my applicant be denied and can it affect her interest rate? The rep from the CC company said it would report on my credit and it won't affect her account but she is just a phone rep afterall.
Thank you!
In this case the CSR is 100% accurate. An AU is what you're looking for currently, after which and the corresponding bump in FICO score you will likely get, it's worth looking at your own options for future use. Granted other than financing a car or possibly a new house it doesn't sound like you have much need for credit, but it's worthwhile building one's credit report anyway even if there's no conceivable use for it right now or near/mid-term future.
Edit: also there's something funky with your signature though looking at it not quite sure where it's going wrong, I'm an HTML luddite unfortunately.
Edit 2: I made a liberal assumption that what you had posted in your original message was what you wanted for your signature and I stuck it in there. Was just a matter of presentation rather than HTML code. If you wish to change it, it can be found under My Settings / Personal Profile / Personal Information in the SIgnature field.
