AU question

[Anonymous]

i have a couple of questions about becoming an AU. I'm fairly new here, sorry if I posted in the wrong section. My scores are decent, obviously not the best. I'm contemplating the whole AU idea to try and secure a little funding for a business expense here in the next couple of months. I have a friend that is willing to add me as an AU to try and help me out. We obviously have different last names and addresses, which won't matter at all if fico's don't count AU accounts. I'm not trying to benefit from utilization or the amount, just the AAoA. I've had some recent accounts open and my AAoA has dropped. My current utilization is around 15% and it will be AZEO by next reporting cycle. My AAoA is around 2.5 years now. This particular card has a 10 year history and good utilization. Will this even help at all or is it not worth the trouble?

[simplynoir]

It would help if we knew the stats on your other credit cards reporting to give you a general idea on where you'll stand.

[Anonymous]

I have about 10k in credit spread across 6 cards. Just recently opened 2 amex and a discover. My oldest card is only 3 years old. I have a decent amount of accounts that we're paid off, never late on any of my current cards/accounts. Only bad items are a couple lates on student loans from several years ago. I'm young, so I believe my scores are hurting due to the AAoA combined with my couple of lates. It also doesn't help that I usually pay off vehicle/installment loans in under 24 months. Just now realizing how fico works and how important it is. In the past I've just been getting by by having decent scores, good income and favorable down payments if needed.

[simplynoir]

The card will help you with both your AAoA by about another 2 yrs give or take and also (which I think is the bigger deal) getting the oldest card reporting from 3 yrs as you currently have to 10+ yrs with the AU add. Having your oldest card in double digit years will help a lot as you try to increase your score. Also depending on the limit on the AU card might help your total credit on hand as well actually. Your lates might limit that growth depending on how bad (30/60/90) the late is as well as how old they are but should still see an increase. This all assumes the AU card being added is in good standing.

[Anonymous]

My lates are 3 and 4 years old with fed loan. Both were 120 days late and ended up defaulted. They're rehabilitated and in good standing now. Wish I would have known about all of this back then. I've seen mixed reviews about whether fico includes the uti in your score or just the average age. I have another option that has a 23,000 limit, with a $7500 balance. It's only 6 years old though. If fico is only going to take into account the age and not consider that particular cards limit or uti, I'll try to find the oldest account possible. There are so many different views and options on this. I haven't been able to find a definitive answer as to whether my idea would work or not. I've seen people say that there's an algorithm that excludes certain AU accounts that people will purchase to manipulate the system etc.

[simplynoir]

There are some cases where some banks don't take AU cards into consideration but those are rare IME. For sure, though, if you're going to apply for a loan to cover this future business expense an UW will probably do a manual review of your credit and remove the AU from consideration since they don't see you having responsibility for that debt. If it's a credit card you're looking to cover this expense I don't see the harm in adding that 10 yr old card to your reports to improve your chances. What are your scores currently looking like?

[Anonymous]

Scores are all pretty much hovering around 700, even the older models. Trans union hates me for some reason, some of those scores are low 600's. I had one collection account with nationwide for $150 that I just paid for deletion. Hopefully that gives me a boost and trying the AZEO method. The collection was more of a principle thing not an inability to pay. Learned my lesson on that one lol

[simplynoir]

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wrote:
Scores are all pretty much hovering around 700, even the older models. Trans union hates me for some reason, some of those scores are low 600's. I had one collection account with nationwide for $150 that I just paid for deletion. Hopefully that gives me a boost and trying the AZEO method. The collection was more of a principle thing not an inability to pay. Learned my lesson on that one lol

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Assuming you mean FICO 08 scoring models you should be fine especially once you add that card to the mix if applying for a credit card. And yeah anytime you can get a PFD for a collection you take it especially if it's bring your scores down.

[Anonymous]

I just looked and apparently the only bereau showing an active collection is trans union. Guess I won't get an Eq or Ex bump. Also looked at the different score break downs and when you hit the question mark every aspect says authorized user accounts are not taken into consideration when factoring. So does AU accounts do anything at all?

[simplynoir]

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wrote:
I just looked and apparently the only bereau showing an active collection is trans union. Guess I won't get an Eq or Ex bump. Also looked at the different score break downs and when you hit the question mark every aspect says authorized user accounts are not taken into consideration when factoring. So does AU accounts do anything at all?

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They do. There are some that say that people shouldn't do that for an "artificial" score boost since it isn't your credit but that's an arguement for a different day. It will help as long as you're not applying for a loan like auto or a mortgage since manual reviews WILL remove any AUs from consideration.