Auth. User Law?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know when the law or change that makes it to where your authroized user accounts that are helping your score no longer count in your score? Also what is utils?

[Anonymous]

Welcome!

There is no law about AUs.  FICO has said that it intends to change its formula so that AUs will no longer share the account history of their primary users.  We do not know when this change will be made.

"Util" is short for utilization.  A big part of your credit score is how much of your available credit you use.  If you max out your cards (use all or most of your credit limit), it is very bad for your scores. 

[Anonymous]

I disagree with the new fico law and auth users becuase i believe auth accounts help young kids establish credit its a great start to get credit

[Anonymous]

Again, it is not a "law".   Everything FICO does is based on risk assessment.   In their estimation, why should people get points for credit that they are not responsible for?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I disagree with the new fico law and auth users becuase i believe auth accounts help young kids establish credit its a great start to get credit

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Again, it's not a law. It is a scoring formula.

This change was made due to the numbers of people buying AU status on the accounts of complete strangers to artificially inflate their scores.

I don't like what this change does to couples who have long been an AU on a partner's card, which was a very common practice in my younger days. Although I don't think AU status is necessary for kids. All three of my young adult kids established their own credit without any AU accounts. Those who are new to credit can get a credit union card or a secured card, and after 6 months of squeaky-clean payment history, they generally have scores around 680 or so. My three now have scores in the low-to-mid 700's, which makes me grimly jealous.

But yes, it's yet another example of people who have been doing the right thing, and yet they wind up getting punished because of the actions of the unethical.