New Credit

[felyasocal]

I established new credit for my wife about 6 months ago. She moved here from another country a few years ago so she did not have any credit at all

She has 1 gas card, 1 store card, 1 loan (CareCredit Medical Loan), and is an AU on two of my credit cards. 

I was initially able to get a credit report and score from annualcreditreport.com, but only from TransUnion. Experian and Equifax could not find her information. This was about 4 months after establishing her initial credit. I use EIDT for daily pulls for both of us and after some minor issues, they were able to add her and I can pull her daily reports. However when it comes to MyFico and getting her FICO scores, I have not had any luck. I tried to purchase her FICO scores\reports on MyFico.com and they could not find her information. I called them and was told a number of things by a number of people which confused me even more. I was told that it takes up to 24 months for her FICO score to be generated. That doesn't sound right to me. I was also told that it takes 24 months after she gets her Social Security (its been about 18 months) to be able to get access to FICO scores

Forgive me if this has been asked and answered on another post here, but if someone could answer these or point me to the correct post, that would be great. If you could please answer all of these questions, wife and I would be very happy =)

1. How long does it take to establish a credit history? 

2. How long before we can get her FICO score

3. How long before she can, for example, apply for an auto loan\lease or her own credit cards?  (She is not employed, but is studying full time in college)

4. What is the best possible strategy to grow her credit to the highest possible, achivable number?

Thank you for your responses in advance!

[09Lexie]

1. In order to generate a credit score your wife has to have the following:

At least one account that has been open for six months or more
At least one undisputed account that has been reported to the credit bureau with in the past six months
No indication of deceased on the credit report (Please note: if you share an account with another person this may affect you if the other account holder is reported deceased).

2. See answer above

3. Applying for and/or receiving additional credit would be based on her pyt history, income, credit profile. Most lenders will want to see 6 mos of usage before granting a CLI.
Auto loans are a little different cause they use an auto enhanced score. She might be able to be approved with a first time buyers program if through her local credit union where the requirements might be easier

4. Add additional cc's only when needed; slow and steady builds the foundation. Remember quality not quantity.

[felyasocal]

Ok thanks

In regards to credit cards, she is an AU on 2 of my cards, so should we wait a year or so and then try to get her own cards? We are in no rush. I just want to make sure I am doing it right

How will her credit be affected (CCs or auto loans) if she is going to be a full time student for a while? If she has, for example, exellent credit in a year or so, but no independant income. I file for her so basically my income in her income. Would that help her if she wants to get a loan\lease?

Thanks,

[09Lexie]

Some lenders discount AUs in their internal scoring. I would suggest going to a BoA for a secured card. They do graduate and are nice cards. Also , I believe she will have to app in person without a FICO score. Discover IT for Students is another nice card.

Carefully review the application to make sure she can use HHI. The law was recently changed so that lenders may consider it but they also do not have to consider HHI.

[RobertEG]

+1

The probem with haing the account of another included in her credit report is that, while it may help her score, if a credtior wishes to see her score based only on her own credit history, they cannot do so.  They have no way to back out the AU accounts and generate such a score.

AU is an excellent tool for securing new credit when the prospective creditor relies primarily or solely on a FICO score in their decision making, but can raise problems when seeking higher CLs or principal amounts of credit that usually involve a manual review.

[felyasocal]

Thank you for the replies

We are not in a rush. I want her to get hew owns credit cards, but I don't want to do secured cards or crappy cards. I would rather wait a year from the time she got her AU cards and her own charge cards and then try to apply for some decent credit cards. My only concern is that if she is a full time student and I file joint taxes, can she put my income as her income, since she has no income of her own?

[09Lexie]

Carefully review the application as to its wording on their acceptance of HHI. The CARD Act was recently amended as follows:

The final rule amends Regulation Z to remove the requirement that issuers
consider the consumer’s independent ability to pay for applicants who are 21 or older, and
permits issuers to consider income and assets to which such consumers have a reasonable
expectation of access.