Question about insufficient credit file

Tink · ‎07-09-2007

My Husband had no credit file because he is from another country. He recently becamse a permanent resident of the U.S. and got his first credit card with Capital One. We keep the balance low and pay in full each month. He has only made 2 payments. Anyone have any idea what his score would be like at this point? I have had a credit file for the last 14 years. He has only had one for 2 months. Do I still have time to add him to one of my cards as an authorized user or has FICO already stopped calculating authorized users as part of the score?

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2007

You may want to try this FICO score estimator. I used it and it was very close to my actual FICO scores. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp Also, from what I understand the AU option is going away soon, so that might not help you.

Message Edited by taz on 07-09-2007 12:28 PM

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2007

i have always heard that you typically have to have at least one open account for at least 6 months before fico can score you. may be true, may not be true. another thing is that with the capone card, the cl is probably not being reported, rather the high balance is being reported. so, what he needs to do is pay a bill of about 275 bucks with the capone card, then pay it off....that will help with ut...otherwise, it is possible that he will always look maxed out and give him bad ut karma.

Tink · ‎07-09-2007

I'm an authorized user on his card. I just checked my TC acct and see that the Cap One credit limit is NOT being reported. Is there anyway to get Capital One to report the limit?

Tink · ‎07-09-2007

The calculator said his score coudl not be simulated at this point. Probably because his file is less that 6 months old. I tried a second simulation for cards that are 6 months to 2 years old with no late payements and 0-9% utilization. It simulated 695-745 for him. I guess we'll just have to give it time.

MidnightVoice · ‎07-09-2007

He will be starting from scratch, so the large chunk of the calculation that depends on length of credit history will keep his scores low. He is pretty much like a teenager with his first card in terms of FICO score.

The slide from grace is really more like gliding
And I've found the trick is not to stop the sliding
But to find a graceful way of staying slid

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2007

i have read on here somewhere that capone plans to report cl's sometime by the end of the year...i have not verified this information.

at this point, capone's reported "high balance" is calculated as your credit limit. as i stated earlier, if he is only making small charges and paying them off, his ut % looks high. for example he charges a tank of gasoline (let's assume this is before the war against terror, and the gas is not $50/gallon) for 25 bucks, he gets his bill, and pays the 25 bucks off immediately. his report will show high balance of 25 bucks (which will be considered his cl for algorithm purposes) and his balance owed as 25 bucks. that is 100% utilization. however, if he were to run the card up to 299 (be careful not to go over, but get it as high as he can), pays that off, and thereafter only charges 10-30 bucks per month, then that account will show a less than 10% ut. that should help him out considerably.

Tink wrote:
I'm an authorized user on his card. I just checked my TC acct and see that the Cap One credit limit is NOT being reported. Is there anyway to get Capital One to report the limit?

edited for quality and training purposes.

Message Edited by dog on 07-09-2007 06:07 PM

Tink · ‎07-10-2007

Thanks Dog! That helps alot.