piggy backing backfire??

[Anonymous]

Long story short my wife and I are closing on a home towards the end of Sept. we were told by the Mortgage Loan officer that if we piggy back myself onto my wifes credit cards, it would improve my score. Well after doing so, my score has dropped by 30 points.. 719 in May, to a 687 currently...My question is there anything I can do to reverse this? I am afraid to do anything else, but if we take me off of being an AU on her cards would that get my score back to what it was?. Is there anything besides pay down cards to get my score at least back to what it was??

Thanks,

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short my wife and I are closing on a home towards the end of Sept. we were told by the Mortgage Loan officer that if we piggy back myself onto my wifes credit cards, it would improve my score. Well after doing so, my score has dropped by 30 points.. 719 in May, to a 687 currently...My question is there anything I can do to reverse this? I am afraid to do anything else, but if we take me off of being an AU on her cards would that get my score back to what it was?. Is there anything besides pay down cards to get my score at least back to what it was??

Thanks,

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Your FICO score takes into account the utilization and payment history of her cards when you are added as an AU.   Are they maxed out, do they have any negative history or are they newer than your accounts ?   If so then you could very likely see a FICO score drop as you described.

You can always call the creditors and ask to be removed.   When the cards are off your CR your FICO score should return to where it previously was.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Long story short my wife and I are closing on a home towards the end of Sept. we were told by the Mortgage Loan officer that if we piggy back myself onto my wifes credit cards, it would improve my score. Well after doing so, my score has dropped by 30 points.. 719 in May, to a 687 currently...My question is there anything I can do to reverse this? I am afraid to do anything else, but if we take me off of being an AU on her cards would that get my score back to what it was?. Is there anything besides pay down cards to get my score at least back to what it was??

Thanks,

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Hello and welcome.

Being added as an AU doesn't always help. Yes it can help you IF the account is older than any of yours (older than your current AAoA is even better), IF the payment history is long and clean, and IF the utilization is very low.

It sounds like one or more of these does not apply to you. You can have your self removed as an AU. Your scores should go back to what they were before you became as AU if nothing else on your reports has changed.

ETA: Out typed by pizzadude!

ETA #2 to correct a typo.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response...

Yes her cards (I believe) are not as old as mine, and they are carrying a balance. I just wanted to make sure that if I am removed as an AU, I wouldn't be hurting my credit any further.... Again, we are closing on a house in about 2 months, so I want to make sure that eveything is good to go by that time...

Thanks again for the help!

[emptypockets]

You should have your name removed asap, and MAKE SURE it reports to the CRA's. Sometimes the creditor updates their internal records, but do not remove it from the CRA's. If this happens, you may have to dispute it to get it off the reports.

[HoldingOntoHope]

I am assuming you have sufficient trade lines of your own on your credit reports without these cards? If the loan officer wanted them added for trade lines then dropping would not be a good idea. If not then I agree with the other posters.

After you have yourself removed by the credit card companies you can always file a dispute as "Not my account" with the bureaus if they are not dropped. With the status of authorized user this SHOULD be a quick and painless removal from your files. The only other potential problem is disputed accounts reporting as such on your credit report can throw a wrench into the mortgage process. If they are simply removed there would be no dispute comment.

[Booner72]

Dispute w/ the CRA's as "not mine" and they'll be gone inside a coupla weeks.

[rckstrscott]

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@Booner72 wrote:
Dispute w/ the CRA's as "not mine" and they'll be gone inside a coupla weeks.

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+1 -- no biggie