Are AU cards enough?

[jnc]

I just realized that the only two credit accounts currently open and reporting on my husband's credit are as an Authorized User on my cards.

Will this be an issue when it comes time to apply for a mortgage or will those be counted the same as if he had his own cards?

Would it be wise to try to get him a card of his own now so it can age a year before we are applying?

[n0smirc]

What I've observed is that only having AU accounts will not be enough, he will need his own accounts and 3 seems to be the sweet spot. If you have a year before you start applying you can definitely use this time to get him his own credit lines going and get him his own history. I've heard that they prefer 2 years of history at a minimum. Does he have any other accounts at all such as loans, student, personal or auto? 

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Technically USDA only has an issue with authorized user accounts (unless it's the spouses or another person on the loan application).  FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac are all fine using authorized trade lines to determine a credit score, etc.  I have seen some underwriters balk at using authorized user accounts to re-establish credit after a major derogatory event (i.e. bankruptcy, foreclosure, short sale, etc.), but for the most part they should be acceptable.  Still, it's always a good idea to establish some credit of your own just in case the creditor chooses to stop reporting authorized user accounts (I believe there was an issue with AMEX doing this awhile ago), so if it'll be awhile before you apply then your husband should open a few credit cards.

[jnc]

He has no loans currently. Three closed car loans show on the reports but nothing open at the moment.

Unfortunately, the cards we'd most like... Discover IT and Amex Blue Cash seem to need better credit than he currently has so we'd have to wait on those.

Perhaps I'll look into something else for him in the meanwhile.

Thanks

[jnc]

Well, I am his spouse but I will probably not be on the loan application because I have no income and my scores are slightly lower than his, so we see no benefit in it.

We might be considering USDA so I guess going ahead and trying to get him some of his own history is best, just incase.

Thanks again

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

Past auto loans will help as those are established tradelines that have been paid - 

I agree with Shane thouh he should establish credit in his name to help strengthen his credit profile

[n0smirc]

Store cards should be easier approval. The good thing, is that even with AU cards, it'll often be good enough for CC approvals. This is what I've found in my own experience. If his AU CC's have clean history with a decent age, along with good payment history on the car loans, you might be able to snag a pre-approval on a more desirable card. 

I would check some of the soft pull/database checking pre-approval sites before you actually apply for anything to get an idea of what he might pre-qual for. Even checking via the shopping cart trick on some store websites would be beneficial to gauge where he might be in terms of pre-approval chances. Do you know what his scores are currently at? 

[jnc]

The pre-approval/shopping cart tricks don't work because I put some sort of block on the credit reports last year. And I have no clue how to undo that because I cannot even remember how I did it to begin with

His score is at 673 here on myfico.  However, I have just paid off one of the cards and paid down the other by about 1/3 so I'm hoping to see a bit of an improvement when they show up here.  I also intend to have the other card paid down as quickly as possible for continued improvement. And, I am going to try to remove an old card we had charged off, from his reports, since he was only AU.  Hoping that is successful and gives him a boost too.  If we can get him up to 700, I'd feel a lot more comfortable apping for new cards!

[n0smirc]

If he is just AU on charge off just dispute it with all three cra's, it will be removed since he's not the owner of the account. This will improve his scores and 700+ looks possible. As far as shopping cart trick not working, you may have opted out and this isn't a bad thing. It just means you'll need to pull the trigger to get new credit. If you did a fraud alert make sure you added a phone number for them to call you or else you'll likely just get denied. 

[jnc]

That's the plan. To send disputes about the AU charged off card.

And yes, we did opt out. I guess I'll just leave that. Although, my worried self would appreciate the preapprovals

Thanks again!