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Another AU (Authorized User) Question

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RKBAGUY
Valued Member

Another AU (Authorized User) Question

I'm a new myFICO member trying to improve my credit score.  I have been reading about the value of being an Authorized User on a card, and have someone with sterling credit willing to accommodate me, but I have a couple questions:

 

1) There seems to be some question about whether or not the new FICO standards will factor for it.  Can someone please get me current on whether or not that went through, and if an AU status will, in fact, help me?

2) What cards will help my status?  Should we be looking at Amex?  BOA Visa?  Others?  Just curious to know if one is better than another for this purpose.

3) Will my lousy credit score have any impact on the grantee who adds me as an AU, thus dragging them down?

 

Thanks in advance!

Message 1 of 13
12 REPLIES 12
SusieQ
Regular Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question

I am a AU on my hubby's home depot and chase card.   both seemed to have bumped my score up as they are over 10 years old and have also helped my utilization.

 

I added my daughter to my Walmart and USAirways cards, both low utilization and under a year old, yet since she is a college student with Cap1 $700 line (about 2 years old), she got a bump of about 30 pts when I added them.   Her utilization went to 4%, lol.

 

 

Message 2 of 13
RKBAGUY
Valued Member

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question

Susie, thank you for your reply, but it really doesn't answer any of the three questions I asked above.  Still looking for answers to those three items - hope someone can help!

Message 3 of 13
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@RKBAGUY wrote:

I'm a new myFICO member trying to improve my credit score.  I have been reading about the value of being an Authorized User on a card, and have someone with sterling credit willing to accommodate me, but I have a couple questions:

 

1) There seems to be some question about whether or not the new FICO standards will factor for it.  Can someone please get me current on whether or not that went through, and if an AU status will, in fact, help me?

2) What cards will help my status?  Should we be looking at Amex?  BOA Visa?  Others?  Just curious to know if one is better than another for this purpose.

3) Will my lousy credit score have any impact on the grantee who adds me as an AU, thus dragging them down?

 

Thanks in advance!


1) My opinion is that being an Au on somebody else's credit tradeline is of little use in building one's own strong credit profile. My recommendation is to get your own tradelines.

 

2) Any revolving credit tradeline may be used to build one's credit profile. Specific to AMEX, the charge card is not as useful in building one's credit profile as is AMEX's revolving credit card.

 

3) To the best of my knowledge, having an AU on one's tradeline does not affect one's credit profile/scores ... unless of course the AU charges stuff and fails to pay.

 

Message 4 of 13
RKBAGUY
Valued Member

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@ezdriver wrote:

@RKBAGUY wrote:

I'm a new myFICO member trying to improve my credit score.  I have been reading about the value of being an Authorized User on a card, and have someone with sterling credit willing to accommodate me, but I have a couple questions:

 

1) There seems to be some question about whether or not the new FICO standards will factor for it.  Can someone please get me current on whether or not that went through, and if an AU status will, in fact, help me?

2) What cards will help my status?  Should we be looking at Amex?  BOA Visa?  Others?  Just curious to know if one is better than another for this purpose.

3) Will my lousy credit score have any impact on the grantee who adds me as an AU, thus dragging them down?

 

Thanks in advance!


1) My opinion is that being an Au on somebody else's credit tradeline is of little use in building one's own strong credit profile. My recommendation is to get your own tradelines.

2) Any revolving credit tradeline may be used to build one's credit profile. Specific to AMEX, the charge card is not as useful in building one's credit profile as is AMEX's revolving credit card.

 

3) To the best of my knowledge, having an AU on one's tradeline does not affect one's credit profile/scores ... unless of course the AU charges stuff and fail to pay.

 


Thanks for that very succinct reply.  Still hoping for other inputs, but in the meantime, perhaps I can ask you to refine your suggestions.

 

  • Since I am so far from being able to obtain a tradeline of my own, it was my hope that utilizing an AU relationship might help me get there.  I'm going with the "something is better than nothing" school of thought where my credit repair is concerned.  Would you agree that until I can achieve my own trade line that this is at least one thing to do in the meantime?
  • Jog my memory, please - the 'revolving' AMEX is an Optima, yes?  Would you suggest that over, say, a BoA Visa?  Or are they all the same for this purpose?
  • Thanks for that clarification.  I was undertstandably concerned that my lousy credit might impact that of the account holder.

 

I take it, then, that AU accounts are still being factored by FICO for the purposes of credit scoring?  There were a few posts I read that the structure might be revisited again, and it wouldn't make sense to go to the trouble if that winds up being the case.  Can someone confirm either way?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Message 5 of 13
Ysettle4
Valued Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@ezdriver wrote:

@RKBAGUY wrote:

I'm a new myFICO member trying to improve my credit score.  I have been reading about the value of being an Authorized User on a card, and have someone with sterling credit willing to accommodate me, but I have a couple questions:

 

1) There seems to be some question about whether or not the new FICO standards will factor for it.  Can someone please get me current on whether or not that went through, and if an AU status will, in fact, help me?

2) What cards will help my status?  Should we be looking at Amex?  BOA Visa?  Others?  Just curious to know if one is better than another for this purpose.

3) Will my lousy credit score have any impact on the grantee who adds me as an AU, thus dragging them down?

 

Thanks in advance!


1) My opinion is that being an Au on somebody else's credit tradeline is of little use in building one's own strong credit profile. My recommendation is to get your own tradelines.

 

2) Any revolving credit tradeline may be used to build one's credit profile. Specific to AMEX, the charge card is not as useful in building one's credit profile as is AMEX's revolving credit card.

 

3) To the best of my knowledge, having an AU on one's tradeline does not affect one's credit profile/scores ... unless of course the AU charges stuff and fails to pay.

 


Not quite correct. Being an AU on a strong TL is beneficial as it provides that welcomed or sometimes required bump in score to enable that person to get in the door with a bank.

769 INQs: 6774 INQs: 5764 INQs: 8UTIL: 2%AAoA: 5yr 8mosTotal Credit Line: $873,950
Message 6 of 13
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@RKBAGUY wrote:

@ezdriver wrote:

@RKBAGUY wrote:

I'm a new myFICO member trying to improve my credit score.  I have been reading about the value of being an Authorized User on a card, and have someone with sterling credit willing to accommodate me, but I have a couple questions:

 

1) There seems to be some question about whether or not the new FICO standards will factor for it.  Can someone please get me current on whether or not that went through, and if an AU status will, in fact, help me?

2) What cards will help my status?  Should we be looking at Amex?  BOA Visa?  Others?  Just curious to know if one is better than another for this purpose.

3) Will my lousy credit score have any impact on the grantee who adds me as an AU, thus dragging them down?

 

Thanks in advance!


1) My opinion is that being an Au on somebody else's credit tradeline is of little use in building one's own strong credit profile. My recommendation is to get your own tradelines.

2) Any revolving credit tradeline may be used to build one's credit profile. Specific to AMEX, the charge card is not as useful in building one's credit profile as is AMEX's revolving credit card.

 

3) To the best of my knowledge, having an AU on one's tradeline does not affect one's credit profile/scores ... unless of course the AU charges stuff and fail to pay.

 


Thanks for that very succinct reply.  Still hoping for other inputs, but in the meantime, perhaps I can ask you to refine your suggestions.

 

  • Since I am so far from being able to obtain a tradeline of my own, it was my hope that utilizing an AU relationship might help me get there.  I'm going with the "something is better than nothing" school of thought where my credit repair is concerned.  Would you agree that until I can achieve my own trade line that this is at least one thing to do in the meantime? I have no idea what your credit profile/scores look like but the credit cards you mention are PRIME cards and you need pretty decent scores and profile to qualify for them. I rebuilt my own credit profile and score after a ch7 bankruptcy by using NON-PRIME unsecured card [CreditOne bank] and several secured credit cards [got two from First Progress bank with one online app] and was able to qualify for an FHA loan and closed on a new home on 7/31/14 ... so I know that my advise works.

 

  • Jog my memory, please - the 'revolving' AMEX is an Optima, yes?  Would you suggest that over, say, a BoA Visa?  Or are they all the same for this purpose? Like I mentioned above, you are targeting PRIME credit cards with a weak credit profile. I would not recommend applying for those until you have at least two other tradelines with a minimum of 12 months of ontime payment history.

 

  • Thanks for that clarification.  I was undertstandably concerned that my lousy credit might impact that of the account holder. I did not mention it but your concern is well placed. I could have simply added my wife to my own tradelines but I chose to get her two of her own credit cards and now her credit scores are higher than mine but she has a thinner credit profile than I do. You can do this on your own.

 

I take it, then, that AU accounts are still being factored by FICO for the purposes of credit scoring?  There were a few posts I read that the structure might be revisited again, and it wouldn't make sense to go to the trouble if that winds up being the case.  Can someone confirm either way? I'll pass on answering that question simply because I feel that is is wasted effort/energy trying to figure out what FICO's algorithms do vs what the lenders do once they see results from FICO's various versions of algorithms. To me, that effort/energy is better utilized in building one's credit profile to the point where it won't matter which version of FICO algorithm a lender uses.

 

All the best with your credit building efforts.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 


 

Message 7 of 13
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question

AU can be beneficial by artificially boosting score.

If the creditor looks at the score without doing a manual review (which is often the case for lower limit CCs, for example), then the fact that your score is based in part on the history of another wont be a factor.

 

However, if the creditor does a manual review and sees an AU, that tells them that the consumer's score is NOT based exclusively on their own credit history.

With no way to back-out one account, and thus obtain a score representative of only that consumer's history, they may discount the score in their decision making.

 

 

Message 8 of 13
RKBAGUY
Valued Member

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@ezdriver wrote:
...the credit cards you mention are PRIME cards and you need pretty decent scores and profile to qualify for them

 

I was under the impression that the whole idea of being an AU is that there IS no approval or application process, you're simply added by the account holder.  Or did I miss the point entirely?

Message 9 of 13
ezdriver
Senior Contributor

Re: Another AU (Authorized User) Question


@RKBAGUY wrote:

@ezdriver wrote:
...the credit cards you mention are PRIME cards and you need pretty decent scores and profile to qualify for them

 

I was under the impression that the whole idea of being an AU is that there IS no approval or application process, you're simply added by the account holder.  Or did I miss the point entirely?


My statement has nothing to do with being an AU on another's credit card. It was simply addressing the fact that you are considering applying for those cards while haveing a thing credit profile of your own. If you feel that you can qualify for them, then apply. ALL revolving credit cards contribute to builing one's credit profile. I don't think in terms of which is better unless I would qualify for both.

Message 10 of 13
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