Au or joint account holder

[kistochka87]

Hi, so i screwed my credit history 4 years ago, went crazy on 3 credit cards and wasnt able to pay them off. I was stupid. Now im trying to rebuild it, got a secured credit card for 1100, its helping but not that much. So my friend suggested to add me to her cards (citi, discover, chase or amex) to improve my scores, she is really responsible with them and has excellent credit. My questions are: should she add me as an Au or as joint account holder? Will my low credit scores (550)influence their decision to add me? One of my charged off acc is with citi, should she even try adding me to her citi preffered card? Two of her cards are new but have biggest limits, would they work for me or the older card the better?
Thank you in advance for your help

[guiness56]

AU will add you without being responsible for the debt, joint accounts you would be responsible and would probably have to fill out an application and get a HP.

Being an AU, they just go by name and probably wouldn't know your past history whereas, a joint account they would.

For the card to work best for you it needs to have a history longer than yours and have an excellent payment history.  You instantly gain the cards history, AAoA, etc.

[kistochka87]

Thank you for your response, just have one more question, if she adds me as AU and they only require name, how will they report the card to my history, or they just wont?

[guiness56]

Some AUs don't report at all so make sure the one you are added to does.  I believe it is your name and address.  They should be able to match you up with that information.