Authorized User

[sleepless619]

I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit (FICO 597) and my friend just put me on his new Cap1 card w/ $500 CL as an AU. His account is only a week old and I'm wondering if I should accompany this card with a secured card, or if it would be too much new credit. Thanks

[guiness56]

Do you have any other revolving TLs?

[sleepless619]

I have my student loans, which are currently deffered because I am still a student. That's it, besides that 3 credit cards that I had 3 years ago and screwed myself up with and a collection.

[guiness56]

Student loans aren't revolving but installments.

Are the 3 CC paid off now?

Yes, being added as an AU and getting another card will help your score.

[sleepless619]

Two of my cards are paid off and the third has been charged off. I've been told that if I pay the third one off then it will be made current and hurt my score.

Thanks for the correction, still trying to grasp the jargon.

[guiness56]

Sometimes if the TL hasn't updated in a long time paying it off can update to a recent date and drop your score.  However, the upside to this is that the balance of the CC is probably factored into your utilization and will continue to do so until paid in full.  Once paid it will no longer factor in and your score could possibly go up.

Is it a big balance?

[sleepless619]

The amount is only 515, but all of the credit monitoring sites I use show my utilization as N/A.

[guiness56]

Well, that is odd.

Have you ever pulled your free reports from annualcreditreport.com?

[sleepless619]

Yes, I have all three and they all show my student loans as the only accounts. For everything else it is either 0 or N/A.

[guiness56]

That explains no utilization.  Apparently that one account is showing a 0 balance from the OC.

Yes, you definitely need CC reporting.