Carrying a small balance: Primary vs AU Account

[Anonymous]

Wife and I are debt freee. She's basically an 805 and I'm about a 690.We're carrying no debt.

I've been told that this is a bit of a red flag and we should be carry a small balance, less than 10% on only 1 card. Keep the others paid to zero.

Question is, does it matter if that small balance is on her card that lists me as an AU or should it be on my card where I am the primary?

We have a card that will update statemnt in 10 days. I can put a $50 balance and be at 5% or so but it's her card and I'm the AU.

My only card doesn't post again until Sept 20th and I can't wait that long unless it is absolutely necessary. 

Guidance is appreciated!

[RobertEG]

First and foremost, I would not get hung up on maximizing your scoring of utiliization by sweating the fine-tweaking each and every month.

Scoring of % util is based only on your current util, not on any past historical utilizations.

Play with it for a few months to determine how util percents affect your actual scoring.  It will vary based on your personal profile.

It may in fact be different for both you and your spouse.

Once you have experimented with the effects, then it only becomes necessaty to tweak a month or so prior to any application for new credit or othr reason for a pull of yur credit reprot and score.

[Anonymous]

Thanks... But I am at that stage where I am fine tuning for a mortgage, which I need to qualify for in October. Mortgage scheduled to close in December. I need a 700 and am around 690 on everything. Have a charge-off that hits 7 years in September, but I also need to be dialed in on every single tradeline.

So again my question, the small balance I intend to carry, should it be on my one primary line, which updates in 20+ days or can it be on an authorized user account which updates in 10 days? I'd prefer it to be sooner because I need formal pre-approval to remove a financing contingency on my home purchase.

I need to pick the most effective for my score, not the fastest however.

[gdale6]

If the scoring model recognizes AUs then it can be on such a card only way to find out is let it report but for mortgage you want one of your own cards to report as AUs are typically discounted.

[TRC_WA]

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@gdale6 wrote:

If the scoring model recognizes AUs then it can be on such a card only way to find out is let it report but for mortgage you want one of your own cards to report as AUs are typically discounted.

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Yep...

[Anonymous]

For the FICO mortgage scores?

I've already spoken with our lender, and others and because all AU accounts are my wifes, they will count them.

I'm not worried about the underwriting process, I'm specifically interested increasing the FICO Mortgage scores.