Improving my FICO by adding my name to wife Credit card?

[Anonymous]

I need about 10 points for a mortgage - my wife has 2 small credit cards with each $500 credit lines. Always paid ontime for over 2 yrs. Is adding my name to her credit card as AU will work as adding additional seasoned tradelines to my credit report? 

[RobertEG]

Maybe, or maybe not.  What is the AAoA's on your CR?

With a low CL on these two cards, it will be easy to have high % util on those cards.

If it improves your AAoA, and the %util on these cards is kept well under 10%, it will probably help to become an AU.

[Izaana]

I dont know how everyone is having this done??? My mother tried to help us and put me on heres and the company told her they cant do that anymore????

[RobertEG]

There is no legal prohibition against adding an AU, and no legal requirement that a CCC must do so..  If it is CCC internal policy not to do this, that is their discretion.

When the new version of FICO was first proposed, it included elimination of all AU accounts from FICO scoring.  However, Fair Isaac later modified this hard-line approach, and announced that they would still include AU accounts in scoring if under the account of an immediate family member, which a wife certainly is.

I am personally opposed to all AU account status in credit scoring, for I see no reason for one to take advantage of credit history that they did not acquire. 

If her CCC will permit addition of an AU, FICO should score it with you as her spouse.

[Anonymous]

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@Izaana wrote:
I dont know how everyone is having this done??? My mother tried to help us and put me on heres and the company told her they cant do that anymore????

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It depends on the company and how they report.

Ideally you want a Credit card with a long history, high limit, little to no utilization that is Paid in Full each month and for absolute sure has no baddies on it.  You also want to make sure that they are adding you as an Authorized User only and that they will report to all three CRBs.  If you are not at the same address it can sometimes mean that it is more difficult as they want to know that it is a genuine AU and not piggybacking

[Anonymous]

I agree about AU should not be allowed but I disagree that it should be allowed for immediate family. My wife is in college and I got her the credit cards to start her history.  I pay the bills. And most family situations, husbands and wifes pay together their bills, so why should they not get credit.  What I want to make sure is that I may not be doing more harm - did not consider the AAoA - they are longer than 2 yrs so this maybe a bad idea?  Our utilization is always below 30% - we pay off each month to keep out of debt and her 2 yr credit history has no lates.

[Izaana]

AAoA???