To be added as an authorized user, which of these is more important?

[Anonymous]

Payment history or credit utlization?  My husband has a Best Buy, Home Depot and Capital One credit card he can add me to as an authorized user.  His payment history is spot on, but his credit utilization as of last reporting was:  Home Depot - balance owed 1309.00 of a 3000.00 limit, Best Buy - balance owed 188.00 of 400.00 limit and Capital One - balance owed 749.00 of 1300.00.  

My credit reports currently show one open (secured) Capital One card and one open student loan.  Should I become an authoritzed user on all three of his trade lines for the credit history and good payment history or will it do me more harm because his utilization is so off?  

Thanks!!!!  

[Anonymous]

Payment History is great. But IMO, you should not be added until his utilization is lower.

[Anonymous]

get added to all the cards whose age is greater than your AAoA, and better wait to have outstanding/owed balance below 10%, or 0-1% even better.

For example, if:

-card #1 is 5 yo

-card #2 is 3 yo

-card #3 is 1 yo

And your oldest account (either student loan or secured card) was 4 years, in that case get added to card  #1 only, since it's the only one raising both your average and your oldest.

Following this example, becoming an AU on card #2 could be good too, since it's going to increase 2 variables, your total credit available, and your number of accounts open, and that effect may be greater than the score points lost for reducing your AAoA if any at all since FICO considers integers only, therefore if adding card #2 took your AAoA say from 3.8 to 3.2 years, the reduction to your score is none (3 years computed), but you get the benefit of the additional account and additional credit available despite this card #2 reducing your AAoA.

BTW FICO8 IMO considers age much less than Vantage3, meaning if you effectively reduced your AAoA by adding these cards, you may see a bigger damage in Credit Karma/Sesame than on the actual FICO.

[rmduhon]

Another thing to consider is whether or not the cards report AUs. Cap1 does, Best Buy is only reporting my AU account to EQ, and I don't know if Home Depot reports AUs.