AU Macy’s account help !!!

[Anonymous]

Ok long story short . I put myself on my Dad two acc... but one of those acc is macy’s store card with low limit like 800 . The account has been opened since december but my file is thin and i don’t have any score est.... yet . I know must be a 6 mo old to generate score but the other account i put myself into is cap1 with 6.5 yr (2500) cli spotless history. So my question is .. is macy’s account it’s gonna report to the Cr , becouse I’ve been hearing that macy’s doesn’t report AU’s . But also the CRS when i spoke on the phone with when add myself ask me to provide ssn in order to put me as a AU. Thanks in advance for any advice i can get . 🙂 And i forgot to mention ,I did apply for the sec..card with cap1 and I put the 99/200 deposit bit I’m still waiting for the card .

[Asilomar]

Hi Twister.  Sounds like you're off and running.  Adding yourself as an authorized user is often a great option for those whose credit profile's aren't quite ready for good quality tradelines.  That of course assumes that the primary user won't blow their utilization out of the water and will always pay on time.  I'm not sure I would have added myself to such a young account with such a low limit -- I would have strictly gone with the 6.5 year old Cap One account.  

Anyway, on to your question...  Your thread caught my eye because I am an AU on my mom's Macy's account.  She added me aaaages ago so I could do some shopping for her and since the account is so old, I never had myself taken off (thanks for the AAoA bump, Mom!).  But yes, it will report to the credit bureaus, don't you worry.  

Good luck on your journey!

[HeavenOhio]

@Anonymous, as long as something is reporting, you'll have credit reports before you have FICO scores. However, if you see scores along with those reports, they won't be FICO, and you should ignore them. You could sign up for a service like Credit Karma right now and see what they have to say.

For ideal scoring, the Macy's card should report zero to the bureaus, and you should report a small positive balance on the Capital One card, maybe $5–10. You don't have to worry a lot about that, however, until you're ready to generate a score or are about to apply for another card.

AUs can help. And they can hurt, depending on the circumstances. The worst situation is when an AU card adds baddies to one's report. Second worst is high utilization (which can be fixed). I think the best time to add an AU is for convenience, like WhiteCleats shopping for Mom or two spouses budgeting together.

[Anonymous]

Thx WhiteCleats will keep that in mind

[Anonymous]

@HeavenOhio definitely I’m relaying on my own credit cards in general, but starting to build up scores at the begining is hard and every little help i can get on the side will be in my favor , that’s why I’ve decided to include myself into my dad cards plus my own cap1 secured card . But I thank you for the reply