AU and oldest account

[wollepopolle]

I am an AU on my wife's oldest account, a thirteen year old CC. It shows up on my reports and adds a lot to my Average Age of Accounts.

Now, when I apply for a credit product, will the lender/company include this in their appraisal of my credit experience? Or will they take this out and rather look at the oldest account on which I am the primary (which would be six years in my case)?

I know the AU status is fully calculated into FICO. But what do lenders do? Do they rely on the FICO formula or do they treat AU status differently?

[haulingthescoreup]

Good question, and thank you for pointing out that what FICO scoring looks at might not be the same thing as what lenders look at.

I had an AU account, and lenders never mentioned it when I applied, but I think my credit was halfway-decent enough that I would have qualified on my own. I just got it because it was so old, and I was very late to the credit game.

I * think * I have seen a post or two over the years about someone with only AU tradelines who had to struggle in getting a new "good" card. But not all lenders balk.