Au question

[Anonymous]

Hey guys im a new member of the board and ive reading here very much as of lately and i thank everybody that takes part in this great community and i have a question im a fresh credit as of the moment i have 3 cc 3 month old bank of america secured card and 1 month old capital one platinium and a discover it 1 month as well and i have a good friend that can help me to be added as au on hes capital one quicksilver 3 year account with a decent cl of 8000$ would that help me generate a faster fico score and a attach a credit history of 3 years if he adds me as a au or it would generate a history from the day of the actual add thanks !!

[Adkins]

It'll depend on Capitol one and the CRAs. When I was finally added an an AU on the DH's Lowe's card (I was the one paying the bill!) I got the back history on some of the CRAs but not all. One started the history from that day I was added but acknowledged the account was so many years old. AU can help give you a score boost but you're much better off building up your own credit the right way. 

[Revelate]

Cap 1 I think is full history; however, FICO 8 and later have an anti-AU abuse feature in it so you might not get anything at all.

Or you might, it probably won't hurt but it may help.  Worst case you can remove it later.

[Anonymous]

Yea its just that i really want to finance a vehicle and boosting my credit score and history would help a lot abd ive heard succesfull stories about this procedure skiping a 2 3 4 year length so i can get prime cards and not have to deal with small banks . If ill go ahead with it and be added how long would i need to keep being an au then remove after my fico generate or for a like year so i can establish myself an aaoa of 1year ?

[Anonymous]

Being added as an AU is a good strategy if the card you are being added to....

(a)  Has no lates in its history

(b)  Is much older than your oldest account

(c)  Has either a $0 balance or a very low utilization (like < 5% say)

If all three are not true, then you should not be added to the card.  You do not mention whether the card has any lates in its history (item A) and you don't tell us how much debt is on the card (item C) so it's hard to advise you.

But assuming all three are true, and assuming the CC issuer reports the older Date Opened rather than today's date, and assuming FICO's anti-abuse mechanism isn't triggered, then it's a good idea -- though it is still a borderline win because your friend's card isn't that much older than your oldest card.

If you do go with it, I'd stay on it for a couple years.

[Anonymous]

PS.  Playing games with AU cards is fine (basically you are trying to create a fake age for your credit profile).  But much more important is making sure that you are squeezing out every possible extra point from your own cards.

To do that, you should make sure that all of your cards except one are reporting zero (All Zero Except One = AZEO) with the remaining card reporting a small positive balance, like $10 say.

Is this something you can do?

Also, with any new card, make sure you have used it at least once.  Cards that have never been used are at much greater risk of being closed by the issuer.

[Anonymous]

Yea the account its in good standing no late payments or anything at all the ulitization on the account its 0 to ocasionally varies between 5 to 8% and my personal credit cards are at 20 % of my balance which at the end of the month they gonna be at 0%

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yea the account its in good standing no late payments or anything at all the ulitization on the account its 0 to ocasionally varies between 5 to 8% and my personal credit cards are at 20 % of my balance which at the end of the month they gonna be at 0%

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Having all your cards reporting $0 hurts your score.  Ideally you want most of your cards reporting $0 with one card reporting a small positive balance, like $15 say.

[jamie123]

It won't help you at all. There used to be a time when people with really good credit scores would sell AU privileges to their accounts. You could buy the AU privilege and they would get a card in your name sent to their house so you never saw the card but the account would appear on your reports. It worked great! It actually worked too good so all the CRAs put rules in place to stop it.

You now need to be related to the AU issuer or at least live at the same address as the AU issuer or they won't count it as belonging to your credit.

[Anonymous]

HE is my brother in law and we live at the same address well we did today hopefully it works ! Finger crossed