By adding her as AU did it affect your score at all? I've been asking my sister to add me to one of her accounts and this is her reason for not doing it - fear that it may cause a drop in her score. I've been working towards purchasing a home since last year and once I got serious about trying to restore my credit I've managed to pull score up from 568 in July 2010 to 626 today...no, its not perfect credit but I am still beyond happy! 
I am post-bankruptcy (dismissed), only have 2 credit accounts - one furniture, the other one a Cap One card ($400 CL). If I continue to pay down balance on furniture account and pay off credit card statement to within $10 each month how much can I expect my score to increase by April 1? And if my sis adds me how much could that raise my score? FHA requires a 640+ so I'm pushing towards that goal!
Starting Score: 528
@striving1 wrote:By adding her as AU did it affect your score at all? I've been asking my sister to add me to one of her accounts and this is her reason for not doing it - fear that it may cause a drop in her score. I've been working towards purchasing a home since last year and once I got serious about trying to restore my credit I've managed to pull score up from 568 in July 2010 to 626 today...no, its not perfect credit but I am still beyond happy!
I am post-bankruptcy (dismissed), only have 2 credit accounts - one furniture, the other one a Cap One card ($400 CL). If I continue to pay down balance on furniture account and pay off credit card statement to within $10 each month how much can I expect my score to increase by April 1? And if my sis adds me how much could that raise my score? FHA requires a 640+ so I'm pushing towards that goal!
I'm reasonably certain that adding someone as an AU on your card, in itself, does not affect your credit score. If the person charges up a balance on the card, then that can affect your score because it will affect yoru utilization. I just added my fiance as an AU on my Amex and it didn't affect my score.
If your sister is worried about you running up a balance, you can give her the card so you can't make charges. Also, if it did somehow affect her score, she can always remove you as an AU.
@striving1 wrote:By adding her as AU did it affect your score at all? I've been asking my sister to add me to one of her accounts and this is her reason for not doing it - fear that it may cause a drop in her score. I've been working towards purchasing a home since last year and once I got serious about trying to restore my credit I've managed to pull score up from 568 in July 2010 to 626 today...no, its not perfect credit but I am still beyond happy!
I am post-bankruptcy (dismissed), only have 2 credit accounts - one furniture, the other one a Cap One card ($400 CL). If I continue to pay down balance on furniture account and pay off credit card statement to within $10 each month how much can I expect my score to increase by April 1? And if my sis adds me how much could that raise my score? FHA requires a 640+ so I'm pushing towards that goal!
Hi striving,
Adding someone else as an AU, in and of itself, doesn't affect your credit report or your credit score.
If your sister remains uncomfortable about adding you as an AU, then you may want to look at other options for raising your FICO score. You've probably already been there - but In the Rebuilding Your Credit forums, you'll find lots of helpful advice on how to build or rebuild your credit.
I'm assuming your furniture account is a revolving account and not an installment? If so, you'll want to watch your reporting balances (usually the balance on the statement date). Generally, for best FICO scores, all but one revolving account should report a zero balance. The remaining one account should report a balance less than 9%.
If you furniture account is an installment account, then its utilization is figured separately and differently than utilization on revolving accounts.
Good luck on that mortgage - we'll all be pulling for ya!