Authorized user question

[Anonymous]

My fiance has credit scores which are all above 800. He has two credit card accounts which are probably close to 20 years old. They have either a zero balance, or occaisionally a very small balance (well below 9%, probably below 1%). My average age of accounts is 6 years, and my oldest account is 15 years old. My scores are borderline high 600s/low 700s. I am waiting for my two payments that brought my credit cards down from close to 100% to 0% to reflect on the bureau, and I know that will raise my scores, but at the same time we are applying for a mortgage, and the deadline from the sellers is the 30th of this month. If he adds me as an AU on these cards, how soon will that reflect on my report, and will it raise my score enough to be worth the trouble? (he has never been late on a payment, at least not in this decade...)

[haulingthescoreup]

I know that BofA will do a special update to show AU status. Don't know about all the others --generally, you have to wait until the account posts its statement, and then you have to wait for all three CRA's to wake from their daily comas and update the reports.

You can pay for a rapid rescore on the two accounts which haven't updated yet. It's pricey, and you pay per tradeline per bureau, but if your back is against the wall, it might be worth it. Your lender should be able to tell you more about it.

[Anonymous]

Argghh!! It's all a waiting game... I spent so much time on the phone with BoA today (that is one of the cards that I paid off). My statement closing date was the 4th, and they couldn't figure out why the zero balance wasn't reporting to the credit bureau, so I guess maybe this ploy won't work either.

We were going to wait until november to buy, which would have given me plenty of time to smooth out the wrinkles, but my fiance had to go and fall in love with a house this weekend - it is  causing me no end of stress! 

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
I know that BofA will do a special update to show AU status. Don't know about all the others --generally, you have to wait until the account posts its statement, and then you have to wait for all three CRA's to wake from their daily comas and update the reports.

You can pay for a rapid rescore on the two accounts which haven't updated yet. It's pricey, and you pay per tradeline per bureau, but if your back is against the wall, it might be worth it. Your lender should be able to tell you more about it.

---

Sorry to take this thread off topic... but... I am interested on how to pay for a rapid re-score. I recently paid off all my credit cards, my statements cut one week ago, yet no changes in my FICO score...

Is there any way you could provide some instructions on how to do this?

[haulingthescoreup]

I've never done it, so I don't know how to go about it. I know that it's done during a mortgage app, so if you know any realtors or mortgage brokers, they might be able to help. Someone will probably come along here and post, or you can post your question on the Mortgages board.

That would probably be best, so as to avoid thread-jacking OP.

I do remember reading that it's incredibly expensive, though. As for your balances not updating yet, that's just EQ and TU doing their thing. Or rather, not doing their thing. EX probably has them already: they typically update the night that they get the new balances or the next day. EQ and TU take turns seeing who can be the slowest. Hang in there; they should post soon.

Are you using a report monitoring system? After finally giving up on TrueCredit, which was great for updating, I have CreditSecure through AmEx, and I've noticed that it's very slow to update. I've seen it take 3-5 days to show a new balance after it's already showing on TrueCredit.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response Hauling...

Its quite depressing when the positive score updates dont happen as quickly as the negative ones... I applied for a small installment loan from my CU to build some history with them, it showed up on EQ 2 days later!!! I paid off all my CC debts 2 weeks ago and my statement cut last week and no updates to my Reports yet... Bummer...

[RobertEG]

Back onto the authorized used thread, I know my response wont be popular, but I feel that ALL authorized user piggy-backing on another's credit score should be abolished.  Period.  If it is too good to be true, then it is.

Yeah, I know, help daughter and son out, and all of the other arguments.

But credit scoring should be individual based. 

I earned my own credit score.  And when others didnt, their artificial gain is spread to all.

And when one person gets an artifical AU boost for credit of another, it just does not make sense to me.

Put them on as a joint account holder, and then let them take the benefits, as well as the perils, of their future account actions.

Credit scoring is about credit risk evaluation of the indivual consumer.  Husbands and wives are not even scored together.  Someone who gets a higher score without assuming the obligation and risk is just an anethema to the system.

Put them on as a joint account holder, if you want to boost their score, and then assume the risk for any stupid things they will do  if they are not responsible. 

Message Edited by RobertEG on 04-09-2009 09:57 PM