topic Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico in Credit Cards

Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Vegas247 — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:07:25 GMT

My wife and I are in the process of buying a house and we need to make sure her Fico is about 720, my question is.... would be beneficial to add her to my AMEX blue cash every day which has a $30,000 limit. Will this raise her Fico score? I believe there would be no credit inquiry or hard pull at all is this right? Does adding an extra $30,000 to her available credit be beneficial to her Fico? Her total credit cards limits are 30,675 and she owes about 8,000 total on her cards. The Amex would give her 60,675 and she would still owe 8,000.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:30:52 GMT

How,old is the card?

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Vegas247 — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:34:46 GMT

The Amex card was opened February 2014.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:40:48 GMT

1) There isn't a HP or any pull to add an AU to your account, so that isn't a concern.

2) Assuming AmEx reports AU accounts, someone will chime in if they know otherwise.
But, in general adding her will de facto add that account history to her profile, as well.

So the age works for her + the additional 30k helps cut her debt/ratio about in half.

Will that bring her to 720?

Well, you didn't share how far she is from there and how much TIME you have to get there.....

When ppl say 'in the process ' of buying a house I've learned that could mean days,weeks,months or years...

If it's literally days, weeks then I'm sure your reality professionals will explain rapid restoring and how it could help, as there are times where even when am account is added it could take a few months for ALL 3 CRA's to actually report the new account (and yes there can be a cost associated with rapid restoring)

Again your actual time frame and how far off she is, will be important factors.

Good luck, enjoy the house.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:51:10 GMT

Ok, I didn't see the AmEx age b4 my post...
It's a bit over 2 years old, not bad, not crazy strong in age.
Meaning it probably won't bump her into an age bracket upgrade...no biggie, it won't hurt, especially dependant on the aging of her overall profile.

W/O knowing more, it seems the strength of adding the account would come from the sheer size of the CL basically for debt ratio purposes only.

Which, again should bump her but the amount is a crap shoot depending on where she's starting from and if the balance can go down anymore subsequent months (again depending on actual timelines)...a falling balance can add to score for am extra punch, over a 2-3 month period, if you have the time.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Vegas247 — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:53:40 GMT

Gemini101 you are very thorough. Sorry about the lack of info. Her middle Fico right now is 722 but we need to either pad that score or at least keep it there at 722. We close on the house August 8. 2016 inspection has been done and appraisal has been ordered. What do you think would happen to her score. And my Amex cuts on the 12th of every month if that helps to see if she would be added to the 3 bureaus?

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 09:00:40 GMT

I would say add her to a older card to boost her fico...to add to her, history...what's aaoa's???

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Vegas247 — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 09:14:16 GMT

I went on an app spree February 2014. All my cards have only 2 years and 4 months age.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

RonM21 — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 10:15:07 GMT

I'd add her. Worst case, even if she got little from the AAoA, her utilization would drop from 26% to 13%. Usually, that will cause some sort of score bump.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 16:33:03 GMT

Yes,I agree with RM21...jus curious...what's her Aaoa???

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 04:30:28 GMT

May as well TRY

We are talking about no 2nd chance, either it helps or not......with less than a month to closing

and even LESS till CC statement closing date.

We have seen where 1-2 CRA update info, where the other 1-2 catches up the following month (or 2)

so we're in a crapshoot situation no matter what, this is exactly where the rapid-rescore comes into play ( if it's that important)

All else fails assumping this is about a rate vs closing period....you can get in your house, make a few payments address the wife's profile

then refi into a better loan, next year.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

newhis — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 16:17:38 GMT

Amex report AUs as new accounts (the last time I checked), so it doesn't matter if your Amex is 2 years old or 30 years old, the AU will be 0 years old. Other credit cards report the same date as the main card, so for AAoA is better not to use Amex and use other cards.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

newhis — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 16:24:03 GMT

@Vegas247 wrote:
Gemini101 you are very thorough. Sorry about the lack of info. Her middle Fico right now is 722 but we need to either pad that score or at least keep it there at 722. We close on the house August 8. 2016 inspection has been done and appraisal has been ordered. What do you think would happen to her score. And my Amex cuts on the 12th of every month if that helps to see if she would be added to the 3 bureaus?

If you need a score boost by August 8, 2016, I think the only way to do that is to pay the current cards, put all at $0 and 1 in less than 9%. Check if any card will report close to the 8th, then you will need to ask for a mid cycle report (once the card is paid).

There are only a few cards that report in less than 1 month, and Amex is not one of them. Good luck.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 17:30:24 GMT

@newhis wrote:
Amex report AUs as new accounts (the last time I checked), so it doesn't matter if your Amex is 2 years old or 30 years old, the AU will be 0 years old. Other credit cards report the same date as the main card, so for AAoA is better not to use Amex and use other cards.

I'm AU on two Amex cards, my file matches the original owners dates....I think you may be crossing it with the old backdating rules for if you have an older card, getting a new card to report with that first original opened date for your oldest card.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

newhis — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 21:59:51 GMT

@tamaralig wrote:
@newhis wrote:
Amex report AUs as new accounts (the last time I checked), so it doesn't matter if your Amex is 2 years old or 30 years old, the AU will be 0 years old. Other credit cards report the same date as the main card, so for AAoA is better not to use Amex and use other cards.
I'm AU on two Amex cards, my file matches the original owners dates....I think you may be crossing it with the old backdating rules for if you have an older card, getting a new card to report with that first original opened date for your oldest card.

Well that is strange, there are a lot of posts in the forums from people with more knowledge than me saying for a couple of years (or more) that the TL original open date is not shared with AU. If the main cardholder has a card open for some time and then create an AU the AU get a new date. Those posts say they stopped this 'backdating' first, then they removed all 'backdating' in Amex.

Here are a couple:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Amex-Authorized-User-Policy-reporting-date/m-p/4523590/highlight/true#M1305389?filter=location&location=forum-board%3Acreditcard&q=amex+au+date

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/question-about-amex-au/td-p/4235902

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/question-about-amex-au/m-p/4237496#M1205690

How many months/years after the original owner got the cards were you added? Is that in the last few years or more than 3?

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:18:41 GMT

The above mixed bag of how things go with AU accounts is why it's too tricky to count on in a pinch....

@newhis is basically saying what I said earlier the most direct route is to pay down debt and rapid-rescore

(which is just a fancy term for the 'mid-cycle reporting' @nehis speaks of...same thing) of course that's if you

have the cash available, you don't want to go applying for stuff, right now.

As I said earlier, if this is only about getting a better rate, you may need to suck it up and plan on the refi.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

newhis — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:21:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The above mixed bag of how things go with AU accounts is why it's too tricky to count on in a pinch....

@newhis is basically saying what I said earlier the most direct route is to pay down debt and rapid-rescore
@(which is just a fancy term for the 'mid-cycle reporting' @nehis speaks of...same thing) of course that's if you
have the cash available, you don't want to go applying for stuff, right now.

As I said earlier, if this is only about getting a better rate, you may need to suck it up and plan on the refi.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:24:16 GMT

@newhis wrote:
@tamaralig wrote:
@newhis wrote:
Amex report AUs as new accounts (the last time I checked), so it doesn't matter if your Amex is 2 years old or 30 years old, the AU will be 0 years old. Other credit cards report the same date as the main card, so for AAoA is better not to use Amex and use other cards.
I'm AU on two Amex cards, my file matches the original owners dates....I think you may be crossing it with the old backdating rules for if you have an older card, getting a new card to report with that first original opened date for your oldest card.
Well that is strange, there are a lot of posts in the forums from people with more knowledge than me saying for a couple of years (or more) that the TL original open date is not shared with AU. If the main cardholder has a card open for some time and then create an AU the AU get a new date. Those posts say they stopped this 'backdating' first, then they removed all 'backdating' in Amex.

Here are a couple:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Amex-Authorized-User-Policy-reporting-date/m-p/4523590/highlight/true#M1305389?filter=location&location=forum-board%3Acreditcard&q=amex+au+date
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/question-about-amex-au/td-p/4235902
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/question-about-amex-au/m-p/4237496#M1205690

How many months/years after the original owner got the cards were you added? Is that in the last few years or more than 3?

Actually that could be exactly why my dates match the cardholders. I was added during the application process, not after the card was already issued, so that could be a data point to help with what dates report for AU on Amex.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:26:39 GMT

@newhis wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The above mixed bag of how things go with AU accounts is why it's too tricky to count on in a pinch....

@newhis is basically saying what I said earlier the most direct route is to pay down debt and rapid-rescore
@(which is just a fancy term for the 'mid-cycle reporting' @nehis speaks of...same thing) of course that's if you
have the cash available, you don't want to go applying for stuff, right now.

As I said earlier, if this is only about getting a better rate, you may need to suck it up and plan on the refi.
+1

+1 I didn't go on our home loan cause I would have caused some pretty bad rates at the time in fact we might not have got it with my student loans factoring lol. When we did decide to refi, I still wasn't on equal footing score wise which caused higher rates to be quoted.

I agree with don't add her since the outcome isn't guaranteed and may also look like new credit or even change her scores.

Re: Adding Wife to my Amex to raise her Fico

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 22:34:22 GMT

Actually that could be exactly why my dates match the cardholders. I was added during the application process, not after the card was already issued, so that could be a data point to help with what dates report for AU on Amex.

No offense but in a scenario where you were added DURING the app ...what other possible date could there be for you, except for the same as the card holder...as you both started together?

That isn't the typical 'adding' an AU scenario.....most cases it's a parent adding a kid or a loved one adding someone at a later date NOT at the time of applying...just saying.