topic Re: Adding AU question in Credit Cards

Adding AU question

DavidZeng — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 21:55:01 GMT

Hi guys, I get a question about adding somebody as AU. I see many credit companies(DIscover, Chase, AMEX) do not need AU's SSN or other specific info like birthday. Will this help AU's credit score? If it helps, how could that happen, since no AU's SSN on file.

Re: Adding AU question

Revelate — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 22:00:40 GMT

@DavidZeng wrote:
Hi guys, I get a question about adding somebody as AU. I see many credit companies(DIscover, Chase, AMEX) do not need AU's SSN or other specific info like birthday. Will this help AU's credit score? If it helps, how could that happen, since no AU's SSN on file.

It might help dependent on the quality of the tradeline vs. their own credit report. Amex not so much as it'll report as a new tradeline.

Lenders will take a best effort guess (better than the usual pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey) at matching the AU up correctly: name and address are usually pretty good estimations, without needing the theoretically unique SSN.

Re: Adding AU question

LearningMoreAboutCredit — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 22:08:15 GMT

AU accounts are sometimes not factored in credit decisions (just thought I'd throw that in), but if it lowers overall utilization, it can be helpful.