topic Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER... in Credit Cards

What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Superman85 — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:20:28 GMT

Anyone know if Discover reports Authorized Users to their credit report? I’ve heard different stories. I called Discover and they told me that they will report it but it would show as just being an AU able to spend on the account, so it wouldn’t help their credit. Anyone have some experience with this?

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

BluePoodle — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:31:56 GMT

My daughter is an AU and it shows up on her CR. Yes, it shows up as an AU but so do all of the other cards I have her on as an AU.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Superman85 — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:35:31 GMT

Bluepoodle, does it effect the FICO score at all?

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

BluePoodle — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 18:01:23 GMT

I can not tell. She only had student loans before I added her as an au. I never attempted to pull her scores until after she was an au on my cards. I can say that when my accounts util change, that the change causes her scores to change. However, I believe my scores are still under the MyFico older score model. I have not been upgraded yet, nor do I believe has she.

However, she did app for the Barclay SM card with my three cards showing on her report as an AU as well as her 5 student loans. She received an instant approval of $3.2K so I think the au accounts helped. I just can't imagine her getting that high of an approval with only the student loans on her CR. That is just my opinion. As always, YMMV.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

leegreen — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 18:03:04 GMT

I was on dw's discover and it reported on my reports.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

iv — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 22:33:33 GMT

@Superman85 wrote:
Anyone know if Discover reports Authorized Users to their credit report? I’ve heard different stories. I called Discover and they told me that they will report it but it would show as just being an AU able to spend on the account, so it wouldn’t help their credit. Anyone have some experience with this?

I can confirm that Discover (and also BoA, WF, and Chase) AU accounts DO show up on credit reports, and at least in the case of spouses with the same last name and home address, DO count the same as joint accounts on both FICO 04 and FICO 8.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Fico2Go — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 01:06:59 GMT

I was an AU from a few years back. That account has since been closed. However the AU tradeline still shows up on my credit report to this day.

If you look on my sig line you will notice that discover is my highest credit line. So being an AU could have resulted in a more welcoming CL than the others.

In the worst case scenario having a discover as AU will improve AAOA. So yes AU accounts do and will help.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 01:54:47 GMT

I have been an AU on my son's card for about 2 yrs. now - I needed a card to be able to rent a car out of town. When he opened his card just before making me an AU they gave him a CL of $4500. He is up to a $7k CL & it has helped my rebuid immensely!! Even though I'm reported as an AU it still helps!

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Luscher — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 21:42:47 GMT

Yes it does report and will help (if it is a positive trade line)

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Florida1990 — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 23:18:03 GMT

I added my brother to mine and it reported on his a few days later

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Kenny — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 01:23:46 GMT

What if I told you that your title drives me insane?!

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

takeshi74 — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 04:33:08 GMT

@Superman85 wrote:
I called Discover and they told me that they will report it but it would show as just being an AU able to spend on the account, so it wouldn’t help their credit. Anyone have some experience with this?

No experience needed. Being an AU helps when the account is in good shape (low utilization, clean payment history, long AAoA, etc) and the creditor that one is applying to considers accounts where the applicant is an AU. Not all do so for those creditors being an AU will provide no benefit.

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

OHWWCB — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 04:36:50 GMT

@KennyRS wrote:
What if I told you that your title drives me insane?!

+1 lol

Re: What if I told you that DISCOVER...

Fico2Go — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 04:55:04 GMT

For credit cards I would think any automated approval will increase the chance for approval under AU. Under manual review it will be easy to identify AU accounts from Joint/primary accounts.

However, as mentioned several times already the minimum benefit will be the increase in credit history which in turns increases AAoA. And that accounts for up to 15% of total scores.

On the flip side, I do know from experience that many mortgage companies..closer to ALL these days will not include AU as qualifying TLs for approval. A lady I know was in the market for a home mortgage about a year ago. She was short about 20 FICO points in order to qualify for FHA financing. She went as a far as to ask a friend to add her as AU on several TLs. The TLs were reported on all three bureaus and her scores increased on all three FICO scores on MYFICO.com.

Unfortunately it did not increase a single point on the mortgage FICO scores that were used. The UW scoring model perhaps for FHA financing and also fannie mae/freddie mac looked at AU accts as non existent TLs.