topic Re: Authorized user question in General Credit Topics

Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 03:33:29 GMT

i want to use someones card but i hear if it has late payments in the past it affect me ? how can i check if any late payments has been recorded, i checked their CK and shows all good but wanna be sure before doing anything

Re: Authorized user question

Adkins — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 03:49:02 GMT

@Albert_E63 wrote:
i want to use someones card but i hear if it has late payments in the past it affect me ? Yes. Generally, you'll inherit their credit history on the card (except Amex). how can i check if any late payments has been recorded, i checked their CK and shows all good but wanna be sure before doing anything Get them to order their free, annual credit reports from all three bureaus.

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 08:41:43 GMT

you can ask them to create a free trial of Experian premium account, and downgrade their account to a free one, so that they can check the payment history as well as other info about their account, in the first month after the Experian premium membership has started. I did this to my partner. Actually Credit Karma does the same thing but I'm not sure if CK displays the entire history of a CC account.

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:09:53 GMT

I am an AU on my girlfriends AA Red card with Barclays - here is what it shows on Credit Karma it looks like if she was ever late it would show on the bottom. When she added me it took about 2 months for it to show on CR, and it helped my score with all of her prior on time payments. I hope this helps. Best of luck.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 23:25:13 GMT

i got a free anual credit report and shows all payments on time so my next question is if they ask for a CLI will the hard pull shows in my account aswell ?

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 23:29:02 GMT

I don’t know the exact answer to that but it should not have any affect on your credit whatsoever. My girlfriend had an automatic increase and it didn’t touch mine.

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 23:51:02 GMT

Being added as an AU to someone else's card is a good idea if all of the following are true.

(1) The original card is much much older than the oldest account in your name. For example, your oldest account is 2 years old and the AU card is 15 years old.

(2) The CC issuer will report this very old date opened for your AU account. Some issuers instead report the date you were added as AU for your date opened, which would be bad for you.

(3) The original card will always report a very low balance (< 9%) or even better $0.

(4) The card has no lates and you are confident the card owner will never be later in the future.

You have answer #4, but you should also look into 1-3. Unless all four are true then being added is not a good idea.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:06:39 GMT

Yeah thats really the reason i want to add it cause my oldest card is 1 year old and the card i want to add is like 7 year old with all payments made on time, only bad thing it has a low SL of 500 dollars but i wanted to see if i could get a CLI so it can help with my util a little but should i wait before trying to get a CLI on their card before adding it to my profile or the hard pull will only show on their credit ?

Re: Authorized user question

HeavenOhio — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:41:08 GMT

Authorize users can't ask for CLIs.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:55:07 GMT

But i mean if they ask for a CLI while im added as a Authorized user while the hard pull report on both credit ?

Re: Authorized user question

HeavenOhio — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 01:29:19 GMT

@Albert_E63 wrote:
But i mean if they ask for a CLI while im added as a Authorized user while the hard pull report on both credit ?

No. It'd be a pull on the primary user's credit. Depending on the bank, it could be a soft pull.

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:21:08 GMT

You mention that you are interested in adding the AU as a help to your utilization. That's not ideal. When you have no AU accounts, you have complete control over your utilization. You can spend a lot on your cards and still have a 1% utilization. But when you are added as an AU you now have much less control over your utilization, since you can't control the amount that account is reporting (it is owned by someone else and they control its spending and its balances and the payments made on it).

Never ask to be added as an AU as a utilization lowering strategy. Pay down your CC debt if you want lower utilization. And never ask to be added unless you are certain that card will always have a $0 or very small balance.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:51:54 GMT

The card i want to be added is pretty much only gotten be mine since they don't use the card and pretty much are gonna give me the account since they don't use it and i need it to get my account age up

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 01:28:53 GMT

Good news that the card will be basically yours. Best way to address your concerns about CC utilization is to leave it at $0 and pay off your CC existing CC debt. That way it won't matter what its credit limit is.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 03:35:50 GMT

Alright i close to adding the account but i was looking how AAoA works and now i don't know if it worth adding the account, I did the math and the result is 1.84 years and it say they don't round numbers so my AAoA will still be 1 year ?

Re: Authorized user question

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 05:43:37 GMT

The real issue is not AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) but AoOA (Age of Oldest Account). Those are different scoring factors and FICO considers both. If you look back to my initial advice, I said that what matters for this AU decision is Age of Oldest. It sounds like your Age of Oldest will be going from 1 to 7. That's significant.

Of course if you could get added an AU to a card that was 15 years old (say) that would be much better still.

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 03:27:34 GMT

alright thanks for the advise and by any chance do you know if Bestbuy by citibank report to authorized users from the date the card was added or it will report the full time?

Re: Authorized user question

Albert_E63 — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 18:33:38 GMT

Ok i got a quick question i was added as a authorized user but it didn't ask for my SSN ? i was wondering if they still report without knowing my SSN ?

Re: Authorized user question

Pikaboo-icu — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 21:29:34 GMT

@Albert_E63 wrote:
Ok i got a quick question i was added as a authorized user but it didn't ask for my SSN ? i was wondering if they still report without knowing my SSN ?

I don't see how it would be possible to report without your ss#.

They can't go by just name so something is amiss..

Re: Authorized user question

UncleB — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 12:54:38 GMT

@Pikaboo-icu wrote:
@Albert_E63 wrote:
Ok i got a quick question i was added as a authorized user but it didn't ask for my SSN ? i was wondering if they still report without knowing my SSN ?

I don't see how it would be possible to report without your ss#.
They can't go by just name so something is amiss..

Actually they can... if the address is a match (or close enough) that can be enough for it to report.

Chase is an example of this (they don't ask for AU's social security numbers).

While not extremely common, it's also not unheard of for credit to be pulled without a SS# as well... cable/satellite TV providers are known to do this occasionally when someone calls for a rate and only provides their name and address.