Adding an authorized user with (they) having terrible credit

[dahx]

I have cards from discover, boa, amex, and chase.

My oldest accounts are from discover and boa.

I'm considering adding my father as an AU to help rebuild his credit (I plan to hold on to the card when I get it).

But I am concerned of AA due to his terrible credit history. No bankruptcies but he has a few charge offs and almost a dozen accounts in collections. 

I was just reading this: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Bank-of-America-closed-my-credit-card-accounts-after-a... which tells I risk my account by adding him to that card. He also owes them money as he opened a checking account there without realizing they bill him monthly fees (advised him to close it and pay off the debt if he can't get it forgiven since he never used the account).

FICO 8 scores 800+.

Been an amex (BCE) and chase card (AMZN Prime) holder for a little over a year. I recently opened a personal loan with amex and was also recently approved for chase CSP. 

Does anyone know which one of these is least likely to give me a hard time? Except for discover. I'm gonna leave that one alone for now.

[JoeRockhead]

You won't experience any AA because of an AU's history... If a lender has that much of a problem with a potential AU they'll just decline the request to add them.  It's not uncommon when the AU burned the lender. 

[dahx]

Okay cool. Thanks.

Yeah, he hasn't burned them that I'm aware of unless it was more than 20 years ago.

He did burn navy federal. Working on helping him get his account situated proper so that I can get an invite.

[dahx]

Okay, my father made the call to nfcu. He still has a savings account with them but they're blocking access for a checking account until he pays off his credit card debt.

He made payment arrangements with them and they said they encourage him to re-apply as soon as he's paid off. I believe they considered to re-open the checking provided he makes some of his payments but he's going to wait until the debt is fully paid.

I'm going to request an nfcu account for myself soon! 

[Gregory1776]

I just did the exact same thing for my dad. 
I'm hoping to be able to impose a limit on what he can spend myself. He cannot get a rental car. 

[UncleB]

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@dahx wrote:

I was just reading this: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Bank-of-America-closed-my-credit-card-accounts-after-a... which tells I risk my account by adding him to that card. He also owes them money as he opened a checking account there without realizing they bill him monthly fees (advised him to close it and pay off the debt if he can't get it forgiven since he never used the account).

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The key takeaway from that other thread isn't to be worried about adding an AU, it's to be cautious if you plan to add multiple AUs in a short period of time.  This gets flagged since banks are looking for people selling AU tradelines to random people for a fee, which as you might imagine is frowned upon.

From personal experience, the only 'gotcha' you might run into is if your dad ever burned Amex and you try to add him as an AU to one of your Amex accounts - they are notorious for not allowing this, but your account will still be fine (you dad just won't be able to be added) - that said, they will likely be fine if he has only had problems with other lenders.  I'm not aware of any other banks being super aggressive about vetting AUs (not saying you won't come across one, just that Amex is known for doing so).

[dahx]

The other complication is that we have the same exact name and there have been periods where we shared the same address.

I've had issues with mixed files in the past. This magically was solved after telling Discover about the mixed file issue after I was approved for their secured card (I was worried there'd be more bad stuff coming my way). I'm guessing it's just a coincidence but 3 months later the mis-attributed collections disappeared and didn't have the issue again (this was 8 years ago). I had no luck getting them removed at the time and I wasn't aware of the proper way to do it back then. Or maybe it was my credit profile establishment that did it.

Given that, I'd prefer to provide his social if I go thru with it, which Chase doesn't take, and hope they don't suddenly think we're the same person again. Or the lenders themselves think I'm trying to add myself as an AU (although the differing birth dates and such would hopefully be enough)

[UncleB]

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@dahx wrote:

The other complication is that we have the same exact name and there have been periods where we shared the same address.

I've had issues with mixed files in the past. This magically was solved after telling Discover about the mixed file issue after I was approved for their secured card (I was worried there'd be more bad stuff coming my way). I'm guessing it's just a coincidence but 3 months later the mis-attributed collections disappeared and didn't have the issue again (this was 8 years ago). I had no luck getting them removed at the time and I wasn't aware of the proper way to do it back then. Or maybe it was my credit profile establishment that did it.

Given that, I'd prefer to provide his social if I go thru with it, which Chase doesn't take, and hope they don't suddenly think we're the same person again. Or the lenders themselves think I'm trying to add myself as an AU (although the differing birth dates and such would hopefully be enough)

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I have also dealt with the name issue you mention (I've referred to it as "the gift that keeps on giving") and there's really no easy solution that doesn't require a time machine.  I am meticulous about making sure my suffix is always used, although my father isn't so much.

In your situation, I'd just make sure that your suffix is being used and if you decide to move forward with adding your father as an AU make sure his suffix is used as well.  This won't guarantee success at having the AU account report on his credit, but it's really all you can do (especially for the issuers who don't ask for AU SS numbers). 

Years ago my first credit card app was declined and my first major purchase at age 19 (a car) was sullied when I was burdened with a high APR all due to a mixed credit file, so I've been dealing with this for literally decades.  I will say that it has gotten better with time, but I suspect that's mostly because my own credit file is so seasoned at this point.

Unrelated side note:  Anybody reading this and thinking of making your kid a "Jr" please think long and hard about it.  It's certainly your prerogative, but you'll be gifting them (and possibly yourself) life-long complexities that just aren't necessary.  I've never known someone saddled with a suffix who was pleased about it (if asked privately), and it took me a long time not to resent the extra hassle it's caused me over the decades.  /rant

[dahx]

Couldn't have said it better!

Not all issuers have options to select a suffix. Sometimes I add Jr to the end of my last name, but not always. So I have a mix of CCs with Jr and others without. Is it always ok (meaning no known troubles) to add it to my last name?  I wasn't certain all issuers would accept the format: "<lastname>  jr" in the last name field.

I guess I should consider myself lucky I haven't had any incidents given the dozen of collections my father has accrued the past few years.

[UncleB]

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@dahx wrote:

Not all issuers have options to select a suffix. Sometimes I add Jr to the end of my last name, but not always. So I have a mix of CCs with Jr and others without. Is it always ok (meaning no known troubles) to add it to my last name?  I wasn't certain all issuers would accept the format: "<lastname>  jr" in the last name field.

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You're right, there's little consistency between banks with the suffix.

In my personal experience, it's always been OK to just add the "Jr" to the end of my last name in the last name field (as in, <last name>space<Jr>).  Two issuers that have/had a field for the suffix are Truist and NFCU, and annoyingly both omitted the suffix from the card itself.  Truist leaves it out everywhere (as if it was never there) but NFCU does put it on my statement, but not on the card.   All my other banks (Citi, Chase, Amex, Synchrony, BoA, US Bank, Discover, USAA, WF, etc.) have no issue with the suffix.

Right now I have multiple preapprovals from Bread/Comenity (for 2% Amex, and AAA Visa) but none of them have the suffix.  I suspect if I alter the name on the preapproved app (if it will even let me) it will throw off the pre-approval, but if I cold-app with the suffix I miss out on the bonus.  Not exactly an Earth-shattering issue, but annoying nonetheless. 

With a thick/mature credit file the instances of having stray accounts show up on your credit files should be fewer and fewer.  (Ironically, the issue I have to watch out for now is split credit files, smdh.)