Creditors that look at Au’s like primaries

[Anonymous]

Navy Federal Credit Union , looks at high limit Authorize Users accounts , like you have high limit Primary accounts on your report, Meaning if you have high limit AU’s on your report and apply for a card card and are approved they will give you a high limit credit card as if you applied and had high limit primary accounts on your report. Does any other Lender/Institution do the same ?

[Anonymous]

I don't know where you got the idea that Navy Federal grant generous credit limits on the basis of authorized user accounts but my recent experience says otherwise.  A few weeks ago I sponsored my college-aged daughter for NFCU membership and she applied for a Cash Rewards card.  She has been an AU on my Amex Gold and Capital One cards so she had an average age of accounts of over 5 years.  She was approved for the Cash Rewards card but only for $1,000 which might be considered large by many people but compared to the limits on the cards she was an AU, its a low limit.  

Lenders know that authorized users are not legally responsible for paying the account so they discount the influence of such accounts.  It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a lender who does not assign a lower standing to authorized user accounts.

[Jnbmom]

Nope Navy does not do that.............................

[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Navy Federal Credit Union , looks at high limit Authorize Users accounts , like you have high limit Primary accounts on your report, Meaning if you have high limit AU’s on your report and apply for a card card and are approved they will give you a high limit credit card as if you applied and had high limit primary accounts on your report. Does any other Lender/Institution do the same ?

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Hi and welcome to myFICO

I think the info you heard got twisted slightly. It reminds me of an experiment we did in 6th grade. The teacher whispered something in one child’s ear to be repeated from one student to the next student. By the last student, what the teacher whispered was only a snippet of what the teacher had actually said. 

So, in this instance, the correct info is—if there’s a high balance on a primary’s card, the AU on that card will suffer because of it. Example: If the primary has a $10K limit and his UT is 77%, then that 77% card UT will be reflected in the AU CR. 

But it doesn’t work the other way around where if the primary has an AU on his $10K CC, the AU can get a $10K CC too because of it. 

This is what I think may have been miscommunicated. 

[kdm31091]

Anyone can add anyone to their card account, so creditors don't tend to be that interested in AU accounts because it says nothing about your creditworthiness. It can boost your score by helping with utilization and/or age of accounts, but your actual credit history still needs to come from yourself. AU accounts are a tool that can help, but I don't think any creditor will ever look at them the same as a primary account.

[Sharingan]

I have to disagree with some of the earlier posts. Maybe not with NFCU, but there’s plenty of evidence in the approvals section of people getting approved for large credit limits from various banks with a fresh history and just one or two AU accounts on their reports. I’m reading a fairly recent, large AmEx approval right now resulting solely from AU history. Obviously, the veracity of some of the accounts can be questionable, and I don’t agree with that kind of lending; but this loophole has existed for quite some time, and is seemingly very much alive today depending on where you apply. 

[jbestman007]

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@Sharingan wrote:

I have to disagree with some of the earlier posts. Maybe not with NFCU, but there’s plenty of evidence in the approvals section of people getting approved for large credit limits from various banks with a fresh history and just one or two AU accounts on their reports. I’m reading a fairly recent, large AmEx approval right now resulting solely from AU history. Obviously, the veracity of some of the accounts can be questionable, and I don’t agree with that kind of lending; but this loophole has existed for quite some time, and is seemingly very much alive today depending on where you apply. 

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I believe you are conflating two things. Yes, there are banks that would give "large credit limits" to users with only AU accounts reporting but that does not prove any correlation between the limits the primary user had with the limit the AU gets. There is more to credit profile than credit limits. In fact, I would submit that the biggest benefit that a AU gets from being added to an established account is AAoA. That alone can improve one's credit score leading to the higher credit limit you speak of.

Also, this "loophole", as you call it, happens mainly with users new to credit. They already have clean profiles. Just not aged profiles. So, a 690 profile with an AAoA of 9 months added to a 15yr tradeline, now gets bumped to 760 with an AAoA of 6yrs.  User now gets a card with $5000 SL from Amex. Has nothing to do with the credit limit that the primary user had, I don't believe.

[Anonymous]

The DP for Navy came from someone here that made his nephew or other young relative an AU on his large limit NAVY card. He, then, suggested their algorithms did not differentiate someone being an AU or an account holder on Navy cards when a credit limit was auto generated. In his family member's case, they received a large limit (like $25k), even though they had no other cards w Navy (of their own) and a young profile.

[Anonymous]

It was posted maybe 5 or 6 months ago. I'll see if I can find it.

[Anonymous]

It was GMood

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Approvals/18-year-old-Nephew-blew-the-doors-off-with-hi...

Edit: This actually isn't the one I was looking for, but it was posted around the same time. The other thread discussed the strategy, but you get the point.