Does adding a person to a new CC as an AU affect their "credit recently applied for"?

[Anonymous]

Essentially, I am in the process of credit repair. I was approved for a Capital One, thanks to the information I gathered from this forum. The DH has a three year credit history, and his FICOs are 686-688. If I add him onto my newly acquired Capital One, will it negatively affect his score any, i.e. shorten his credit age or the amount of new credit applied for? Or will it just be another (hopefully) satisfactory account and add to his over all amount of available CL?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

He won't get a point hit as far as the inquiry goes, but it will lower his average age.

By adding him, it could cause his score's to drop. There are also other things to consider that may help such as CL being significantly higher than his. Fico "fusses" at me for having low limit cards. It's something to think about.

[haulingthescoreup]

Whenever someone is thinking about going on a card as AU, here's what you want:

- the card should be older than your current average age, the older the better

- the card should be squeaky clean

If the card doesn't pass both these tests, it's apt to hurt more than help, unless you have some horribly high util, and the AU card has such an incredibly high CL that your new util is much, much lower.

The good news is that is someone has gotten on as AU and found that this hurt instead of helped, it's easy to get off. Most cards let you take yourself off, although some require the actual cardholder to do this (dunno why.) It should stop reporting. If not, dispute with the CRA's as "not mine."

[Anonymous]

Got it! Thank ya'll so much for the advice.