No Fico....which credit cards to apply?

[CreditMarathoner]

I think your fiance needs a few months of reported history before a FICO score will calculate.  Just hang in there.

In the meantime, a starter credit card from someone like Capital One would help him get his "credit marathon" started.  Use it for token purchases and then pay it off in full every month to avoid interest.  Try and get one with no annual fees too.  Depending on the card, it may even earn rewards, or can be converted to a rewards card once his scores climb and he has an established history, and his baddie ages.

I wouldn't bother wasting money on a car/car loan unless you/he needs one.

[Anonymalous]

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I was unscorable last year, though that was because I had no credit history, and FICO requires at least 6 months of credit history to generate a score. However, it sounds like your finance is in a different category, because he does have some credit history, it's just not recent, which is the other reason someone can become unscorable. So as soon as those new tradelines start showing up on your fiance's credit report (AUs do count), you should be able to pull his scores. Give Experian a couple days.

As an AU, he inherits all the history of the cards (except for Amex). This includes any negatives, so be careful about that. Also, utilization carries over. So the best AU cards are old, have no negatives, and have low or no utilization. Since the cards you put him on are fairly young, he won't get a huge boost to age, but assuming there are no problems with the tradelines, it should help. Though there are two caveats: The first is that credit bureaus have fraud detection algorithms, and sometimes don't factor AUs into their scores. Though presumably you have the same address, which is one of the things they look for. And on top of that, a lot of lenders use their own internal scoring mechanisms, which don't count AUs. So even if the cards boost his score, it's hit or miss whether it will really make a difference on any particular application.

Though that baddie will hurt a lot more than the AUs will help.

The Discover secured card is a great start. Amex likes high incomes, so they may be a good choice. If he banks with USAA, he also qualifies for membership with Navy Fed, and Navy Fed is friendly to people new to credit and seems to count AUs.

You shouldn't have to buy any credit reports. He can go to AnnualCreditReport.com, and get credit reports from all 3 bureaus for free. That's the website the 3 bureaus set up to comply with federal law. They're required to provide a credit report 1/year, plus an additional report anytime someone was denied for credit based at least in part on that credit report. Right now, they're allowing people to pull their credit reports 1/week, thanks to covid.

Though ACR just provides reports, not scores. For scores, you already have him signed up for Experian, which is the place to get a free (Experian) FICO 8 score, as well as some basic credit monitoring (i.e. he'll get an alert when something changes on his report). There are no free sources for Transunion and Equifax FICO scores, but signing up for Credit Karma will give alerts if anything changes on his TU or EQ credit reports. (The scores provided by CK are Vantage Scores, which you should ignore -- almost no lenders use them.)

[Mdowning30]

I would add to the credit limit on the secured to the max amount i believe is around $2500. That way you might get a higher score bump.

[OmarGB9]

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@Mdowning30 wrote:

I would add to the credit limit on the secured to the max amount i believe is around $2500. That way you might get a higher score bump.

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Higher credit limits don't automatically equate to higher scores.

OP, I think fiancee is good for now, maybe add another starter card or two. But he should become scoreable within 6 months.

[mbauza86]

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@CreditMarathoner wrote:

I think your fiance needs a few months of reported history before a FICO score will calculate.  Just hang in there.

In the meantime, a starter credit card from someone like Capital One would help him get his "credit marathon" started.  Use it for token purchases and then pay it off in full every month to avoid interest.  Try and get one with no annual fees too.  Depending on the card, it may even earn rewards, or can be converted to a rewards card once his scores climb and he has an established history, and his baddie ages.

I wouldn't bother wasting money on a car/car loan unless you/he needs one.

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Thank you! Credit gardening sucks, but it teaches you patience haha.  I wasn't sure if Capital one was a good start, but I just went to see if he qualified and he does on their pre-qualification link. I'm going to wait until all my cards are on his credit report. I'm concerned that if he pulls the trigger now, he will get a low limit.  I'm hoping once all my cards show, at least he will hopefully be approved with a higher limit? We shall see

[mbauza86]

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@Anonymalous wrote:

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I was unscorable last year, though that was because I had no credit history, and FICO requires at least 6 months of credit history to generate a score. However, it sounds like your finance is in a different category, because he does have some credit history, it's just not recent, which is the other reason someone can become unscorable. So as soon as those new tradelines start showing up on your fiance's credit report (AUs do count), you should be able to pull his scores. Give Experian a couple days.

As an AU, he inherits all the history of the cards (except for Amex). This includes any negatives, so be careful about that. Also, utilization carries over. So the best AU cards are old, have no negatives, and have low or no utilization. Since the cards you put him on are fairly young, he won't get a huge boost to age, but assuming there are no problems with the tradelines, it should help. Though there are two caveats: The first is that credit bureaus have fraud detection algorithms, and sometimes don't factor AUs into their scores. Though presumably you have the same address, which is one of the things they look for. And on top of that, a lot of lenders use their own internal scoring mechanisms, which don't count AUs. So even if the cards boost his score, it's hit or miss whether it will really make a difference on any particular application.

Though that baddie will hurt a lot more than the AUs will help.

The Discover secured card is a great start. Amex likes high incomes, so they may be a good choice. If he banks with USAA, he also qualifies for membership with Navy Fed, and Navy Fed is friendly to people new to credit and seems to count AUs.

You shouldn't have to buy any credit reports. He can go to AnnualCreditReport.com, and get credit reports from all 3 bureaus for free. That's the website the 3 bureaus set up to comply with federal law. They're required to provide a credit report 1/year, plus an additional report anytime someone was denied for credit based at least in part on that credit report. Right now, they're allowing people to pull their credit reports 1/week, thanks to covid.

Though ACR just provides reports, not scores. For scores, you already have him signed up for Experian, which is the place to get a free (Experian) FICO 8 score, as well as some basic credit monitoring (i.e. he'll get an alert when something changes on his report). There are no free sources for Transunion and Equifax FICO scores, but signing up for Credit Karma will give alerts if anything changes on his TU or EQ credit reports. (The scores provided by CK are Vantage Scores, which you should ignore -- almost no lenders use them.)

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Thank you! I was so confused as to why he didn't have a fico score, because he did have the auto loan and then a credit card before. That makes sense because they're old and closed, that's why he is unscorable. I'm hoping once all my accounts hit, and also the discover secured card, that will be a different story. 

I keep losing track of what I added him to as an AU lol. All cards have no lates and current. Only barclays has a small balance of like $50 and rest are at zero. I'm trying to do the AZEO method. Also, we do share the same address. That didnt even occur to me about fraud and all.

Nordstrom/TB Bank   (opened in 03/2018 $1,000 CL)

Barclays/JetBlue (opened in Jan/2018 CL $4,750)

Truist (Opened Nov/2020 CL $6,500)

US Bank (Opened Nov/2020 CL $5,000)

Discover (opened March/2021 $5,000 CL)

Oh yes, I am monitoring his credit reports on creditkarma and also Experian. His vantage scores are in the 700's. For example, EQ is showing his fako/vantage score as 724 with only 1 credit card reporting of mine as an AU and with the open collection still. I'm going to give more time to Experian and see if a FICO score eventually pops up.

And oh my!!! I hadn't even considered Navy Fed!!! I'm going to definitely keep them in mind!!

[mbauza86]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

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@Mdowning30 wrote:

I would add to the credit limit on the secured to the max amount i believe is around $2500. That way you might get a higher score bump.

---

Higher credit limits don't automatically equate to higher scores.

OP, I think fiancee is good for now, maybe add another starter card or two. But he should become scoreable within 6 months.

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Thank you!! I'm going to wait til all my cards hit his credit report and then maybe have him apply for the Capital one card.

[Gollum]

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@mbauza86 wrote:

Thank you! I was so confused as to why he didn't have a fico score, because he did have the auto loan and then a credit card before. That makes sense because they're old and closed, that's why he is unscorable. I'm hoping once all my accounts hit, and also the discover secured card, that will be a different story. 

I keep losing track of what I added him to as an AU lol. All cards have no lates and current. Only barclays has a small balance of like $50 and rest are at zero. I'm trying to do the AZEO method. Also, we do share the same address. That didnt even occur to me about fraud and all.

Nordstrom/TB Bank   (opened in 03/2018 $1,000 CL)

Barclays/JetBlue (opened in Jan/2018 CL $4,750)

Truist (Opened Nov/2020 CL $6,500)

US Bank (Opened Nov/2020 CL $5,000)

Discover (opened March/2021 $5,000 CL)

Oh yes, I am monitoring his credit reports on creditkarma and also Experian. His vantage scores are in the 700's. For example, EQ is showing his fako/vantage score as 724 with only 1 credit card reporting of mine as an AU and with the open collection still. I'm going to give more time to Experian and see if a FICO score eventually pops up.

And oh my!!! I hadn't even considered Navy Fed!!! I'm going to definitely keep them in mind!!

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@mbauza86, I don't want to rain on your parade, and I wish you the best. However, self-preservation regarding your own credit is always in order.

The main reason I suggested (given your combined high incomes) that your fiance buy a car to create/develop his/her own FICO score is: that is what worked for me. Repaying the car loan on time is what started me down the path to excellent FICO scores. If I had the right cash flow right now, I know exactly which fun car I would buy as soon as the dealership opens.

In addition, I think/thought that if your fiance created his/her own FICO score, that would be better for you regarding protecting your own FICO score.

I suggest that you take a couple months to figure out which of your accounts now have your fiance as an Authorized User before you do anything else that [Edit] potentially impacts your own FICO scores / credit.

[mbauza86]

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@Gollum wrote:

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@mbauza86 wrote:

Thank you! I was so confused as to why he didn't have a fico score, because he did have the auto loan and then a credit card before. That makes sense because they're old and closed, that's why he is unscorable. I'm hoping once all my accounts hit, and also the discover secured card, that will be a different story. 

I keep losing track of what I added him to as an AU lol. All cards have no lates and current. Only barclays has a small balance of like $50 and rest are at zero. I'm trying to do the AZEO method. Also, we do share the same address. That didnt even occur to me about fraud and all.

Nordstrom/TB Bank   (opened in 03/2018 $1,000 CL)

Barclays/JetBlue (opened in Jan/2018 CL $4,750)

Truist (Opened Nov/2020 CL $6,500)

US Bank (Opened Nov/2020 CL $5,000)

Discover (opened March/2021 $5,000 CL)

Oh yes, I am monitoring his credit reports on creditkarma and also Experian. His vantage scores are in the 700's. For example, EQ is showing his fako/vantage score as 724 with only 1 credit card reporting of mine as an AU and with the open collection still. I'm going to give more time to Experian and see if a FICO score eventually pops up.

And oh my!!! I hadn't even considered Navy Fed!!! I'm going to definitely keep them in mind!!

---

@mbauza86, I don't want to rain on your parade, and I wish you the best. However, self-preservation regarding your own credit is always in order.

The main reason I suggested (given your combined high incomes) that your fiance buy a car to create/develop his/her own FICO score is: that is what worked for me. Repaying the car loan on time is what started me down the path to excellent FICO scores. If I had the right cash flow right now, I know exactly which fun car I would buy as soon as the dealership opens.

In addition, I think/thought that if your fiance created his/her own FICO score, that would be better for you regarding protecting your own FICO score.

I suggest that you take a couple months to figure out which of your accounts now have your fiance as an Authorized User before you do anything else that [Edit] potentially impacts your own FICO scores / credit.

---

Thank you!  We already have two cars. I wouldn't want him to pay high interest on a car we don't need, pay insurance, property taxes (yep lovely VA) and then maintenance costs etc. Then of course, the hassle of then trying to sell the car once they loan is paid and potentially losing money when selling the car. Too much of a hassle for us. There are much easier ways for him to get a fico score again. There's multiple ways to skin a cat 😉. I think this method would work if we needed a car, but we don't and I would much rather invest that cash into our business rather than pay interest. It is not a financial move we would want to take at all. Glad it worked for you though. Not saying it doesn't work, we just rather take a different route. We will be going the secure card route, as well as the AU so he gets his own cards.

I'm not sure what the rest of your advice means though. I made that comment bc I left Nordstrom out. It's super easy to check where he is an AU and I have access to his credit as well 😇 not sure why I would take months to figure that out??? I guess I must be misunderstanding what you meant. Having him as an AU wouldn't hurt my own score. A lot of assumptions here or maybe misconceptions or maybe I'm misunderstanding. If you think he will be using the cards and maxing them, we'll he doesn't have the physical cards. No need to worry. I have them. He's not a big spender anyway. Overall, we pay cash for everything and I don't carry balances.  However it's important for him to have credit and since we do spend, we would rather get points/miles and pay off our cards in full 😇 this way we are at least getting something back when we spend. Hopefully some free vacations 🤩

[Gollum]

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@mbauza86 wrote:

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@Gollum wrote:

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@mbauza86 wrote:

Thank you! I was so confused as to why he didn't have a fico score, because he did have the auto loan and then a credit card before. That makes sense because they're old and closed, that's why he is unscorable. I'm hoping once all my accounts hit, and also the discover secured card, that will be a different story. 

I keep losing track of what I added him to as an AU lol. All cards have no lates and current. Only barclays has a small balance of like $50 and rest are at zero. I'm trying to do the AZEO method. Also, we do share the same address. That didnt even occur to me about fraud and all.

Nordstrom/TB Bank   (opened in 03/2018 $1,000 CL)

Barclays/JetBlue (opened in Jan/2018 CL $4,750)

Truist (Opened Nov/2020 CL $6,500)

US Bank (Opened Nov/2020 CL $5,000)

Discover (opened March/2021 $5,000 CL)

Oh yes, I am monitoring his credit reports on creditkarma and also Experian. His vantage scores are in the 700's. For example, EQ is showing his fako/vantage score as 724 with only 1 credit card reporting of mine as an AU and with the open collection still. I'm going to give more time to Experian and see if a FICO score eventually pops up.

And oh my!!! I hadn't even considered Navy Fed!!! I'm going to definitely keep them in mind!!

---

@mbauza86, I don't want to rain on your parade, and I wish you the best. However, self-preservation regarding your own credit is always in order.

The main reason I suggested (given your combined high incomes) that your fiance buy a car to create/develop his/her own FICO score is: that is what worked for me. Repaying the car loan on time is what started me down the path to excellent FICO scores. If I had the right cash flow right now, I know exactly which fun car I would buy as soon as the dealership opens.

In addition, I think/thought that if your fiance created his/her own FICO score, that would be better for you regarding protecting your own FICO score.

I suggest that you take a couple months to figure out which of your accounts now have your fiance as an Authorized User before you do anything else that [Edit] potentially impacts your own FICO scores / credit.

---

Thank you!  We already have two cars. I wouldn't want him to pay high interest on a car we don't need, pay insurance, property taxes (yep lovely VA) and then maintenance costs etc. Then of course, the hassle of then trying to sell the car once they loan is paid and potentially losing money when selling the car. Too much of a hassle for us. There are much easier ways for him to get a fico score again. There's multiple ways to skin a cat 😉. I think this method would work if we needed a car, but we don't and I would much rather invest that cash into our business rather than pay interest. It is not a financial move we would want to take at all. Glad it worked for you though. Not saying it doesn't work, we just rather take a different route. We will be going the secure card route, as well as the AU so he gets his own cards.

I'm not sure what the rest of your advice means though. I made that comment bc I left Nordstrom out. It's super easy to check where he is an AU and I have access to his credit as well 😇 not sure why I would take months to figure that out??? I guess I must be misunderstanding what you meant. Having him as an AU wouldn't hurt my own score. A lot of assumptions here or maybe misconceptions or maybe I'm misunderstanding. If you think he will be using the cards and maxing them, we'll he doesn't have the physical cards. No need to worry. I have them. He's not a big spender anyway. Overall, we pay cash for everything and I don't carry balances.  However it's important for him to have credit and since we do spend, we would rather get points/miles and pay off our cards in full 😇 this way we are at least getting something back when we spend. Hopefully some free vacations 🤩

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Never mind. Good luck with your credit card strategy.