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@Anonymous wrote:
@ficonightmare wrote:I think BOA and Citi may give you a good credit line. CITI is pretty generous from what I know. BOA started me with 7,500 when my scores were in the mid 700's.
I have a question for you though. You said you were added as joint cardholder to a few cards with an aaoa of 22 years. Which cards were they? I'm asking because when we tried it with CITI and CHASE, we were told the accounts had to be closed and a new application done.
eta: Being an AU on a card with a high limit doesn't help. I'm an AU on CITI. At the time, the CL was 26,000. BOA still gave me 7,500. They did pull Ex and TU. On Ex I still had 1 baddie, TU was clean.
MMacys Nordstroms... Do you think the reason u got a $7500 limit from BOA had anything to do with the limit on your AU citi Account? What where your other limits at the time?
Not sure. The other accounts I'm on AU on are both Chase Sapphire and they don't report a CL. My own cards at the time were AMEX (doesn't report either), Barclays with a 4.5k limit, and PayPal Extra MC with a 3k limit.
So BOA actually gave me the highest limit on the cards I wasn't an AU on. (meaning my own CC's).
FICO score isn't everything. The only reason you were able to achieve a 793 FICO is because of the AU cards. Creditors, especially these days, take into account your ENTIRE credit profile.
A perfect example that relates to your situation:
My fiance was new to this country so in order to build up a credit profile for her, I added her as an AU on many of my cards. Once a credit profile was created for her, I had her open a $1000 secured card from BofA. The average limit of my cards at that time ranged from 4 digit to 5 digit figures.
By doing this, she instantly gained 10 years AAoA of perfect flawless credit and a FICO score of 789.
I had her apply for a Penfed CC and she got a flat out DENIAL. Reasons were, "Not enough credit experience". I called a credit analyst to ask how they came up with that reason because according to FICO she has an AAoA of 10 years. They told her "You only have 1 card that has been open for less than a year", which is her BofA secured card. They ignored ALL her AU's.
I also had her apply for a Chase Freedom. She was approved for a whopping limit of $1000. Upon calling in to activate, I had her ask why the limit was so low and their response was "We matched your highest limit", which was the $1000 secured BofA, again they ignored all her AU accounts.
I took her off as an AU on all my cards as they didn't serve a purpose besides helping to generate a credit file for her.
In both situations, even though according to FICO her score was deserving of very high limits, Penfed and Chase only took into consideration her OWN cards in making their decision.
Fast forward 5 years, she has taken very good care of both HER OWN BofA card and her Chase Freedom, both are in the $10,000 limit range now and has HER OWN AAoA of 5 years and was just approved for a $20k Penfed Cash Rewards card last week.
Like someone earlier said, all you are doing is trying to reap the rewards of someone elses hard work (example of this is you stating that you are NEW to credit yet you go around flaunting an AAoA of 12 years). Have patience, take good care of YOUR OWN cards, and over time you will be able to achieve what you are seeking.
@aftermath +1,000,000
I dunno. I think the reason your girlfriend saw such a big jump is because she just had no history, which is different from a bad history.
When I started rebuilding, I was already an AU on 2 of my hubbys (and 1 of my parents) CC'S. All three cards had long perfect histories. My score was still in the 600's. What helped was getting my own CC's and waiting (along with GW lettes and threats to EX) for the baddies to fall off.
My final one came off in Feb/March and since then, I've seen my scores start moving upwards.
So while being added as an AU can help, I don't believe it's enough to give you that much of a boost if you already had a clean report.
@smc733 wrote:@aftermath +1,000,000
I agree.
And what is up with people frowning on those that are able to get help?? What's the big deal? So what, I'm an AU on my DH cards. I USE THOSE CARDS and make payments on them as well. Much like half the population that's an AU because they're a spouse or a child. There's nothing wrong with it.
@ficonightmare wrote:I dunno. I think the reason your girlfriend saw such a big jump is because she just had no history, which is different from a bad history.
When I started rebuilding, I was already an AU on 2 of my hubbys (and 1 of my parents) CC'S. All three cards had long perfect histories. My score was still in the 600's. What helped was getting my own CC's and waiting (along with GW lettes and threats to EX) for the baddies to fall off.
My final one came off in Feb/March and since then, I've seen my scores start moving upwards.
So while being added as an AU can help, I don't believe it's enough to give you that much of a boost if you already had a clean report.
I think you're missing my point. I used my fiance's story as an example to try to explain something to the OP. She was new to credit just like the OP is stating. I added her as an AU on all my positive accounts which gave her an instantaneous perfect credit profile with AAoA of 10 years and a FICO score of 789 but what I'm trying to argue/prove is that NONE OF THAT meant ANYTHING because the AAoA and FICO score and TRADELINES were not hers and the banks knew that so they didn't take them into consideration. The only tradeline that actually belonged to her was her secured $1000 BofA and that was the only tradeline they took into consideration when coming to their decision. Those AU's might as well not have been on her credit report because they didn't influence anything.
@ficonightmare wrote:And what is up with people frowning on those that are able to get help?? What's the big deal? So what, I'm an AU on my DH cards. I USE THOSE CARDS and make payments on them as well. Much like half the population that's an AU because they're a spouse or a child. There's nothing wrong with it.
I don't think its looking down upon someone. I tried that route myself and it didn't help me much at all, aside from getting me better rates on my student loans. (It meant nothing in obtaining them without my highly qualified (800+) cosigner, nor did it help at all in obtaining revolving credit).
@ficonightmare wrote:And what is up with people frowning on those that are able to get help?? What's the big deal? So what, I'm an AU on my DH cards. I USE THOSE CARDS and make payments on them as well. Much like half the population that's an AU because they're a spouse or a child. There's nothing wrong with it.
There's nothing wrong with being added as an AU. What everyone is trying to argue is that it doesn't do anything to help you in a "real world" credit situation besides give you a pretty number in the form of FICO and AAoA (which isn't really yours) that doesn't mean anything when creditors these days are only taking into account YOUR OWN accounts when coming up with their decisions.
Maybe it worked BACCKKKK in the days, but creditors have had a decade to figure out that we have been exploiting this loophole (you can see this by the increasing number of manual reviews and "we need more time to review your information, we will contact you in 5-7 business days" responses). There are no more shortcuts to the 5digit club.