AU card not appearing on one particular bureau (TU)

[KJinNC]

Not sure which board would be best for this ... it's a rebuilding question, but could also be considered a general credit question.

My brother added me as an authorized user on his Barclay card in April. It finally showed up on Equifax and Experian in mid/late June. It still has not appeared on TransUnion, and I am wondering if this is a Barclay issue or a TU issue.

He originally listed his address as my address for purposes of the AU card, but after it didn't appear on my reports for a long time, he updated my address in early June to my actual address. That may be coincidental to it appearing on EQ and EX, or it may be why it finally appeared. I wonder if either the change happened after the card reported to TU, or if TU has some sort of defense mechanism that got triggered pertaining to the address change.

Or, maybe Barclay simply hasn't gotten around to reporting it to TU yet.

The reason for the AU card is because I have no accounts six months old on either EX or TU, so I can't generate FICO scores on either until either October when my Citi card becomes six months old, or the AU card appears, whichever happened/happens first. That is why I have an EX score but not a TU score.

My question is really which company I should pester, Barclay or TU, or neither. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I’m an AU on 3 of my father’s accounts, but only the Chase reports to all three. For some reason, Citibank & Synchrony show up on my TU & EQ reports, but not on my EX. This has been going on since he added me back in Nov ‘18.

EX tells me that they aren’t getting enough information to list on my report, Citi & Synchrony say they’re sending the info. I just gave up worrying about it...

[KJinNC]

If it doesn't show up by October, it won't matter ... I'm planning to get my brother to remove me as an AU after Citi hits six months old on approx Oct. 2, anyway.

[Anonymous]

I see you managed to get 2 scores posted in your signature finally!

What ever happened with Amex CAP Gold?  Ddi you submit the 4506-T to let them verify income even though it's a CAP app?

[KJinNC]

No, I'm confused and a bit offended by the request, so I decided to let that application lapse and try again at some point in the future. I ended up talking at length to someone there, who investigated, and told me that "Amex has to verify [my] income in case we are ever audited by the IRS" and that they "do not guarantee approval if [I] allow access", which frankly cannot be what is going on. Their story is unbelievable to me ... knowing that I have a corporate card, how different could my income possibly be from the low six figures I claimed? (And, I forwarded a digital paystub that verifies it, anyway.) Supposing my large corporation issues Amex cards to people making, say, $40k ... ok, so I'm a $40k employee of a large corporation willing to lie to Amex and falsify a digital paystub to trick them, so I can ... do what? Run up a balance that they'd allow someone who makes low six figures to run up, but would not have allowed someone who makes $40k to run up? And when I do this, they will get audited by the IRS and will get in trouble for it? It's a story that someone would give if they were taking heavy narcotics, not something that makes sense in reality.  And, if income verification wasn't the only reason they might deny me, why not simply deny me instead of asking for that verification, or alternately, why not say I'm approved if income verification pans out? I would almost bet my life that what happened is that someone used this tax-verification list as a tool to stop me from applying for a month or two, rather than due to any legitimate need to verify my income. I will try again in a couple of months, and if they still demand access to tax transcripts, I will probably write off Amex for life or at least for years.

And, yep, I've always been able to get Equifax FICO scores, due to the presence of the old Exxon card. Until October, I need the AU card to get FICO scores on the other two. It showed up on Equifax but not TransUnion so far.

[Anonymous]

Amex doens't usually throw a road block just to do it.  It's surely been an odd experience from the get go.  I think some of the issue stems from how things were executed though between all of the apps / denials combined w/ lack of scores.  

There's unfortunately always that 1 horror story every once in awhile about any given lender.  Eventually though down the road they'll come calling to hand you plenty of cards once things cool down and your scores pop upwards.  

I tend to think at least putting in an APP gets you onto a lender's radar even if you weren't in their list they buy from the CRA's for marketing.  So, the seed now is planted and just need to wait on it to germinate into an approval.

Now you know which steps in which order to take advantage of the discount AF through CAP.  Hopefully it's going to helpful for others in similar situations if they come a hunting here for an answer.

[KJinNC]

The situation is so specific that I'm not sure it would apply to anybody else. And, I wouldn't suggest anybody else avoid Amex due to this. I think most likely, I PO'd one particular Amex employee who spitefully clicked a button to shut me down.

If I apply in (say) September and get approved, all's good. Or even if I get denied for "normal" reasons, that will be ok, I guess. If I get the tax transcript BS, that is simply something I am never going to do, so I will consider myself blackballed from Amex and will proceed accordingly.

[KJinNC]

By the way, I'm curious your insight ... with the data in my signature, what would you expect if you were me, in terms of applying for better cards next year, in general? Other than Amex, I am interested in eventually getting the Sam's Club MasterCard and possibly one of the Citi cards (might do Prestige if I feel blackballed by Amex and exceed 5/24 for Chase). I'd like one or more Chase cards eventually, but I know that's 2021 or later. I plan to keep Coastal, Discover, hopefully the Citi graduates, and Amazon Store Card. All else will be closed and I'd like to replace them with stuff with complementary rewards. Thanks!