Account history question

[Anonymous]

My wife is not a citizen and has only been in the US for a few months now. I want her to build her credit up since she has none at the moment. After calling to my various banks and CC companies. I found only one that will let me add her on as a co-signer/co-applicant and it is Discover. They told me my account will not change at all on my credit reports except for having join responsibility under the account details. My question is when it does report to her credit report will it show now as the account open date or my original open date? Will she get my account history for that account?

[Anonymous]

Her report will show the full history of the account. You really want to add her as an authorized user instead of a co-signer. The reasoning is in the event the account was to gain negative information it would be easier to remove from her reports in the future. And she gets the same reporting benefit. Once the account reports you can start working on establishing credit in her name only. If nothing else a secured credit account to show sole responsibility. On manual reviews of credit reports a company will often discount accounts with AU or joint responsibility as they do not show performance by the individual This is of course a your mileage may vary statement and not a blanket statement of ALL creditors policies.

[Anonymous]

How often do they do a manual review? I only want to do it so when she does get her own CC it will be a better rate than what I got for my first one. My first one was 15% at my local credit union when I was 18. Now my rates are between 7.75 to 9.9 on all of my cards.

[RobertEG]

In my opinion, adding her as a joint account holder rather than an authorized user has a benefit.

Upon a manual review of her credit report, it will appear as her actual credit history, not that of another.

If a creditor sees the account in a manual review as an AU, they might choose to discount the impact of her score as being based partially on the credit history of another, and not her own.

Of course, she would also assume legal obligation for any debt on the account should it go south, but being married, that risk is not, in my opinion, worth clouding her score as not being based on her own credit history.

[Anonymous]

I had little to no credit when i started. My husband put me as an authorized user on a Discover Card and they report every month!!! It's probably a good idea to make her an authorized user. It will report on her credit report just the same.

[Anonymous]

Ok. So another question then. If I add her as an authorized user will it show my past account activity on her credit report?

[Anonymous]

Did discover show when your husband opened the account on your credit rreport or only show when he added you as an authorized user?

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@Anonymous wrote:

I had little to no credit when i started. My husband put me as an authorized user on a Discover Card and they report every month!!! It's probably a good idea to make her an authorized user. It will report on her credit report just the same.

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[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok. So another question then. If I add her as an authorized user will it show my past account activity on her credit report?

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Yes she will inherit the entire history of your account both good and bad.

Adding her as an AU can help IF the account is older than any of hers (older than her current AAoA is even better), IF the payment history is long and clean, IF the utilization is very low, and IF it will report to the CRA's. Not all cards will do this. You need to ask the company first but Discover does report AU's. One caveat however; if this account starts to go south your credit will be affected as well. Keep that in mind.