@Anonymous wrote:
@Iusedtolurk wrote:Trying to help my daughter with her credit (she has 1 card and 8 months AAoA) so I just added her as an AU on my 3 year 4 month old Cap1.
I have for the last several months kept this account with a zero balance reported. Do I have to leave a balance for it to help her or is it okay to keep it reporting zero balance.
Also does anyone know how long it usually takes to show up on credit report?
You do not need to have a balance report to help her. In fact since she only has one card, if the AU card reports a balance she can be hit with a penalty for having 50 percent of her revolving accounts reporting a balance ( or 100 percent if her own card also has a balance). She will still gain from the age factors and payment history of your card.
It will show up on her credit reports after the next statement close.
There is also an AU AZ penalty on FICO8 that she would be hit with if the card reports a zero balance. The age will help offset this and is more benficial to her profile, but there are certainly points being left on the table when all AU cards report zero balance. If her card also has a zero balance she will be hit with the normal AZ penalty + the AU AZ penalty.
I am not sure if these penalties would be a greater score loss than having 100% of accounts reporting a balance, my gut feeling on a thin profile like her's is the all zero penalties will be more harmful than 100% accounts reporting a balance. Maybe someone with more experience with thin profiles can chime in, my profile hasn't been thin for a long time... 
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Iusedtolurk wrote:Trying to help my daughter with her credit (she has 1 card and 8 months AAoA) so I just added her as an AU on my 3 year 4 month old Cap1.
I have for the last several months kept this account with a zero balance reported. Do I have to leave a balance for it to help her or is it okay to keep it reporting zero balance.
Also does anyone know how long it usually takes to show up on credit report?
You do not need to have a balance report to help her. In fact since she only has one card, if the AU card reports a balance she can be hit with a penalty for having 50 percent of her revolving accounts reporting a balance ( or 100 percent if her own card also has a balance). She will still gain from the age factors and payment history of your card.
It will show up on her credit reports after the next statement close.
There is also an AU AZ penalty on FICO8 that she would be hit with if the card reports a zero balance. The age will help offset this and is more benficial to her profile, but there are certainly points being left on the table when all AU cards report zero balance. If her card also has a zero balance she will be hit with the normal AZ penalty + the AU AZ penalty.
I am not sure if these penalties would be a greater score loss than having 100% of accounts reporting a balance, my gut feeling on a thin profile like her's is the all zero penalties will be more harmful than 100% accounts reporting a balance. Maybe someone with more experience with thin profiles can chime in, my profile hasn't been thin for a long time...
@AnonymousSo many different scenarios to consider. Good to know the additional info.
I guess we will see after the card reports on her profile around the middle of next month. Hopefully the age will offset any negative points and add a few positive ones to her profile.