Authorized User Question

[Deetheman]

If someone has an 8 year old credit card with no missed payments, but has medical collections etc, on their report, will I get only the positive history from being added on to that 8 y/o card as an authorized user? Or will it negatively impact my score because they have collections? 

[coldfusion]

Only their accounts that name you as a joint owner or authorized user will be reflected on your reports.

[Deetheman]

Thanks!!

[Anonymalous]

@coldfusionis correct. A lot of articles or videos on the web are really sloppy (or just uninformed), and seem to say that an authorized user inherits the entire credit history of the primary account holder. That's not true. You just get the tradeline. All the bads tied to that tradeline show up, like lates, but nothing else. Also, watch out for utilization. Since you're not the one responsible for paying off the card, you really want a card with a consistent history of low or no balances, because big spikes in usage can hurt your score, and you don't have much control over it. Finally, if it's an Amex, you won't get that 8 years of history, because they count the date from when you were added as an AU, not from when the card was first opened.

[Deetheman]

Nicely explained, thanks for the great information!

[eliteproxy]

If i have 2 AU accounts and one has a under 2% util on it.. but all the cards that I am an indivisual holders are 0 balances.. does this count negative with no credit usage? or does it take in to count the AU cards?

[FireMedic1]

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@eliteproxy wrote:

If i have 2 AU accounts and one has a under 2% util on it.. but all the cards that I am an indivisual holders are 0 balances.. does this count negative with no credit usage? or does it take in to count the AU cards?

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It should count. You can check CK and see if its a 0% util or higher.

[OmarGB9]

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@eliteproxy wrote:

If i have 2 AU accounts and one has a under 2% util on it.. but all the cards that I am an indivisual holders are 0 balances.. does this count negative with no credit usage? or does it take in to count the AU cards?

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It counts negatively on your personal utilization if all of your cards show a zero balance, yes. You'd get hit with the all zero penalty. 

AU accounts have their own separate utilization metrics. 

[coldfusion]

There can also be a small penalty (expect around 5 points +/-) if none of the accounts that are reporting you as an authorized user currently reports a balance.  That particular penalty is much like utilization in that it has no memory, so if one of the AU accounts reports a balance FICO scores will be refactored.