@Anonymous wrote:Hello guys,
I started building my credit 2 years ago, so far it has been going great, my score was at 741 at one point but it has dropped recently because I opened a new account.
My payment history is exceptional and there is no negative things on my account but there is one drawback which seems to pull my whole credit report down with most lenders and that is - account length.
I have heard that it is possible to impact the lengt of credit history if somebody with long credit history adds you to their account.
Is there a way to do this and it would be greatly appreciathed because I will be looking into buying a house in the next year or two and I belive that this would have a great impact on the morgage interest rates lenders may offer me.
Thank you guys
My credit age is shorter than yours and my scores are in the 750's - 760's, mortgage scores currently in the 730-740 range. My youngest account is almost 6 months. If I don't apply for anything in the next 1-2 years, my scores will only go up (assuming I continue to pay everything on time and keep utilization low). Although a long, thick credit profile is desirable, it's not necessary for a mortgage. Otherwise, no one in their 20's could ever get one. You'll be ok without being an AU. As someone mentioned, lenders will know your real account age without the AU account, and will likely not be taken into consideration anyway. Keep reading the forums, and you'll learn more than you could ever have possibly known on your own.
@NimbusIII wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:IMO, I wouldn't do it. Your rebuild is going well so far and I wouldn't rely on someone else's credit to build history. Just be patient, don't app for awhile and you'll develop history of your own. You're doing it already! I've seen several threads here where an individual was an AU on someone else's account and ended up paying for it down the line because the account holder began missing payments or having high utilization which is much worse on your CR than little rebuild history. Keep in mind, just as much as being an AU on an account can help your CR/scores is just as much as it can hurt given someone else's history or poor credit decisions in the future. Good luck!
As an authorized user you are and can not be held responsible for someone else's account. If the Primary party fails to pay, remove yourself from the Account and dispute the account with the credit agencies and it will be removed from your report within 31 days. It is not your account and they can not retain it on your account if you dispute it. With anything comes risk, but this is a risk in which you have an advantage of protection if needed.
Q directly relates to the response above to the AU question, so I wasn't sure whether a new thread would capture it properly and I tried to copy and paste it:
if you were an authorized user and the account fell behind 30/60/60 before being closed, can you still be removed and have those lates removed from your account, since you were only the authorized user? Should you write GW letters to the lender since it is still on your report? The account was closed in 2016 but it was open and in good standing since 1993. The card holder is now 88 and no one realized at the time that payments were slipping and when we finally did, the account was closed.
