Authorized User utilization

[Anonymous]

I am an authorized user on 2 cards , they're reporting limits and all but it has not been taken into consideration when it come to my ulitization , do you know why? 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am an authorized user on 2 cards , they're reporting limits and all but it has not been taken into consideration when it come to my ulitization , do you know why? 

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They may or may not be taken into consideration based on the anti-abuse algorithm, I believe.

My SO has a AU card from me and it is not taken into account into his util and was penalized for no revolving activity. This minth some activity was finally reported to the 3Bs from his own primary bankcard and saw upward of 15-20pt score gains.

[Anonymous]

So weird, what decides if it will be taken into account or not ?

[dragontears]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So weird, what decides if it will be taken into account or not ?

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A proprietary anti-abuse algorithm 

Banks and FICO originally wanted to remove ALL AU accounts from scoring but it created such a back lash because people such as a homemaker would be punished because they could only have AU accounts, FICO then created the anti-abuse algorithm to separate "valid" AU accounts from "invalid" accounts (to prevent the selling of AU accounts).

Supposedly this algorithm determines if the AU is a "valid" account, meaning it is a spouse or close family member. However, in reality it misses some "valid" accounts as in @Anonymous case and includes some "invalid" accounts. 

[Anonymous]

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@dragontears wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So weird, what decides if it will be taken into account or not ?

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A proprietary anti-abuse algorithm 

Banks and FICO originally wanted to remove ALL AU accounts from scoring but it created such a back lash because people such as a homemaker would be punished because they could only have AU accounts, FICO then created the anti-abuse algorithm to separate "valid" AU accounts from "invalid" accounts (to prevent the selling of AU accounts).

Supposedly this algorithm determines if the AU is a "valid" account, meaning it is a spouse or close family member. However, in reality it misses some "valid" accounts as in @Anonymous case and includes some "invalid" accounts. 

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I am assuming simply because we do not share a last name or he is not listed as "spouse" (he is listed under cosigner/spouse, on some CRs so idk) that the anti-abuse algorithm comes into play. We have the same address and have been associated almost 20 years on paper in some fashion, but nope, it seems to count, but does not count always, as into his revolving utilization...

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am an authorized user on 2 cards , they're reporting limits and all but it has not been taken into consideration when it come to my ulitization , do you know why? 

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@Anonymous how do you know its not being taken into consideration when it comes to your utilization?

Because unless you have tightly controlled all variables and tested as your utilization crossed thresholds and either saw score changes/reason code shifts or the absence there of, you don't know whether it's affecting your utilization. 

[Anonymous]

Because if you mean it’s not showing in your utilization on Credit Karma or Experian’s frontend or myfico, well none of that tells you what the algorithms counting anyway, you do realize that?

The CMS makes a nice pretty frontend and performs its own calculations from the CR to present for your consideration, just like idiot lights in the dashboard of your car. Like those idiot lights, it doesn’t tell you what’s really going on. The information they show you is not the information the fico algorithm is using; it does its own calculations, as we all should. 

If you would like to know whether or not your authorized user cards are counting towards the fico metrics, there is a test you can perform to find out. It is explained in the appropriate section of the Scoring Primer, which is linked at the top of my signature.

As a matter of fact, whether you realize it or not, just like there’s an all zero penalty for having all your cards at zero, there is an independent and separate AU AZ penalty, too. So if by chance those authorized user accounts are counting and they’re all at zero, you’re being penalized you realize that?

[Anonymous]

Most of the CMSs do not include authorized user utilization in their calculations. Experian is an exception to this because they show utilization in two different places, one with and one without.

[Anonymous]

One last note, authorized users always count for the mortgage scores. the anti-abuse algorithm is only for version 8 and forward, so that’s the only ones you need to do the test for.