Authorized user accounts

[Anonymous]

So I've been doing a lot of reading the last week and learning. Thank you all very much to everyone who has contributed to my threads and all in general. This is really a great resource for anyone looking to learn. Still a few things I'm confused about however.

If you become and authorized user on a credit card and they report it to the bureaus, it seems that most of the time it gives you the whole history of the card.

If that is the case, does the scoring benefit become immediate or does it take a cycle or two? Or do you only get the benefit of the time you were added even though it might help your age of accounts?

And if you get the whole history, how does Chase know it just got added and count against you on the 5/24 rule? Wouldn't it seem as though you had been on it for many years?

[SuperKirby]

The scoring benefit typically happens as soon as that card statement closes and it reports to your CBs (athough I've seen at random times my CC report right in the middle of a statement).

Yes, it counts as Chase's 5/24 'rule' but remember, if that primary card holder opened that CC in 2015, then it's been 3 years and therefore not counted as the 5/24 rule. Just because you're a new AU doesn't mean it's a "new account". 

However If the Primary card holder recently opened that CC, you can always call Chase's recon line and i've heard posters say they've been able to get a human to overturn that and get approved since the computer can't tell it's an AU but a human can. The computer/robot on the otherhand may just auto-deny you based off stats.

[Anonymous]

So if I get put on and if it is a 15 year old acct, even if I'm an AU does it count towards my age of accounts? And assuming it's older than my oldest account it would count as my oldest? I really think my account age is holding my score back and that isn't something you can just fix unless this does count towards it. 

I don't want to ask someone unless it would benefit me in this way. I only had an open loan(year and a half) and a cu cc(6 months) but gotten my last 3 cards I've app'd for(last 3 weeks) and decent limits. So with my slight drop in points this could offset and then as those report then I'll be ahead. Because my age was low before the 3 new cards but now will be really low.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind that not all lenders back date regardless how old the AU account is, Amex for example does not, it will report as a 1 month old new account which will back fire on your strategy. Also, you have no control over how the primary holder manages the AU account so choose who you ask carefully, high UTI now or in the future can tank your score as fast as the age might help now. Lastly, some lenders, most notably Chase, will not consider AU accounts when making credit decisions.

All that said, yes it can help your AAoA on paper given the right lender that back dates, but it's not as cut and dry as it seems.