Can't add a Joint user?

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2007

Since I've paid down a few of mu CC's to $0 balance, specifically Orchard, I thought it would be a good idea to add my 19 yr old brother as a joint account holder in order to help build and establish his credit. Orchard told me that he has to qualify on his own credit merits in order to qualify for being added to the account. Well, the problem is that he only has one CC, Chase Freedom, and apparently his score is so low that myfico,com can't even produce a score for him. Now, I know that many parents add their children to their accounts in order to help them establish their credit, so is what Orchard doing "standard"? Some people have added children who have absolutely no credit history of their own to their accounts! Orchard's logic seems kind of backwards if you ask me. Can someone please chime in? Thanks.

Message Edited by Profit on 07-27-2007 04:32 PM

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2007

Profit wrote:
Since I've paid down a few of mu CC's to $0 balance, specifically Orchard, I thought it would be a good idea to add my 19 yr old brother as a joint account holder in order to help build and establish his credit. Orchard told me that he has to qualify on his own credit merits in order to qualify for being added to the account. Well, the problem is that he only has one CC, Chase Freedom, and apparently his score is so low that myfico,com can't even produce a score for him. Now, I know that many parents add their children to their accounts in order to help them establish their credit, so is what Orchard doing "standard"? Some people have added children who have absolutely no credit history of their own to their accounts! Orchard's logic seems kind of backwards if you ask me. Can someone please chime in? Thanks.

Message Edited by Profit on 07-27-2007 04:32 PM

Joint is NOT the same as AU... You can add anyone as AU... Joint is a different process and each user must meet the minimum criteria for the CCC.

If your brother has Chase freedom, he's got a score on one or more of the CRAs...

Rob

Message Edited by FICO_Focused on 07-27-2007 08:17 PM

Anonymous · ‎07-27-2007

We just tried to pull a TU report from him on myfico and it says that there is not enough information in his file? With the upcoming changes in the FICO scoring, adding him as an AU at this point is useless, right? What other options are there? Will he just have to go w/ a secured card?

Anonymous · ‎07-29-2007

Profit wrote:
We just tried to pull a TU report from him on myfico and it says that there is not enough information in his file? With the upcoming changes in the FICO scoring, adding him as an AU at this point is useless, right? What other options are there? Will he just have to go w/ a secured card?

Is any info showing up on your brother's TU report?

JU and AU are not the same. You can add darned near anyone to most CCs as an AU. Whether they report it to the CRAs is another story. The window is still open on AUs before it closes forever.

Takunda1 · ‎07-30-2007

Profit wrote:
We just tried to pull a TU report from him on myfico and it says that there is not enough information in his file? With the upcoming changes in the FICO scoring, adding him as an AU at this point is useless, right? What other options are there? Will he just have to go w/ a secured card?

Your brother can apply for his own orchard bank account. Chances are good he will be approved through orchard bank if he is new to the credit world.

Message Edited by Takunda1 on 07-30-2007 04:10 PM

Anonymous · ‎07-30-2007

@Anonymous wrote:
We just tried to pull a TU report from him on myfico and it says that there is not enough information in his file? With the upcoming changes in the FICO scoring, adding him as an AU at this point is useless, right? What other options are there? Will he just have to go w/ a secured card?

Since only one CRA is applying the new FICO scoring model in September, and the other two CRAs will not change until early 2008, there is still some limited value in adding your brother as an AU on a positive account. Keep in mind that there can be a delay in newly-added AUs being reported to the CRAs, sometimes more than 30 days.

If I remember correctly, a person needs to have one account active for at least 6 months to meet the minimum requirement for a FICO score. If his Chase Freedom account was opened less than 6 months ago, that might explain the "not enough information" error message.

Message Edited by Revike on 07-30-2007 02:45 PM

Anonymous · ‎07-31-2007

Thank you all. I think I'm going to add him as an AU, then hopefully by 2008 his score will have increased enought to get something on his own. We tried the Orchard card, but they offered him the secured card. Weird.....I remember getting this card a month after my BK7.