Help! Is my score going away in September?!

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

I'm a recent college grad who is about to move to L.A. to start a new job in late September, and I've been telling prospective landlords that I have excellent credit, because at this moment I do, but I just heard about the change in the "piggy-backing" loophole that I'm affraid will destroy my score.

During college I chose to share a credit card with my parents instead of getting my own. I had consulted with an advisor at that time who said that it wouldn't make any difference to my credit score whether I was an authorized user on their card or whether I had my own. Now aparently in September it will make a huge difference.

Nearly all the apartment complexes I'm looking at require good credit in order to rent, and without the shared credit cards, I have almost no credit. Should I try to arrange for an August 25th credit check and a Sept. 1st move-in to avoid the new law? Does the law affect anyone who has ever been an authorized user on their parents' credit card, or just people who are trying to open new accounts to piggyback now?

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

they law affect everybody. Mostly the people who have been authorized users on their parents' accounts.

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

I've just finished moving into a new apartment in West LA. What a huge pain. You have to have better credit here to rent than you do to buy, it seems.

But take heart. Almost all of the landlords I talked to don't care about FICO scores, they only care whether you have collections or not. They don't want good credit so much as clean credit. Just be straightforward and ask a potential landlord what they want to see. Tell them you haven't got much of a credit history and explain why.

They also care very much about income and previous rental history. If you've got a good source of money and your previous landlords will speak well of you, you should be good to go.

And get on that apartment hunt with a quickness. It's extremely competitive here, especially this time of year and especially if you want a 2-bedroom. Any good apartment will be rented within 2 days of it being made available. You need to be within the first 3 applicants to stand a good chance of getting a place you like.

edit:

I assume you know about West Side Rentals, which is probably the best place to find apartments in LA. If you sign up with them you can have them run your credit right now, and then they will share that credit report with landlords who use their system. That might be able to preserve your authorized user benefit beyond September.

Message Edited by RevMen on 08-16-2007 10:56 AM

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

cc22 wrote:
I'm a recent college grad who is about to move to L.A. to start a new job in late September, and I've been telling prospective landlords that I have excellent credit, because at this moment I do, but I just heard about the change in the "piggy-backing" loophole that I'm affraid will destroy my score.

During college I chose to share a credit card with my parents instead of getting my own. I had consulted with an advisor at that time who said that it wouldn't make any difference to my credit score whether I was an authorized user on their card or whether I had my own. Now aparently in September it will make a huge difference.

Nearly all the apartment complexes I'm looking at require good credit in order to rent, and without the shared credit cards, I have almost no credit. Should I try to arrange for an August 25th credit check and a Sept. 1st move-in to avoid the new law? Does the law affect anyone who has ever been an authorized user on their parents' credit card, or just people who are trying to open new accounts to piggyback now?

Only 1 CRA will start removing credit from AUs. The other 2 will follow sometime next year. You might want to start gettin some CC of your own now. Only use them for about 3 months & PIF within grace period. This way the CCC will start reporting on your CR. Keep in mind that it could take a few months for it all to come together. You might also think of applying for a CC as a joint holder with your parent. Make it a small CL.

fused · ‎08-16-2007

cc22 wrote:

I'm a recent college grad who is about to move to L.A. to start a new job in late September, and I've been telling prospective landlords that I have excellent credit, because at this moment I do, but I just heard about the change in the "piggy-backing" loophole that I'm affraid will destroy my score.

During college I chose to share a credit card with my parents instead of getting my own. I had consulted with an advisor at that time who said that it wouldn't make any difference to my credit score whether I was an authorized user on their card or whether I had my own. Now aparently in September it will make a huge difference.

Nearly all the apartment complexes I'm looking at require good credit in order to rent, and without the shared credit cards, I have almost no credit. Should I try to arrange for an August 25th credit check and a Sept. 1st move-in to avoid the new law? Does the law affect anyone who has ever been an authorized user on their parents' credit card, or just people who are trying to open new accounts to piggyback now?

http://credit.com/credit_information/credit_report/Consumer-Alert-FICO-Formula-Changes.jsp

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

cc22 wrote:
I'm a recent college grad who is about to move to L.A. to start a new job in late September, and I've been telling prospective landlords that I have excellent credit, because at this moment I do, but I just heard about the change in the "piggy-backing" loophole that I'm affraid will destroy my score.

During college I chose to share a credit card with my parents instead of getting my own. I had consulted with an advisor at that time who said that it wouldn't make any difference to my credit score whether I was an authorized user on their card or whether I had my own. Now aparently in September it will make a huge difference.

Nearly all the apartment complexes I'm looking at require good credit in order to rent, and without the shared credit cards, I have almost no credit. Should I try to arrange for an August 25th credit check and a Sept. 1st move-in to avoid the new law? Does the law affect anyone who has ever been an authorized user on their parents' credit card, or just people who are trying to open new accounts to piggyback now?

Congrats on your graduation and landing your first "real' job!

I'd suggest that you apply to get your own credit card now, while your AU status still counts for something.

There is no law that will affect AUs. Fair Isaac is simply changing its scoring formula so that people who have been AUs will no longer be able to count those accounts and that history as part of their own credit picture. This change will affect FICO scores from only one CRA in Sept. (we don't know which one yet), and it will affect anyone who is or will be an AU on anyone else's account.

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

masdeocho wrote:

cc22 wrote:
I'm a recent college grad who is about to move to L.A. to start a new job in late September, and I've been telling prospective landlords that I have excellent credit, because at this moment I do, but I just heard about the change in the "piggy-backing" loophole that I'm affraid will destroy my score.

During college I chose to share a credit card with my parents instead of getting my own. I had consulted with an advisor at that time who said that it wouldn't make any difference to my credit score whether I was an authorized user on their card or whether I had my own. Now aparently in September it will make a huge difference.

Nearly all the apartment complexes I'm looking at require good credit in order to rent, and without the shared credit cards, I have almost no credit. Should I try to arrange for an August 25th credit check and a Sept. 1st move-in to avoid the new law? Does the law affect anyone who has ever been an authorized user on their parents' credit card, or just people who are trying to open new accounts to piggyback now?

Congrats on your graduation and landing your first "real' job!

I'd suggest that you apply to get your own credit card now, while your AU status still counts for something.

There is no law that will affect AUs. Fair Isaac is simply changing its scoring formula so that people who have been AUs will no longer be able to count those accounts and that history as part of their own credit picture. This change will affect FICO scores from only one CRA in Sept. (we don't know which one yet), and it will affect anyone who is or will be an AU on anyone else's account.

I concur... Get some of your own accounts and all will be fine.

Good luck in LA.

Rob

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

Thanks for the replies everyone! Will we know which CRA will start using the new system in September? I guess it would be weird to tell a landlord that I prefer that they use a particular CRA, though.

I will apply for a credit card now, but I'm not sure whether that will even affect my credit in the time period that I need it to (I'll be applying for apartments as soon as Sept 7th).

Also I lived in dorms in college, so I have no real rental history, and I'm looking for month-to-month or 6-month lease term because I work in an industry that's fairly volatile and I don't want have to break a lease if I end up having to move wherever the work is at that moment. That makes things a million times harder. My good credit was something I was really relying on since most landlords require a credit check, and even when I called a couple places just to ask to tour an apartment they said, "if your credit score isn't good, don't bother." Ugh, this is going to be so hard.

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

In what area are you looking?

What kind of apartment are you looking for?

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2007

cc22 wrote:
Thanks for the replies everyone! Will we know which CRA will start using the new system in September? I guess it would be weird to tell a landlord that I prefer that they use a particular CRA, though.

I will apply for a credit card now, but I'm not sure whether that will even affect my credit in the time period that I need it to (I'll be applying for apartments as soon as Sept 7th).

Also I lived in dorms in college, so I have no real rental history, and I'm looking for month-to-month or 6-month lease term because I work in an industry that's fairly volatile and I don't want have to break a lease if I end up having to move wherever the work is at that moment. That makes things a million times harder. My good credit was something I was really relying on since most landlords require a credit check, and even when I called a couple places just to ask to tour an apartment they said, "if your credit score isn't good, don't bother." Ugh, this is going to be so hard.

We don't know for sure which CRA it will be, or whether it will take effect on Sept. 1. For all we know, the whole elimination-of-AUs-from-scoring-formula won't happen until Oct. Or ever.

So go forth and apply for some credit and some apartments. The landlord probably has a contract with a particular CRA so you can't tell them which one to pull (especially without making them suspicious). Just act confident when they start talking about the no bad credit thing.

In these situations sometimes it's best to offer up good ol' cash -- can you pay 3 months' rent in advance?