Question about AU and number or cards reporting a balance

[alyssamarie]

I have read on here that most people find that their scores are best when they have just one card reporting a 1-9% balance and the rest reporting zero. Do AU accounts factor into this as well? For example, I'm an AU on some of DH's cards and he is on a few of mine, if I have just one card that we are both users on report should we keep all other cards at $0? So if it's his card, for example, that reports a balance, all of mine should report a $0 balance to reach optimal scoring for my credit as well? 

Thanks for the clarification!

[09Lexie]

---

@alyssamarie wrote:

I have read on here that most people find that their scores are best when they have just one card reporting a 1-9% balance and the rest reporting zero. Do AU accounts factor into this as well? For example, I'm an AU on some of DH's cards and he is on a few of mine, if I have just one card that we are both users on report should we keep all other cards at $0? So if it's his card, for example, that reports a balance, all of mine should report a $0 balance to reach optimal scoring for my credit as well? 

Thanks for the clarification!

---

All rev TLs factor into your score.  Yes, AUs TL will count

[alyssamarie]

Good to know, thanks! I'll just pick one card to report a small balance each month then! and pay everything else off completely!

[RobertEG]

Yes, they are included in scoring the same as an accunt of your own.

However, the caveat with any scoring that incudes an account that is not your own.... if the creidot does a manual review of your CR, they may question or discount the value of your score in their determination, as it does not represent only your own personal credit history.

That could become an issue when apping for higher amts of credit, where a manual review becomes more likely.

[Hcontreras]

---

@alyssamarie wrote:

I have read on here that most people find that their scores are best when they have just one card reporting a 1-9% balance and the rest reporting zero. Do AU accounts factor into this as well? For example, I'm an AU on some of DH's cards and he is on a few of mine, if I have just one card that we are both users on report should we keep all other cards at $0? So if it's his card, for example, that reports a balance, all of mine should report a $0 balance to reach optimal scoring for my credit as well? 

Thanks for the clarification!

---

Being added as an AU (authorized user) is overrated and overblown in terms of the results or a bump in your score is concerned. Trust me, I've done it. I had a very thin file with no baddies, only 1 secured credit card with a CL of $700 (6 months old). My gf has a 14 year old Chase credit card with absolutely IMMACULATE payment history at a $22,000 CL (6% utilization). Well, she added me as an AU and it hit my CR, on EX and TU the score stayed exactly the same, but on EQ my score went up only 1 pt. despite my AAoA going from 6 months to 7 YEARS over night and also adding her CL ($22,000) and payment history to my CR. It literally accounted for 1 pt only on one CRA. I think when it comes to your score, the scoring model basically ignores accounts that you are an AU on (For scoring purposes). It was a waste of time for me....

[alyssamarie]

---

@Hcontreras wrote:

---

@alyssamarie wrote:

I have read on here that most people find that their scores are best when they have just one card reporting a 1-9% balance and the rest reporting zero. Do AU accounts factor into this as well? For example, I'm an AU on some of DH's cards and he is on a few of mine, if I have just one card that we are both users on report should we keep all other cards at $0? So if it's his card, for example, that reports a balance, all of mine should report a $0 balance to reach optimal scoring for my credit as well? 

Thanks for the clarification!

---

Being added as an AU (authorized user) is overrated and overblown in terms of the results or a bump in your score is concerned. Trust me, I've done it. I had a very thin file with no baddies, only 1 secured credit card with a CL of $700 (6 months old). My gf has a 14 year old Chase credit card with absolutely IMMACULATE payment history at a $22,000 CL (6% utilization). Well, she added me as an AU and it hit my CR, on EX and TU the score stayed exactly the same, but on EQ my score went up only 1 pt. despite my AAoA going from 6 months to 7 YEARS over night and also adding her CL ($22,000) and payment history to my CR. It literally accounted for 1 pt only on one CRA. I think when it comes to your score, the scoring model basically ignores accounts that you are an AU on (For scoring purposes). It was a waste of time for me....

---

They are new TL's so I wasn't thinking they'd help in that respect. I need to be an AU because I'll actually use the cards a lot, I do the majority of our shopping.