Understanding the perks of being an Authorized user.

[Anonymous]

In summary, I'm looking to see if my mother can make me an AU on her amex platinum.

I'm aware this gives me my own card under her account, but what happens afterwards, how long should I stay under her before i start seeing my score increase and will I be eligible for my own platinum once she removes me from it? Will my info already be with amex once I choose to apply for my own card and does that strengthen my case for approval?

[digitek]

Being an AU used to be worth at least something, but these days it doesn't really do much for your credit score. A lot of scoring algorithms will completely ignore AU cards.

As far as helping with Amex, I'm not sure but I don't think it will. As far as their concerned you aren't responsible for anything as an AU, so doesn't help much.

Amex Platinum is actually not very hard to get on your own. About a year of credit history and scores around 700 will be fine in most cases. You are giving them $700 a year just to use it, so they don't mind handing it out to most anyone interested.

Good luck with getting your own Platinum if that's your goal, should be doable.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous wrote:

In summary, I'm looking to see if my mother can make me an AU on her amex platinum.

I'm aware this gives me my own card under her account, but what happens afterwards, how long should I stay under her before i start seeing my score increase and will I be eligible for my own platinum once she removes me from it? Will my info already be with amex once I choose to apply for my own card and does that strengthen my case for approval?

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AUs can certainly benefit your scores, if it is the right card. Amex cards, and specifically Amex charge cards, are terrible cards for providing AU score benefits. AU cards work by contributing to your account age as well as your utilization. 

Amex cards should not be used because they do not report the age of the account anymore, they report as if they have just been opened so you gain no aging benefits. Charge cards should not be used as they do not have a limit, therefore they do not contribute to your available credit and do not help with utilization.

The ideal AU card should have low utilization and should be older than your Average Age of Accounts. 

Two special notes about AU cards. There is an AU AZ penalty that is experienced in FICO8 models. If you have no AU cards reporting a balance you will be hit with an authorized user all zero penalty, this penalty may or may not outweigh the utilization padding and aging provided by the AU account. There is also an anti-abuse algorithm that has been developed for FICO8 and newer models, no one is fully aware of how this works and there is no way to know if your AU account has been picked up by this algorithm other than testing if you encounter the AU AZ penalty. The AU account will still contribute to your 5/4/2 scores and there is no AU AZ penalty on these scores either, so AUs are very useful when trying to boost scores for mortgages.

Many lenders will discount AU accounts when evaluating an approval, I think it is important to note that this does not change your score. It may affect that lender's internal DTI calculations and your overall approval odds, but it will not afffect your actual FICO score and therefore it can help you qualify for higher tier rates.