Being added as an authorized user to boost score

[Anonymous]

My cousin added me as an AU on her Discover card in a attempt to boost my score to obtain a personal loan. How long will it take the new item to show on my reports? Will it boost my score? She has excellent credit and her limit will decrease my utilization quite a bit.

[Shogun]

It's possible that you would see an increase, it would occurr when Discover posts the new update.  Used to be a trick with piggybacking accounts, but now the algorythms are better at distinguishing the real from the fake.  Good luck

[Anonymous]

Thanks!

[RobertEG]

Also, while you may see a score increase, a prospective lendor who does a manual review of your credit report will see the presence of an AU account.

That informs them that your "score" is not based only on your own credit history, and is affected by the credit history of another.

They have no way to back out the effect of the AU account, and thus could discount the value of the score in their decision making.

Because the presence of an AU account means that the score is not representative on the consumer's own history, some lendors will require removal of any AU accounts as part of a loan appproval process.

AUs are not a free lunch.

[Anonymous]

It's all a big game isn't it?

[RobertEG]

Yup.

A decade ago,. it was common practice for parties to advertise and sell the addition of AU accounts on the internet to total strangers.

That practice resulted in a crackdown that included a prior proposal by Fair Isaac to discontinue any scoring of AU accounts, and a limit by many creditors on only approving AUs for close family memebers, such as a spouse or child.

It is unregulated under the FCRA, and the CRAs do not discuss addition or deletion of AUs in their standard credit reporting manual other than the proper ECOA code for reporting purposes.

[Anonymous]

Hello again, It was added to my Experian and did raise the score, but it's not on TU or EQ yet. Wonder why? I researched and they say that Disocover reports to all three. Thanks, Wes

[Anonymous]

The timing isn't always exactly the same - you may see an update on Experian today and it may not appear on the other bureaus for a few days.  For me personally, the updates usually happen within a couple days of each other.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much

[medicgrrl]

I always see updates in this order on my reports...Exp, EQ, TU