Whether getting added as an AU helps or hurts depends on the age of the account( if the issuer backdates) and the utilization. There is no set answer but for the most part, it helps. If the utilization on the card is high then it will likely hurt a score.
If you will list out your accounts, balances, and baddies, Age of oldest tradeline, and average age then someone will be able to give you actionable advice on what you can do to make a positive impact.
Hard to say without knowing your full report but my biggest bumps came from paying off two charge-offs and bringing down my overall utilization. My TU is actually 702 according to a recent app approval and that’s up from 635 in January. Utilization made the biggest changes and was the only thing I could truly control. Everything else requires goodwill or patience.
The late payments will affect you unfortunately BUT you should report a small balance on your open ones instead of zero cards like to see that you can use the cards and use them responsibly what I typically do is use as much of my limit as possible pay it to 0 on the payment due date then the day after put a few dollars to report to statements typically 6 dollars or more depending on how high your limit is in some cases if the amount is high and you only put 5 or below they will waive or 'forgive' it and report 0% util. you want it to be at least 1% that way it shows you use their service and also too it will help them not lower your limit thinking you don't need/use it. Getting off all the baddies may help but definitely make sure the people you go under have good utilization and aren't behind etc because that will actually hurt more than help
@Anonymous wrote:Here is some more info to help get advice!
Right now I have 3 open accounts:
Kohls: zero balance, opened for 2y8m
Capital One that my husband added me on: zero balance( we have been using a little and paying it off right away since opening in Jan)
Navient student loan: 12yrs old, balance: 13,000, up to date on monthly payments
Hard inquiries: I have more than five in the last year due to applying for a mortgage and card to boost my score. Two have come off last week and supposedly this hurt my transunion score????
Nothing in collections now but I had maybe 5 or 6 accounts there but are all paid off now.
14 late payments showing from my student loans and 1 from my kohls card and 1 from my previous mortgage from a couple years ago.
So the collections are still showing just paid off? If they are still there, then they are holding you back. When are they scheduled to fall off( you can find this by logging into one of the dispute sites or annualcreditreport.com and it will show you the date)? If they still have a while, then you can try to goodwill them.
The lates are going to be a killer. Are they 30, 60 day lates or something more? How old are they? With this many its going to be hard to bring up the scores until they are gone. Not sure if you can get a goodwill on those, but it's worth a try.
Do you know why the one report’s score is so much higher than the other two?
Sometimes the others report after the other ones and some report to 2 of 3 some report to all 3 and some only report to 1 so that can have an affect as well 