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Adding spouses as AU

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coldfusion
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Adding spouses as AU

I pulled up an Experian report from a family member who is an AU on one of my cards.

 

Here's an example of how their own accounts report:

 

image.png

 

Here's how the account of mine that they are an AU on reports:

 

image.png

 

It would be a trivial exercise to strip out the AU account when evaluating their credit profile. 

(3/2024)
FICO 8 (EX) 846 (TU) 850 (EQ) 850
FICO 9 (EX) 850 (TU) 850 (EQ) 850

$1M+ club

Artist formerly known as the_old_curmudgeon who was formerly known as coldfusion
Message 11 of 24
coldfusion
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

If she adds me as an AU and has a zero balance it won't help my score?


 

 

One thing to keep in mind is if a primary motivation for being added as an AU is to boost your score that issuers tend to strip out AU accounts as part of the evaulation process.  


So this is where I am confused.  So the credit bureaus themselves will strip this out?


No, it will be reported as an account with you listed as an authorized user.  When your report is pulled the (potential) creditor will see the account and that you are an AU.    

 

The creditor will decide if and how that account will count toward assessing your creditworthiness. 


Ok thanks.  My question was just about the score.  


The CRA provides the data, not the score.  Credit decisions are made upon your credit report, not the score that gets spit out based upon whatever algorithm the creditor chooses to apply to the data provided. 

(3/2024)
FICO 8 (EX) 846 (TU) 850 (EQ) 850
FICO 9 (EX) 850 (TU) 850 (EQ) 850

$1M+ club

Artist formerly known as the_old_curmudgeon who was formerly known as coldfusion
Message 12 of 24
simplynoir
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

If she adds me as an AU and has a zero balance it won't help my score?


 

 

One thing to keep in mind is if a primary motivation for being added as an AU is to boost your score that issuers tend to strip out AU accounts as part of the evaulation process.  


So this is where I am confused.  So the credit bureaus themselves will strip this out?


No, it will be reported as an account with you listed as an authorized user.  When your report is pulled the (potential) creditor will see the account and that you are an AU.    

 

The creditor will decide if and how that account will count toward assessing your creditworthiness. 


Ok thanks.  My question was just about the score.  


The CRA provides the data, not the score.  Credit decisions are made upon your credit report, not the score that gets spit out based upon whatever algorithm the creditor chooses to apply to the data provided. 


@Anonymous, I think this needs to be understood what @coldfusion is saying here. In simple terms yes it will help your "scores" but the banks who pull your reports for credit/loan purposes don't have ANY obligation to use that score when deciding to extend credit. In a way you can say they simply pull the information from the reports like accounts, balances, any negatives, etc and from there derive their own scores which may be different than what EX/TU/EQ is saying

 

To a lot of banks when they pull reports and see that AU account they can say "computer, ignore that AU card/account when calculating our own internal scores because it's based on their OWN credit and that is not really theirs" in a nutshell. Years ago AU accounts were a way to inflate one's scores to get more favorable limits and APRs but they've closed that loophole for the most part. That's what he's trying to say here

Message 13 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@simplynoir wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

If she adds me as an AU and has a zero balance it won't help my score?


 

 

One thing to keep in mind is if a primary motivation for being added as an AU is to boost your score that issuers tend to strip out AU accounts as part of the evaulation process.  


So this is where I am confused.  So the credit bureaus themselves will strip this out?


No, it will be reported as an account with you listed as an authorized user.  When your report is pulled the (potential) creditor will see the account and that you are an AU.    

 

The creditor will decide if and how that account will count toward assessing your creditworthiness. 


Ok thanks.  My question was just about the score.  


The CRA provides the data, not the score.  Credit decisions are made upon your credit report, not the score that gets spit out based upon whatever algorithm the creditor chooses to apply to the data provided. 


@Anonymous, I think this needs to be understood what @coldfusion is saying here. In simple terms yes it will help your "scores" but the banks who pull your reports for credit/loan purposes don't have ANY obligation to use that score when deciding to extend credit. In a way you can say they simply pull the information from the reports like accounts, balances, any negatives, etc and from there derive their own scores which may be different than what EX/TU/EQ is saying

 

To a lot of banks when they pull reports and see that AU account they can say "computer, ignore that AU card/account when calculating our own internal scores because it's based on their OWN credit and that is not really theirs" in a nutshell. Years ago AU accounts were a way to inflate one's scores to get more favorable limits and APRs but they've closed that loophole for the most part. That's what he's trying to say here


This is very helpful, thanks.   We are looking for best scores when it comes to get a single close construction loan.  Either we will both be on it or just the spouse will be due to my student loans.  From everything I am reading just the score alone is a huge first step in the automatic approval.  I'm just trying to do as much homework on this as I can as we wait for lumber prices to maybe come down sometime, possibly.

Message 14 of 24
nwa479
Regular Contributor

Re: Adding spouses as AU

I'm in the same boat on getting ready for a construction loan and waiting for lumber costs to stabilize.   Not sure if it will help but my wife's credit profile is better than mine and she has several older accounts that could help increase my AAOA.  I've just achieved AZEO with my cards and once she posts a balance on one of her cards she'll add me as AU to see if there's any effect.  Waiting for hers to post a balance after May 12th so I don't get an AU All zero penalty. 

to optimize the mortgage score AZEO method does not differentiate between AU and your own cards for mortgage but does for FICO 8.  We're just testing this to see if there's any impact.  Can't hurt to try it.  

The other issue we have is we need my income but I have a lower mortgage score so our financing will be limited to my score in determining interest rates.  I'm at 660 MMS and trying to bump it to 680.  


 


Active cards

Goal Cards (Gardening until April 24)

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Banks and Credit Unions:
Message 15 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@nwa479 wrote:

I'm in the same boat on getting ready for a construction loan and waiting for lumber costs to stabilize.   Not sure if it will help but my wife's credit profile is better than mine and she has several older accounts that could help increase my AAOA.  I've just achieved AZEO with my cards and once she posts a balance on one of her cards she'll add me as AU to see if there's any effect.  Waiting for hers to post a balance after May 12th so I don't get an AU All zero penalty. 

to optimize the mortgage score AZEO method does not differentiate between AU and your own cards for mortgage but does for FICO 8.  We're just testing this to see if there's any impact.  Can't hurt to try it.  

The other issue we have is we need my income but I have a lower mortgage score so our financing will be limited to my score in determining interest rates.  I'm at 660 MMS and trying to bump it to 680.  


 


@nwa479 that is awesome because I would really like to know the results of your test. That's the problem it needs to be added with a small balance to avoid the AU AZ loss, exactly.

 

Likewise what is the age of the account and what is your AAoA? That way we can try to rule out those effects as well. Also what is your total number of revolvers open and closed please? If your number were too small it could potentially affect it as well. 

Message 16 of 24
nwa479
Regular Contributor

Re: Adding spouses as AU

@Anonymous  My AAoA is EQ (3yrs, 0 Mths), TU (3 yrs, 1 Mth), EX (3 yrs, 3 Mths).  The age difference is due to some installments reporting on TU/EX but not on EQ.  

 

I have 19 total revolving accounts, 15 open and 4 closed.   Of the open 15, 12 are bank cards and 3 are store cards.  I planned to close a few of the accounts I'm not using but will wait on that until after I see the results of adding an AU account. 

 

My wife has about 5 or 6 cards I could add that are over 8 years of age.  She has them all paid off except one.   The one with a balance I did not want because her utilization was about 12% on it.  Once she pays this down, I may add it.  Its a Cap1 with 8k CL.  The CL really doesn't help me bc I have 1% utilization.  

 

The first card we'd add is a Barclay card she's had for 15 years with only a $500 CL.  I had her put $10 on it and when the statement closes, I'll have her add me as an AU.  I wanted to see if there was any impact on my mortgage or other scores.  I could add more of her cards which would increase my AAoA to about 4 years total if I added all of them.

 

My next question is what is the difference between a dirty/clean scorecard?  I have a paid collection that hit my CR last June for all 3 CRAs.  Otherwise, the EQ would be clean.  EX/TU have an old repo with $2500 balance on it about 4 yrs ago.  

 

I plan to post this test as a separate post once I've got the results.  I didn't see much of a bump at all on Mortgage or other scores when I hit AZEO.  I'm sure the collection is dragging these down.  I believe I would be on the D2 scorecard for F8.  

 

Thanks for your input on this. 

 

 


Active cards

Goal Cards (Gardening until April 24)

My Fico Scores

Banks and Credit Unions:
Message 17 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Adding spouses as AU

You have to have some sort of small balance report on that card for it to help her out. 

Message 18 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@nwa479 wrote:

@Anonymous  My AAoA is EQ (3yrs, 0 Mths), TU (3 yrs, 1 Mth), EX (3 yrs, 3 Mths).  The age difference is due to some installments reporting on TU/EX but not on EQ.  

 

I have 19 total revolving accounts, 15 open and 4 closed.   Of the open 15, 12 are bank cards and 3 are store cards.  I planned to close a few of the accounts I'm not using but will wait on that until after I see the results of adding an AU account. 

 

My wife has about 5 or 6 cards I could add that are over 8 years of age.  She has them all paid off except one.   The one with a balance I did not want because her utilization was about 12% on it.  Once she pays this down, I may add it.  Its a Cap1 with 8k CL.  The CL really doesn't help me bc I have 1% utilization.  

 

The first card we'd add is a Barclay card she's had for 15 years with only a $500 CL.  I had her put $10 on it and when the statement closes, I'll have her add me as an AU.  I wanted to see if there was any impact on my mortgage or other scores.  I could add more of her cards which would increase my AAoA to about 4 years total if I added all of them.

 

My next question is what is the difference between a dirty/clean scorecard?  I have a paid collection that hit my CR last June for all 3 CRAs.  Otherwise, the EQ would be clean.  EX/TU have an old repo with $2500 balance on it about 4 yrs ago.  

 

I plan to post this test as a separate post once I've got the results.  I didn't see much of a bump at all on Mortgage or other scores when I hit AZEO.  I'm sure the collection is dragging these down.  I believe I would be on the D2 scorecard for F8.  

 

Thanks for your input on this. 

 

 


@nwa479 with 20 accounts, adding one that's eight years old shouldn't bring your average age up too much I don't think, hopefully not enough to cross any threshold. And hopefully it would not be your oldest Revolver? Long as it's not the new oldest Revolver then you don't have to worry about that metric either. 

also on 8/9 you have the anti-abuse algorithm but if you have the same last name and address you're usually good. 

 

I recall reading where TT said the number of cards reporting a Balance didn't matter in a dirty card, so if that is the case, I don't know whether number of AWB would matter in a dirty card, but I would still assume the AZ loss would be applicable, so I would still want the small balance as you have planned. 

Message 19 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Adding spouses as AU


@simplynoir wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

@coldfusion wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

If she adds me as an AU and has a zero balance it won't help my score?


 

 

One thing to keep in mind is if a primary motivation for being added as an AU is to boost your score that issuers tend to strip out AU accounts as part of the evaulation process.  


So this is where I am confused.  So the credit bureaus themselves will strip this out?


No, it will be reported as an account with you listed as an authorized user.  When your report is pulled the (potential) creditor will see the account and that you are an AU.    

 

The creditor will decide if and how that account will count toward assessing your creditworthiness. 


Ok thanks.  My question was just about the score.  


The CRA provides the data, not the score.  Credit decisions are made upon your credit report, not the score that gets spit out based upon whatever algorithm the creditor chooses to apply to the data provided. 


@Anonymous, I think this needs to be understood what @coldfusion is saying here. In simple terms yes it will help your "scores" but the banks who pull your reports for credit/loan purposes don't have ANY obligation to use that score when deciding to extend credit. In a way you can say they simply pull the information from the reports like accounts, balances, any negatives, etc and from there derive their own scores which may be different than what EX/TU/EQ is saying

 

To a lot of banks when they pull reports and see that AU account they can say "computer, ignore that AU card/account when calculating our own internal scores because it's based on their OWN credit and that is not really theirs" in a nutshell. Years ago AU accounts were a way to inflate one's scores to get more favorable limits and APRs but they've closed that loophole for the most part. That's what he's trying to say here


But my question still has to do with just the score.  Maybe I am wrong here.   Let's say my credit profile and my finances are acceptable to a bank to approve a mortgage but my credit score is 675 and they tell me that they won't even look at anything else unless I am a 680.  Because that's the situation right now that I am dealing with.

Message 20 of 24
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