Auth User

[Anonymous]

If my husband adds me as an auth user on his cards that have a $0 balance, will my score increase?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
If my husband adds me as an auth user on his cards that have a $0 balance, will my score increase?

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Absolutely no way of telling without knowing a whole lot more about your credit file and the limits on his cards.  Your scores could go up and probably will but there is no guarantee.  All depends on your overall credit utilization and how the new cards affect that and the age and history of the cards that you would be an AU on.

[Anonymous]

Will the bank check my credit?
I have 3 CC with low limits. Currently around 50% util.

[Anonymous]

His limits are a little higher, $900, $1500, $1500.

[Anonymous]

What are the limits on his cards?  If you card limits are small and you're at 50% utilization, if his card limits are larger and he's got $0 balances I would think that would drop your overall utilization a decent chunk, possibly resulting in a score increase. 

Another thing to consider is the age of his accounts relative to yours.  If one or more of the accounts that you are thinking of being added to is significantly older than your oldest account, you could see a benefit from a greater AoOA as well as an AAoA increase, two things that could positively impact your score.

I think the more important question here and my intention isn't to veer off-topic, but why if you have low limit cards is your utilization at 50%?  If the limits are low that means your balances are low, so it would of course be in your best interest to pay them down/off and you shouldn't have to break the bank to do so.

[Anonymous]

I have paid off one balance and working to pay the other 2 down. I should have them paid down by the end of the month. 

Thanks for the info, I didn't think about the age of the account, that's good to know. 

[Anonymous]

Paying down your utilization from 50% to an ideal range (1%-8% or so) could yield you a 40-60 point gain on your FICO scores, so that should be nice for you to see.

[Anonymous]

Will adding me affect his score or profile at all?

[Anonymous]

No, it would not impact him at all.

You could have him add you and see what it does to your profile.  If it has a positive impact, keep it.  If not, have him remove you.  No harm in trying to see which works better really.

[Anonymous]

I like the idea of you adding him and seeing whether it helped.  But to do that properly, you want to first get all your cards at zero except one, with the remaining card at a small positive balance, and then make sure all the new balances are reflected in your new reports.

Only after that should you be added as an AU.  If you are added at the same time that you are paying down your cards, you will have no idea whether the scoring benefit was because of the AU card or not.

Alternatively, you can just give us some information about your current accounts and we'll be able to tell you whether adding the AU card is a good idea.  We'd need to know:

*  The age of each of your accounts, including closed ones, starting with the youngest and going to the oldest. 

*  The age of each card to which you might be added as an AU

*  A confirmation from you that all of the potential AU cards have a $0 balance and no lates.

An even simpler way to think of it is this.  Being added as an AU is a good idea if:

(1)  The AU card is much older than your oldest account (e.g. AU = 20 years and your oldest is 3)

(2)  The AU card will always have a $0 or a very low balance.

(3)  The AU card will always have no lates associated with it.

If all three things are true, it's a good idea.  Otherwise it is not.