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@Anonymous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:I read the response from Cindy as “there are not many points available for setting up an AU”. So why bother?
Instead of pursuing the idea that AU is magically adding many points to users accounts, perhaps it is time to stop, and start gathering data points. The AZEO method is similarly dangled to new members as an “optimization” method when for FICO 8 it is really just low utilization. Maybe AU is similarly not a benefit.
It seems most of the people we see trying for AU are rebuilding, and thus in dirty files. Others are new to credit, and experiencing rapid changes on thin files. Are any of those files quiet enough that the benefit of adding the AU is able to be isolated?
When you say most? Im not most since the dirty file is long gone. I added the AU since I was using the card and paying for it, I have 1 personal card that is 4.5yrs old and a clean credit report. The only benefit that the AU has helped me with is age, credit score and CL on paper, in real life creditors dont look at the AU, they are looking at my own personal credit and even with a credit score above 800, perfect payment history and clean report, I am still branded as a dirty file. I will still keep the AU account on my report, because I will continue to use it ad pay for it.
There were two sentences in my post. One refers to dirty files in a generalized (admittedly probably too generalized) "Most" term. The next sentence is Thin files, of which it seems your meets that criteria.
So with one account, no payments problems, what is the score boost you are getting from the AU account? How did you determine the score boost (if any) from the AU account?
@Anonymous wrote:
@FenderGuy How or why are you branded as a dirty file if your report is clean?
@NRB525 I’ve never had a dirty file and neither is my credit new, yet I have a few AU cards. The AU accounts did buffer me when my oldest individual accounts fell off though and kept me from re-bucketing I think. (I know I don’t represent the majority though.) Actually they were very useful for testing because they allowed me to find multiple AAOA break points as added. 😉
Do you have an estimation of any points gain from the AU files, and if so, how did you determine the points benefit amount?
Got the scores from the Myfico Website of course. Transunion was effected big time.
@Anonymous wrote:OP, where are you getting your score(s) from?
Nope, nothing changed.. only that the au accounts were not included in the scoring model anymore
I even added myself to my wifes cc as an authorized user. The account open for 25 years, made sure it was added and checked the fico score on transunion and no change. This is definately the culprit.
I just had a balance change on an AU account. I’m on a card for my work and the balance in May had util at 7%. I noticed a score increase but didn’t pay close enough attention to know how much of that was based on the balance going down. Fast forward to Thursday, updated balance for June posted and util was up to 52% on that account. Score changes were as follows:
Ex - (6) points
TU - (6) points
EQ - 0 Points
My curiosity continues on this topic. Does the above score drops tell me that Ex and TU are the only 2 that count AU balances? I verified and the balance updated on all 3 reports and no other changes occurred last week so that has to be the reason for the 6 point drop in score.
FYI - scores reviewed were FICO 8.
@Anonymous wrote:
Joeroe, I’m trying to understand. If you are already an AU on one of your wife’s old cards, then I’m not sure what adding another proves. If the first one counts, so does the second; if the first one doesn’t then the second one should not, assuming the same names and addresses.
Let me ask you this, you said that your age changed. To the best of my knowledge, the age display on MF has never included AU accounts, so I’m baffled as to how or why the age displayed on MF or a 3B changed, if it was a result of dropping AU accounts. If they stopped counting, the age displayed should not of changed.
How are you determining that your age changed? The age displayed by the CMS is not necessarily the age the algorithm uses. And when the algorithm generates the score, it does not tell you the age that it used in its calculations.
If the age displayed in MF changed, that would indicate to me one of your old accounts dropped off, not an AU. It just seems like if the algorithm had retroactively changed, that would be big news everywhere. Are you absolutely certain nothing else changed or dropped off?
DB2019 To my knowledge AU accounts either count at all bureaus or do not count at all bureaus. The anti-abuse portion of the algorithm should be the same at all bureaus I believe. Maybe the conventional knowledge is wrong?
There are differences among the bureaus as to where the point changes for the number of accounts with balance are. Similarly the number of points may be different as well. Definitely seems strange though. Looks like you would’ve taken a hit for going that high with utilization if it were counted. Are you absolutely certain that nothing else changed?
The only change with it the last 2 weeks was the updating of the balance on the AU account. I should clarify, I am not saying EQ doesn’t take AU accounts into consideration, but they may not affect scoring as it does with EX and TU. I got specific alerts through MF with those 2 CRA’s listing the new balance and the score drop.