Credit age boost from terminated AU tradelines?

[DONZI]

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@CreditChump wrote:

Thanks @DONZI, ideologically I understand your perspective that being an AU carries no responsibility for paying back debt and therefore shouldn't be relevant, personally I think this same argument can be made for many aspects of gaming the credit scoring system including share secured loans or secured credit cards. I agree with you but overall I am only interested in what actually increases FICO scores, so if there is any gain to be made here then I'd prefer to persue it, however in this situation I can't seem to find enough definitive evidence and I assume that somebody with more insight has already determined that what I am looking at doesn't work. I'd love to see more data points however it doesn't look like they exist.

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One thing that seem to be true of underwriting and scoring etc is the bit of mystery that runs in it all.

It's all very flexible in some ways, rigid in others... exceptions to defacto rules, etc.

I have read about AU and scores being influenced by them.. However, that doesn't amount to much help.

It more or less seemed pretty much that an AU is the official way to share one's credit line. As such, any perceived score perks may be moreso some anomaly that's exploited to 'optimize' a credit score. I went snipe hunting when I was a tot.. Not a lot of reason to do that with credit scores. The significant paths to improve the scores is pretty obvious, which I'd wager you know of.

Just snag the AU card and find out maybe?

[SouthJamaica]

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@CreditChump wrote:

Great, thanks for the insight @DONZI and @Thomas_Thumb, I will not proceed with adding an AU tradeline. I currently do have a profile consisting of 1x charge card, 2x revolving credit cards (1 Chase, 1 non-Chase) and an SSL (paid to <8.9%), at this point are my only options to:

1. Open more (preferably Chase for AZEO manipulation) revolving credit cards for a thicker file so that any cards I want in future have less impact to AAoA (also I believe there is a boost at three cards, not sure if I have already hit this as I don't know if charge cards count)
2. Be in a good position to easily perform AZEO when/if necessary (my plan here is to align all statement close dates and pay Chase cards to zero immediately after they close, using non-Chase cards (number of them <50% of my total number of cards) to report a balance)
3. Keep any revolving cards reporting a balance <30% (ideally <10%), not necesssary for charge cards

And then after that just garden until I hit 2 years without hard pulls, there are are no other strategies for me to make gains for FICO 8, right? Please let me know if there is anything else I can do, even if it has a miniscule effect.

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1. Opening more cards suppresses rather than helps your scores.

2. If you're intending to practice AZEO Chase is one of the most confusing cards to use, because it reports intra-cycle when an account is paid down to zero. So it's complicated to use it as your balance-reporting card.

[CreditChump]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:
1. Opening more cards suppresses rather than helps your scores.
2. If you're intending to practice AZEO Chase is one of the most confusing cards to use, because it reports intra-cycle when an account is paid down to zero. So it's complicated to use it as your balance-reporting card.

For point 1, although opening more cards will hurt in the short-term, I believe it will help in the long-term as if I ever want to open another card then it will have much less effect on my AAoA. For point 2, I actually think Chase cards are beneficial to AZEO as they can easily increase your ratio of zero:non-zero cards by paying off in full immediately after a statement closes to get the mid-statement (zero) balance reported, then just use a non-Chase card as an "AZEO card".

[CreditChump]

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@DONZI wrote:Just snag the AU card and find out maybe?

Personally I do not want to add anything to my report which does not definitely help me, especially putting my friend through extra work for no reason, so I would prefer to have definitive data points before proceeding.

[Thomas_Thumb]

As mentioned above, you will not see any benefit on Fico 8, Fico 9 or Fico 10 with addition of the AU account. Starting with Fico 8 an anti-abuse algorithm was added to look at AU accounts. The original intent of AU accounts was to help a non working spouse or child get a credit card and build a credit profile.

There was widespread abuse with unrelated people getting added as AUs. It was such a racket that a grey market evolved whereby people with excellent credit were contacted and offered money to add AUs. Later the unrelated AUIs would acquire credit cards, max them out and disappear without paying. The older Fico 98 and Fico 04 models (currently used for mortgages) do not include an anti-abuse algorithm and a young credit profile can still benefit scorewise by adding a well aged AU account.

I am AU on one of my wife's cards that we use for household purchases. I know exactly how it works. It initially was a joint account but I was switched to AU status 15 years ago because I never used my card. The card does impact my Fico 98 and Fico 04 scores. It doesnot affect my Fico 8 or Fico 9 scores due to the anti abuse algorithm. I suspect I am flagged because I don't have an active card.

I anticipate the older Fico 98 and Fico 04 models used for mortgages will be phased out in the next 3 to 5 years and replaced with other models. If you are mainly concerned with Fico 8 and newer models, the AU account is a waste of time. The anti-abuse algorithm embedded in the later Fico models would flag the AU account and ignore it. It looks at things such as relationship to the account holder by comparing last names, mailing addresses and whether or not the AU account is actively used.

You already have the foundation to build credit without need of a non value add AU crutch. Focus your efforts on your own account acquisition strategy.

[CreditChump]

Great, thanks for the insight all, I have decided not to proceed with the AU account, I think it looks like I am doing everything I can right now (maintain perfect payment history, SSL, garden for 2 years, AZEO and low utilization when necessary), I don't think there is anything else I can do to increase my scores otherwise.

[Thomas_Thumb]

While allowing cards to age, build credit limits on the cards. Periodically request CLIs. This can often be done at 6 month intervals. My Discover card CL was stagnant at $10k for 15 years. Then I came to the forums and read about people requesting CLIs.  I decided to give it a try and put in online CLI requests for my Discover card. Increased CL from $10k to $31k in $5k or $6k increments. No hard pulls (hard inquiries) required. The system had an option to ask for a greater CLI than offered but that would trigger a hard pull.

Check to see if your card issuers offer soft pull CLI requests. If only hard pulls (like on my Fidelity Visa and Best Buy cards) minimize frequency of requests and if requesting you can ask for large increases. They may counter with a smaller increase, which is fine.