Does FICO 08 score authorized user accounts?

[Anonymous]

I was told that originally FICO 08 does not score authorized user accounts and then I came across this information. 

  http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20080812-authorized-users-a2.asp

I imagine that I was probably just in the dark, however, I wanted to verify this information with this forum.

Thanks in advance--TheTaxMan

[haulingthescoreup]

FICO 08 does count AU accounts for scoring, as in previous versions. They have added something (deep, dark secret) to try to determine which are piggyback-for-pay. Don't know what it is, how it works, or how well it works.

Of course, as hardly anyone is using FICO 08 yet, it winds up being moot in real-world terms.

[Anonymous]

As usual I appreciate the quick reply on the question!  Be good!!!

TheTaxMan

[Anonymous]

I assume Fair Issac is including AU accounts for scoring to help lenders meet legal requirement of Equal Credit Opportunity Act regarding accounts used by both spouses.  I'm glad there's an attempt to stop the non-spousal piggybacking, but I'm curious as to how smart the deep, dark secret method of determining spouses really is.

If my spouse and I live at the same address, never apply jointly for any accounts, and have different last names, will my and my spouse's FICO 08 scores be correct? (I am assuming the new piggyback-detecting method is only in FICO 08.)

This isn't a hypothetical, btw.

[haulingthescoreup]

The same address ought to do the trick.

And again, hardly anyone is using FICO 08, even after this thread started nearly a year ago, so it's not a big issue.

The more data points that can be matched (address, last name, joint mortgage, and so forth), the safer you are.

The interesting problem that some members occasionally report is that the credit bureaus stopped reporting some AU accounts. EQ especially was a villain in this. But again, my guess would be that the shared address will do the trick. You obviously know one another!

[jackg]

One way to qualify AU's is if the addresses match.

[Anonymous]

Equifax just removed my mothers capital one from my report. I am an authorized user. I handle many of her accounts.

[haulingthescoreup]

Equifax appears to be the worst of the CRA's in refusing to post AU accounts and removing existing ones.

[Anonymous]

How would Fair Isaac build models incorporating names or addresses, when they are not legally allowed to possess this data (given the FCRA)? The personal info is stored at the CRAs, but the FICO models are not built there... Just wondering...

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Equifax appears to be the worst of the CRA's in refusing to post AU accounts and removing existing ones.

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IME, TU has given me the most grief in some cases related to AU.

But, EQ does often end up being the CRA that fails to report an AU account.  Had AU's on Chase, CapOne and BoA and EQ was the only one to fail to report in a couple instances, and did remove one after some time even though it had been reported at one point.