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Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?

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yourficouser
Contributor

Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?

I am trying to make sense of my spouse's FICO 8 credit score per www.freecreditscore.com (Experian site).

 

In an effort to improve the score, I added my spouse as an AU to all of my cards and my parents even added her to their cards. However, I haven't seen a huge change in her FICO scores. FWIW, she kept her last name, not sure if that is one of the reasons it did not have significant impact.

 

In any case, right now her score is 742. Under what's hurting your score, reasons listed include:

 

* "Bad Payment History" (30+ but <60 day late payment 4 years 9 months ago)

* "Few Accounts Paid On Time" - THIS only lists 2 accounts being paid on time, which are the 2 accounts that my spouse has that are non-AU accounts.

 

Based on the factors above, I'm thinking that getting another non-AU account for her may improve her FICO score in the long term? Is this correct?

 

It seems that AU cards didn't have a huge impact, and anyways I don't have any more cards on which to add my spouse as an AU. Also, since she did have a late payment 4 years and 9 months ago, there's nothing we can do about this except let it age?

 

Thanks so much!!!

5 REPLIES 5
DollyLama
Established Contributor

Re: Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?

742 is not a bad score with a late. 

 

The AU may not be helping her as it may not be factoring in the AU accounts. It also does not seem to be impacting her utilization, or that would have been a factor (carrying too many balances, high credit usage). Doesn't sound as if either of the AU accounts are decades older that would push her Oldest Account higher and making her 2 accounts "average" age jump significantly. 

 

Does she has 1 revolver and 1 loan, or 2 revolvers? 

Having 1 loan (the SSL thread) would help if she does not have it for credit mix. 

Ideally having 3 cards, individual account, preferably bank not retail is a good start. As the accounts age, credit lines increase unless she is with a subprime, annual fee, low SL of 200-500 dollars that never increases. 

 

Are either of her two accounts even a secured with Cap One, Discover IT? These are the types that will grow with her, will be cash back cards.

Message 2 of 6
yourficouser
Contributor

Re: Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?


@DollyLama wrote:

742 is not a bad score with a late. 

 

The AU may not be helping her as it may not be factoring in the AU accounts. It also does not seem to be impacting her utilization, or that would have been a factor (carrying too many balances, high credit usage). Doesn't sound as if either of the AU accounts are decades older that would push her Oldest Account higher and making her 2 accounts "average" age jump significantly. 

 

Does she has 1 revolver and 1 loan, or 2 revolvers? 

Having 1 loan (the SSL thread) would help if she does not have it for credit mix. 

Ideally having 3 cards, individual account, preferably bank not retail is a good start. As the accounts age, credit lines increase unless she is with a subprime, annual fee, low SL of 200-500 dollars that never increases. 

 

Are either of her two accounts even a secured with Cap One, Discover IT? These are the types that will grow with her, will be cash back cards.


Thanks so much for the reference regarding goodness (or otherwise) of her score.

 

FWIW, we are really not using her 2 primary cards. I think the score may have gone up to 742 from the high 730's as we have been using one of her cards for balance forgiveness, and it looks like we were a penny over the limit (thus balance reported as $2.01 vs $0). So, I think her utilization right now is ~1%. We only use the other one (store card) once a year to keep it alive.

 

The age IS quite a bit different. For her actual accounts (she had another credit card account and a former auto loan - the other credit card account was a store card and the one that had a late, but it was closed due to inactivity), oldest account is 8 years 11 months and average age of accounts 6 years 4 months. However, for ALL accounts (including AU accounts), oldest account is 25 years 8 months and average age is 10 years 5 months.

 

The accounts are 1 credit card account (opened 12/2009) and 1 store card account (opened 9/2014). We are keeping the store card account open with a yearly purchase, credit card account mostly for balance forgiveness but lately they have had some good cash back offers (Wells Fargo Go Far Rewards). She did have an auto loan but paid it in 2015 when she had to leave the country for 2 years due to her prior visa (she is now a permanent resident and I am a US citizen).

 

Would a SSL still help her? Even with a hard credit inquiry as Alliant SSL technique no longer available?

 

We basically have most CC's we need with me as primary (my FICO is 850 FWIW), but I want to build her credit while getting cards that would be useful. One thought is Uber visa for restaurant and travel cash back. Another would be to wait for a good sign up bonus on Chase CFU (e.g., where they match the cash back for the first year) and just dump all our spend on it. In any case, it seems that a bank card for her would be a good move?

 

Thank you so much!

 

For context, she has 12 open accounts total and 4 closed accounts.

Message 3 of 6
AndySoCal
Valued Contributor

Re: Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?

Here is link to an article on FICO 8 https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/fico-8-credit-score-credit-scoring-might-get-harder/

 

One of main differences is how FICO 8 authorized user accounts. While FICO 8 looks at the accounts the impact on the score is not as great as in prior versions. FICO made changes in score as result of the credit piggybacking and credit rental schemes prior to 2009. These schemes expoited the authorized user accounts for $$$ money in some cases.

FICO Scores XPN v8 802 V2 831 (SDFCU) TUC 803 v8 EFX 807 (10/2023)
Discover 09/90 19,000, JCPenney 10/2008 4,700 US Bank Cash+ 12,000 Citibank Custom Cash 5/2015 11,100 C State Dept. FCU 15,000 06/2023 , 02/2024 Redstone FCU Signature VISA 10,000 Banking: Ally Bank Credit Unions: Lafayette FCU Quorum FCU State Department FCU State Department FCU Pelican State CU Redstone FCU

Message 4 of 6
yourficouser
Contributor

Re: Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?


@AndySoCal wrote:

Here is link to an article on FICO 8 https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/fico-8-credit-score-credit-scoring-might-get-harder/

 

One of main differences is how FICO 8 authorized user accounts. While FICO 8 looks at the accounts the impact on the score is not as great as in prior versions. FICO made changes in score as result of the credit piggybacking and credit rental schemes prior to 2009. These schemes expoited the authorized user accounts for $$$ money in some cases.


I see. Thanks so much for the helpful information about how FICO 8 treats authorized user accounts differently than other iterations, and for sharing why the change was made.

Message 5 of 6
yourficouser
Contributor

Re: Experian FICO 8, AU accounts, open new CC to increase?

FWIW, we got the late removed by writing to Comenity Bank (goodwill letters, sent ~10) and DW's FICO jumped to 794.

Message 6 of 6
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