Help me with decisions regarding AAoA and new accounts

[Anonymous]

So here is my situation, my current scores are Ex- 761, TU- 790, Eq- 789 but I recently have gotten the itch to get some new cards (by some I mean like 6 so far and hopefully 4-6 more).  My scores have fallen from low 800's to where they are now but I'm concerned with too many more accounts my AAoA may drop too low to keep me above 760 and with my Ex falling to 761 I'm obviously very close. 

Here are my current AAoA (after the 6 new accounts)   Ex- 19 accts at 6.44yrs  TU- 20 accts at 7.16 yrs   Eq- 17 accts 6.32 yrs

I have the access to add 5 AU accounts from my DW that would increase my AAoA to Ex- 24 accts at 7.21 yrs   TU-  25 accts at 7.80 yrs   Eq- 22 accts at 7.23 yrs

Obviously this would make the impact of new accounts much less but my questions are:  Would adding these accounts have the impact I'm looking for?  Is the AAoA for AU the same as for Individual resposibility?  There isn't any sort of negative impact for adding these new accounts to my report like an actual new account would is there? If I add the 5 AU accounts that would give me 5 active Individual Revolving Accounts and 8 active Revolving AU accounts for 13 total with total available credit around $95000 is this going to be looked at negatively by lenders?

I have no plans for any big purchases soon (possibly a car in a year or 2 but no mortgage) my main goal is to be able to add a card or two when I want without dropping to much from the HP and new account hit.

Other info:

0 baddies (no lates, no collections etc)

Util less than 1% on total available credit of $88000

3 cards showing a balance but very very low

New Accounts: 3 Individual 1 month old, 2 AU 2 months old

Income $150k, DW $120k

Thanks for looking

[NRB525]

So you want to add 10 to 12 total new accounts eventually? Well, unless you are really patient and pace yourself to only 2 a year maximum, you will probably see a further reduction in scores.

Of the DW cards, I'm not sure why you would want to add those; they are limited rewards, low CL... and Vicky S?

You seem to have plenty of credit, but it is understandable that you may want to accumulate rewards from new cards. There's nothing wrong with that, just don't expect an app spree to be nice to your score for a while. Having said that, however, the HP damage is temporary, and so in 2 years, the cards have aged on their own and all the HP from today are gone.

So either do it very slowly, or rip the bandaid off all at once and then let the score recover over a longer time period.

Good luck!

[jamie123]

In my opinion the only credit that should be shared by a husband and wife are auto loans and mortgages, everything else should be kept separate.

The reasons you actually want auto loans and mortgages in both names:

1.Easier to obtain good insurance and the auto installment loan will look good on both reports. Some states make it extremely difficult to get an auto loan without both spouses signatures on the loan.

2.Legal and survivorship benefits of having both names on the mortgage. (And divorce.)

3.Both auto loans and mortgages are for real property that has value. Credit cards...Not so much.

With the high scores that you have, I would suggest that you add 2 quality cards per year to limit the damage to your scores and AAoA. Stay away from the AU accounts. The AU accounts would only muddy the waters in a manual review.

[Anonymous]

So I don't actually want her cards that I'd be adding to use them it would only be to prop up my Aaoa while adding new accounts...I really only want to add 3-4 more total to what I currently have so I'm curious if adding me as an au on her current accounts to do that would be advisable or would that actually hurt me


I have my main stable of cards, the ones I want to add are Hyatt (mainly for the bonus, anniversary night, platinum status and also the mlife gold status I love me some mgm properties is Vegas ). Marriott for similar reasons, an Amex charge possibly prg and maybe ink cash or plus to supplement freedom and csp ur points

[jamie123]

You have really stellar credit on your own. I would add 2 cards and see what happens to your scores. If they drop a lot you can always add the AU cards.

Your scores will bounce back in 2 years no matter what happens. You will acheive your highest scores once your youngest credit account is at least 2 years old. You seem to have a pretty thick file already so I think that by adding 2 cards your scores won't drop by much.

Adding AU cards won't hurt you as long as your wife maintains perfect payment history going forward. If she makes a late payment for whatever reason it will then affect BOTH your scores. Willing to take that risk? Take BOTH your scores down with 1 late payment?

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So I don't actually want her cards that I'd be adding to use them it would only be to prop up my Aaoa while adding new accounts...I really only want to add 3-4 more total to what I currently have so I'm curious if adding me as an au on her current accounts to do that would be advisable or would that actually hurt me


I have my main stable of cards, the ones I want to add are Hyatt (mainly for the bonus, anniversary night, platinum status and also the mlife gold status I love me some mgm properties is Vegas ). Marriott for similar reasons, an Amex charge possibly prg and maybe ink cash or plus to supplement freedom and csp ur points

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By your own calculations in the first post, estimated AAoA would increase by less than 1 year by adding all those accounts. Seems like it won't make any difference. Brings in a volume of low limit cards. Brings in cards you have no other use for besides a minimal AAoA change. Now, if you were at 6 months AAoA, it might make a difference, not at 7-8 years. AAoA is discussed a lot here, I suspect in your AAoA range the impact on your scores will not be noticeable.

Key clarification, are your high-700 scores due to your own accounts, or are you getting a boost from the three AU accounts?

You have a number of popular and interesting cards you want to add. You need to either add them and not worry about your score, or not add them and let your score increase. The Hyatt, since you have a property in mind, might make sense. Your own AMEX, sure. The Marriott also? Perhaps, but only for the card use... it will be a ding on your score. If you start getting Ink card for the signup bonus, then you are changing your priorities from maximizing score to points chasing. Nothing wrong with that shift, because FICO scores are merely magical thinking, but it does require a decision to make that shift for a while.

Given the list of cards you have presented, I'm betting you go ahead and app for these, and by that I mean, all within the next year if not 6 months. Once people get the "That card looks nice" attitude, it usually leads to an app. Or 6

[NRB525]

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@jamie123 wrote:

You have really stellar credit on your own. I would add 2 cards and see what happens to your scores. If they drop a lot you can always add the AU cards.

Your scores will bounce back in 2 years no matter what happens. You will acheive your highest scores once your youngest credit account is at least 2 years old. You seem to have a pretty thick file already so I think that by adding 2 cards your scores won't drop by much.

Adding AU cards won't hurt you as long as your wife maintains perfect payment history going forward. If she makes a late payment for whatever reason it will then affect BOTH your scores. Willing to take that risk? Take BOTH your scores down with 1 late payment?

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Given the baseline that this couple has scores high 700 to near 800, the caution against "what if a late happens" seems not necessary

[Anonymous]

Yeah I actually handle all the finances even her accounts so the chances of a late payment are essentially zero or at worst the same as my accounts. I appreciate the feedback, some stuff I never really though about. My thinking was even thought I'd only be adding a year or so to my Aaoa by adding her accounts my new Aaoa would look like this if I added say 4 new accounts

Current 6.32 to 5.23 eq...7.16 to 5.98 tu...6.44 to 5.34 ex
Adding her accounts and then adding 4 new: 6.19 eq, 6.74 tu and 6.28 ex which keeps my Aaoa about the same as now

It sounds like though my Aaoa dropping from 6.xx to 5.xx won't be as big of a deal as the actual new accounts so just app for the cards I want when I want to and just be patient for my scores to go back up

[dgates01]

From what I'm seeing after my recent app spree, each inquiry cost me 3 points, but each new account added 4 points to my scores across the 3 bureaus. Not sure how my AAoA will look on the next couple of reports. But I desperately needed new accounts. A had so few. Even if I take a hit in the near term, these new accounts will help in the long term.

[jamie123]

Even with adding 4 new cards your scores will recover pretty quickly. One year out you should be very close to where you are now and 2 years out you will be higher.

That's why it is critically important for someone just starting out to get 5 to 6 quality cards that they can keep open for life. Once the cards age for 5 years you have a rock solid foundation and adding new credit won't affect your scores much.

Think long and hard before closing any credit cards just for this reason. Think how solid your scores would be with 6 cards that are 10 years old.