@wvasweetness wrote:
When it comes to scoring and reporting, is a card "in my name" and a card I'm an AU on, calculated the same way? Is being an AU on a card (vs having it in my name) looked at differently at all in my credit profile?
Short answer, in general, yes scoring is the same.
Longer answer, It depends on which version. e.g. FICO 8 or 9 or older scoring models such as EX2, TU4, EQ5.
See message 3. C. All Zero Point Loss- (AU Test included)
Also look at message 10. 10. MORTGAGE SCORES
from Birdman7
General Scoring Primer and Version 8 Master Thread rev.5.17.20
For scoring, it depends on the FICO version. The 2/4/5 mortgage score algo's do not make any distinction between primary and AU accounts and score both the same. Version 8 and 9 classic, however, have anti-abuse alorithms that are meant to exclude AU accounts where the primary is not a member of your household, but seem to just kind of exclude randomly. That means your AU accounts may or may not be scored on 8 & 9, but those versions also have an AU AZ penalty you can use to find out: unlike on the mortgage scores, you will lose points if all of your AU accounts report a $0 balance on 8 & 9. To tell whether they're counting on those versions, you can have all but one of your AU accounts post a $0 balance one month and then all of them do so the next. If you lose points, your AU accounts are probably counting.
For reporting, your AU accounts will be marked as such on your CR's and your lenders can see that. How lenders will treat AU accounts will vary by lender, e.g. some may exclude them from DTI, others may not, but it's something they can see and take account of in their UW regardless of what score version they're using.
