Scoring impact of adding wife as au/vice versa

[Anonymous]

Hello all! 

my wife and I share all finances so I was wondering what the scoring impact would be to just add each other as an au to all our cards (that we use) so we each get a card and can use it. I would like to add her to my Amex and chase accounts. She has newer credit outside of one car loan all of her accounts are only two months old (with exception to our Ashley and care credit joint accounts hitting 1 year and 10 months) with scorea in the 750 range from fico8. Since her credit is new anyway I don't really see it impacting her AAOA. However, I would like to be added to her three newly opened accounts that are two months old since we use them a bit. She has an Amex bce, Amex green charge and BOA rewards and we both always pif. Now most of my card accounts are 2-8 months old but my AAoA is 2.5 years. What impact would adding each other as AU on all of each other's cards really have? I have available credit of $10k and report $200/mo and her cards total $6k in available credit and report $100/mo. Any advice would be appreciated! My scores are 690/658/695 and hers are 755/764/738. We are applying for a mortgage in a year so all credit would age hit a year before that and both are gardening. 

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention all of our Amex and my nfcu card have not hit our reports due to the reporting delays so we may see a drop there regardless. 

[M_Smart007]

Keep in mind, most lenders rule out AU's when scoring.

[Anonymous]

IMO People should never share all accounts, having one or two shared CC's is fine like the BCP for shared expenses. But a person need their own CC for whatever, without running into a situation where the other person may have charged something rather large that leaves you with a decline. Or any number of other issues tha can arrise. 

Scoring wise AU account are usually added to a weaker prifile from a stronger one, generally a really aged account and low UT. Adding a 1 YO account to someone with 2 year history will likely not change much at all. If you want AU's simply for sharing that's fine, but I do not see any benefit score wise for either of you.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I am not seeking scoring benefit more convenience. I am more curious regarding score detriments. And while lenders do typically ignore au accounts it is still in your score and they cannot necessarily remove those accounts from a score. A lender would see your fico and choose to disregard the au accounts but that doesn't actually do anything for the score they pulled. Thanks again! I'm more thinking if there will be a detriment to our scores rather than trying to increase our scores like I said it's just more of a convenience thing. 

thanks! 

[vic6string]

As a bank, I would never consider adding an AU a positive or a negative to either party. As a husband I would absolute hold you in contempt and never give you access to money again for trusting your credit card to your wife!!!

;-)

[Anonymous]

@vic6string  haha that is true..... I guess it's less of an impact on credit and more of a wife having more purchasing power issue....I should know better I am a credit analyst 😂