Should I add husband as AU?

[lostinlala2]

I posted this on credit cards as well but thought you all might be able to help me.

We are trying to buy first house. Were preapproved for FHA in Sept and then again in Dec but with the bump in cs minimums mortgage broker is worried DH score (or lack of scores) might kick us out. Mine are in the mid- to upper 600's and from what I understand they look at the middle score of whoever has lowest. The only score that shows up for DH on the cr that one broker gave me a copy of was a 630 beacon 5.0.First, I am not sure what the Beacon 5.0 is but the question I have for this group is...should I add him as AU to my 3 cap one cards? He has several baddies that will fall off this year but no current bads or goods (thus no FICO?).

I have good payment history for 5+ years but late payments show on all 3 from 2003. They are not maxed out but close to it, will be able to pay down significantly this month (CL $4250, 500, 550 Balances  75%, 75%, 0). Does the entire history show or just from the date he is added as AU?

What will adding him as AU do to his score?

Thanks

[maponafa]

Hello I am not a pro but I do read a whole lot here. I wouldn't add him because of the lates and also because your cards are maxed out and it would bring his score down because your Utilizations(UTL's) are high.  When do you plan on buying the house.  Maybe get him a BOA secured card or Apply for BOA plat. card and he might get a counter offer for the Partially secured.  Credit Unions are also good for credit building look in you neighborhood for a CU they have many products for credit building and they also have some online.  Do a search here for good CU's online.  If he has baddies that are going to drop off soon maybe wait until they fall off to purchase your home. His scores might increase after they fall off or work on removing some of the baddies.  I hope this helped and good luck to you and hubbie on the new home!!

[lostinlala2]

So question number 2.

If we can pay the balances down to 10% or under asap would it be a good idea to au him then? Will the 6 year old serious delinquencies outweigh 6 years of good payment history?

I thought about going the secured card route but we are planning to buy sooner than later. I've read it is best not to inq or app while trying to get mortgage.

[cobaltnv]

If you are going to add your husband to your credit card it needs to be one with a low balance (under 9%) and a clean record.

Which of the  3 credit cards you mentioned late payments? How late and how old are they?

[cobaltnv]

Paying down your balances will help your score tremendously and is something I would definately do before adding your husband as an AU. AU get the entire history of your account, so the account needs to be in good shape, older than your husbands average age of accounts, and have low utilization.

Why are you in a rush to purchase a home? The lates from 2003 will fall off next year and your scores will go way up saving you lots of $$ in interest.  

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@lostinlala2 wrote:

So question number 2.

If we can pay the balances down to 10% or under asap would it be a good idea to au him then? Will the 6 year old serious delinquencies outweigh 6 years of good payment history?

I thought about going the secured card route but we are planning to buy sooner than later. I've read it is best not to inq or app while trying to get mortgage.

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[haulingthescoreup]

By the way, the Beacon score is the FICO Equifax (EQ) score.

He has a great score for a credit union CC. Although it's not a good idea to app right before a mortgage, he has to get something reporting, and I think that would be his best bet.

He could take a current copy of his Equifax report, visit CU's in your area, and ask loan officers to give an unofficial opinion as to whether he would qualify for a card based on that report and the 660. Naturally, they will have to pull an official report, with a hard inquiry, if he decided to go for it, but this might help him find the best fit.

If they offer a secured card, be sure to ask (1) if it can graduate to unsecured, and (2) if so, will the unsecured card keep the same opening date as the secured, or will it report as a newer, second TL (tradeline)?

[lostinlala2]

All three credit cards show 4 lates each in 2003: 2 times 30 days, 2 times 60 days. All three accts still open used occassionally, paid regularly (at least 3x minimum payment if not more) since then. Two carrying balances of 75%

today but hope to have that paid down to 10% this or next month.

Can't seem to find credit union we qualify for (Virginia).

Which would be best: trying to open secured card with somewhere like BoA and taking the inquiry ding plus risk of being turned down or adding him as an AU on my card that doesn't have a balance but does have old lates?

Does one far outweigh the other?

We would like to buy sooner than later to take advantage of tax credit and low house prices

Also we took out a secured loan jointly for $3500 in 2004 (paid off in 2005) from our small local bank  but it only shows on my cr. Could I ask them to report it for him...would they do that?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hmmm, well, the handy thing about an AU account is that you can back right out of it if it doesn't work for you. (Except that AmEx keeps reporting on my family members' reports 6 months after I took them off... )

When you get one of the cards paid down to 9% or less, try adding him to it, let it show up on his report, and then pull a score to see what it did. You can especially compare the result on his EQ scores, since you have a starting point. If it's truly awful, take him right back off.

If it were just 30-days from 2003, I wouldn't worry that much, but the 60's might have more of a ding, even though they count for less over time. (Unlike 90's and worse, sigh.)

And I would definitely call the bank on that joint loan and ask that they report for him as well. The one caveat is that you generally don't want to mess with closed accounts, as the lenders often just stop reporting entirely, but if it's a small local bank, they might be more civilized. I'd definitely run it by them first to make sure that they don't have some sort of hissy fit.

As for the CU's, there aren't any listed in your yellow pages or anything? Where I live, there's just about one on every block, and to qualify, just about all you have to do is breathe in a 7-county area. I know that they sometimes can't be found in large cities (NYC and Chicago come to mind) as the banking industry seems to have successfully blocked them. If you still bank with that small local bank, do they offer CC's? Genuinely local banks can be as good as CU's. It's the ones that have been swallowed up by the mega-banks that can be hard to deal with.

[lostinlala2]

Thanks. I think I'll try adding him to the account that has no balance. I'll probably wait til it gets a little closer to the end of the billing cycle in case somthing comes up between now and then. The statement ends on the 12th so I won't have too wait that long to see what it does (although those 2 weeks will seem like forever). I didn't realize you could just turn the au off and the reports would go away. Does it go away poof score goes back to what it was or just stop getting reported?

There is one credit union in my small rural town (phillips i think), but it is only for people employed at certain companies.

The person I talked to at our very small rural bank didn't know what a secured card was (great customer service but not always the best informed).They do have credit cards (i think they are farmed out to tcm(?) bank).  I suppose they'd give us another secured loan but again if  we end up finding a house in the next few months that won't look so good to the underwriter.

What happens if we do nothing. Will the lenders frown upon the fact that he has no current reporters?  Will they just use my scores then? It seems obvious to me that even if stuff is in just my name it is jointly our debt as a married couple. Can't my last 5+ years of positive history be his too...I know I digress.