Boost scores w/ CC Auth User??

[sonofred]

I am cleaning up my report - paying charge-offs, etc.

I want to buy a house before the end of the year, and once COs are gone, my file will be pretty skinny.

GF has several cards w/ NO lates!

How much of a boost could I expect by getting added as AU on a couple of small cards? (I don't want debt ratio to become an issue)

Or would the benefit be cancelled out by adding new accounts along with the added debt responsibility?

I need positive TLs, but don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the process...

[DocDon]

As an AU you have to responsibility to the debt. You have to make sure the creditor puts you down as an Authorized User. Many of them will try to make you jointly responsible for the account - this is not what you want.

As an AU you reap the rewards, just make sure the balance is about 35% of the credit limit, there's no serious lates on it (1 or 2 30-day lates from 4 years ago isn't going to make that big of an impact), and the person that holds the accounts isn't going to default anytime soon, and you'll be good to go.

[garddawg]

When I first started my road to credit reovery, I had my name added to stepfather's CC as an AU. I didn't know it mattered at the time, but he was at around 95% of his limit. He had the card for like 10 years and over 10k credit. Unfortunately, he has to charge a lot for his business each month and then pays off most of it after receiving statement, so it always looks like he owes near max.

After getting my name off of it (and off my credit report) my score actually shot up like 40-50 points!!

[sonofred]

Thanks, Doc.

Regarding Joint responsibility - I would have to agree to that, right?

No one just assumes that's what I want & I get surprised later?

Any others on how much of a boost I can expect with, say, 2 cards (VISA), 3-5 yrs old, never late, 500-1,000 CL, balance under 20%??(she recently paid most of her balances off)

[utman17]

Mine shot up 40-60 points, but the limits were 10K or more..

[sonofred]

Thanks!

I she has a couple higher limit cards, but I think I want to use the lower limits to keep debt ratio from being a factor.

with my scores - EQ - 565 FAKO

EX - 641 FAKO

TU - 580 FAKO

I think ANY good tradelines will get a pretty big boost!

[utman17]

I would go with the higher limits first, you can alway be removed from them if it is a problem, it boosted my scores big time, left them on there for over a year until, I started building myself, I went from the mid 500's to the average of the three (795) in a little over 18 months..

[sonofred]

SWEET!

[DocDon]

No one just assumes that's what I want & I get surprised later?

It happens all the time. This is why it's important to deal with a rep who knows what an 'authorized user' is.

Also, not all companies report AU's to the CRAs. You'll have to check with each one.