Good question... I dunno what is the right answer. I'll do some investigation and get back to you if I got an good answer. You should email the people at Discover Card as they probably could give you help..

Maybe in your state, but my CU does not report any authorized users, only co-borrowers..

AUs still count but there are restrictions. If you were to add a random person six states away, it is not clear that would count, but family and household members still do...

Age of account, payment history, and credit limit are used for sure, I know because I can watch my kids scores change due to what I do with the au accounts and I have added unrelated persons to my accounts and it for sure helps there scores it changes age, credit limits is why I believe it makes such a change but I would imagine if any negative information was there the au would be hurt in scoring. I have seen pulled FICOs before and after an AU added and for a newer account with not alot accounts or age it looks like about 30 points up for one good account. (do not think it would be exponential) by say adding 10 accounts. You most likely get the biggest gain in the first accounts added and then less with each additional account added. On the flip side of the coin to challenge this I dropped one card from my daughters file and it removed ALL of the information as if it was never there. So it appears if you had a good au account on your file that turned into Mr.

This is my experience with files with NO negative information just short histories and skinny files...

Prior to the revision of FICO unrelated people could be AUs but now it doesn't count..

Additionally there's a limit to the number of AU accounts that are figured in for scoring. I believe it is 2 or 3 maximum now...

According to a chase rep I talked to, an AU account does not factor into their utilization number when applying for credit. So, even if you have a large unused credit line that a family member put you on, but your own individual cards are maxed out, you are probably SOL...

Hegemony.

Kept on saying that.

Nobody.

Was using.

FICO08.

(for applications) and that was the one that eliminated "AU" accounts from scoring..

Au accounts DO figure in scoring period! However if you have no accounts of your own do not exoect high limits to start. They person does NOT have to be related to be included in scoring. Under manual review of course a smart lo is going to look more at income and your payment history but for applying online for instant approval accounts, they do factor into your score in a positive way, again assuming that we are talking about long history good accounts helping the most...

If your personal cards are maxed out au accounts will not help you until you get a grip on your outstanding balances. In a good clean file that is just lacking age and higher balances they will help out quite a bit...

AU accounts still count for the most widely used versions of FICO. not that some card issuers' internal scores have NEVER used AU accounts...

+1..

I just read quite a few articles on this yesterday. They changed back to this in '08 or '09. AU accts DO COUNT..

I'm happy to read that someone posted some scores went up 30 pts. We have a thin file and am going to ask my parents to put us on their accts to add age. We have basically no age....

I know it's a ymmv...

100 percent AU do count, the age of the account and the credit limit are factored and do help your score, you can add an unrelated monkey and he or she will benefit from your account provided that the age of the account is older and the credit limit is higher than your existing accounts. They do not have to be related. Again if you have any negatives on your account the help will not be that much, but on a clean report you will see a score gain and easier approval for cards close to your limits. Not a magic cure all for bad credit but they do give a boost for someone trying to get to the next reachable limit they will qualify for. Check it yourself and when you cancel an AU account the entire report vanishes from their file. I have played with it for several years and when a neighbor no longer needs the account I just remove it and it is gone.

Just do not think if you have one crappy card of less than a grand that adding uncle bucks card with a 20K limit that you are going to qualify for that card also. Add a few cards that will give you more age than yours and limits higher and you will see an improvement provided you have no negatives holding you back for the approval...

DON'T DUMP "AU" CARDS BECAUSE OF WHAT.

F.I.C.O..

MAY or MAY NOT DO..

None of the 3 credit bureaus use FICO 08, which is the only model that may not count AU accounts..

Experian uses FICO Model II.

TransUnion uses Classic 4.0.

Equifax uses Beacon 5.0..

WHEN.

F.I.C.O..

STARTS paying (with Discover card) YOUR BILLS.

...then you can start to do what is best for.

F.I.C.O...

Don't let fools tell you how to spend your money. if you want to track FICO that is your business...

The CRAs do use FICO 08. EQ and TU are already offering FICO 08 (only to lenders) but I believe only a handful of lenders are using them. I doubt if EX will employ 08 at all..

Also, FICO 08 considers AU accounts into it's calculation. It didnt initially but it does now..

This post has been edited by.

Nothingman02.

: 18 January 2010 - 12:58 AM..

IF YOU FIND A Discover card or LOAN COMPANY USING.

FICO08.

LET US KNOW.

It is actually.

REQUIRED BY LAW.

For them to report for a.

SPOUSE.

This post has been edited by.

GEORGE.

: 06 January 2010 - 02:47 AM..