Credit Score?
Ok, so I was told by a real estate agent to have a friend or somebody with higher credit score to add me onto their credit cards, so that I can benefit from their history, but I just read that The scoring process is different and I won't benefit from their history.. is this true? or how does this work?
Public Comments
- This used to work, but no longer does. Being an authorized user no longer affects FICO scores the way that it once did. Sorry.
- From what I know about credit scoring, that will not help your credit. There are many factors which go into a credit score: history of late/on time payments history of missed payments number of credit applications made total credit extended relative to your yearly income the best thing you can do to improve your score is to start paying all of your bills on-time and try to pay down all of your outstanding credit cards and loans. It also helps if you limit the number of credit inquiries companies make. Check out the link below, it has some tips as well.
- That change was supposed to go into effect this Fall but so far it has not happened. Everything I've been reading seems to point to it going into effect in 2008 so if you do become an authorized user now it could help you for a few months but as soon as this change actually happens you will lose the benefit. However if you just need a good bump to buy a house in the next few months it could help you with that but won't help in the long run.
- You would have to be added as a joint or co-signer to get any credit for the account. This was changed for the very reason you are asking about, lot's of people bought seasoned accounts so their score would go up and they could qualify for loans that they would not on their own. This is a big part of the sub-prime housing problems that we are reading about.
- This article from the New York times will give you a good read on the subject. I've heard that certain credit reporting agencies will not report the piggyback credit accounts anymore.
