I moved the credit LIMIT scoring discussion to Experian: 20-25% of creditors don't report LIMITS - HOW are these accounts scored???

My MBNA statement that came today has a note that says:

Add up to 6 authorized users to your account.



That's an interesting thought!

Had client contact Discover to remove the almont 11K AU account for husband.

Now TU reports the account, joint as previously, and incorrectly, BUT with "Account Relationship Terminated" and WITH the balance.

The investigation results: "Discover -- deleted"

Well, there was another very old and closed account that WAS deleted. Make sure you ALWAYS read everything on the reports.

I am attempting to add an Au to a person who has a "0" beacon. There are no accounts, just an inquiry. I'll let you know if it reports.

That score would be interesting to see too!

Just like author_au, I would probably pay to get more AU accounts. I currently have 3 on my CRAs. My parents AU'ed me on their Amex account opened in 1982. The balance was once as high as $72K (I ran that up but paid it). 5 years ago, they took my card from me (a good thing at the time) but the 2 trade lines still report. One for the installment account that is the card itself, and one for the revolving account that is the "sign and travel" portion of the card.

My girlfriend has extremely high income and the credit to go with it. Oddly enough, my scores are a little higher than hers. She AU'd me on her Bank of America visa with a $65K limit and a high balance reporting of $20,322. Recent balance is $10, recent payment is $18,712. She also AU'd me on her First USA Mastercard with a credit limit of $15,500 and a high balance of $15,829, recent balance of $5,317 as of 01/2002 , recent payment: $108. These AU's are the only aged accounts I have. All of my actual credit cards are (still) subprime and are all 8 months old or less.

By the way, as a point of reference, my scores were all in the low 400's as recently as May, 2001.

Hopefully I'll get my first prime in the next week or so. My biggest problem has been this: Equifax seems to be the preferred CRA for everything I ever try to apply for, and Equifax is my lowest score (for now). I'm at 716 with Experian as of today, my high with them was 732 two weeks ago. The score dropped mainly due to inquiries with no approvals and one of my credit cards was charged all the way up to it's measly $1500 limit. On the day before the Jan 4. due date, I paid that and all my credit cards down to $1.50 balance. Equifax was at 647 when I checked on 1-17-02, my TU was 672 when I checked on 1-04-02. All my scores are basically climbing, the only negative anything I have on any of my reports is a discharged chapter 7 from 1996 reporting on all 3 CRA reports. We'll see what this week brings.

It seems like you have PLENTY of credit card accounts. 2 Am Ex, 2 from your g/f, plus your own. Try to limit the accounts with balances.

You might want to get a department store charge card though with a long good history. Doesn't your g/f have any Macy's, Nordstrom's?

Here's a clue: Those Experian and TU scores are SO useless, I really don't want people posting about them. NO lender uses them.

These scores are as irrelevant as your BayHouse scores of 920 for Experian and 1592 for TU.

I think there are some people at creditnet who PROMOTE those scores because they work for those CRAs or Fair, Isaac. When people THINK they have their scores, and waste their money and time on them, they're obviously NOT dealing with the real issues and Fair Isaac.

The only way to get the "real" Fair Isaac Experian FICO and TU Empirica is through a mortgage broker, but that will get you inquiries.

And, sometimes creditors will give you the score after you applied if you ask them nicely. BUT, those may be MODIFIED scores, so you can't really rely on those.

So, I hate to have to say it this way, but you're just going to have to use your brain, review your reports, read the postings on Fair Isaac scores at http://www.bayhouse.com/credit-foru...p?s=&forumid=13

And then read all the postings in this section, and you'll know how complex and ridiculous credit scoring is.

Oh I'm clear about how ridiculous and complex the scoring system is. But the score that comes on credit expert is no good? I always though that the Fair Isaac FICO score was what you got with Experian, and the Beacon score was what you got from Equifax. but now when I go to http://myfico.com, it is Equifax and the score is called FICO. What's the deal?!

My g/f has Saks Fifth Ave, Neiman Marcus, and Rich's (owned by Federated stores, same as Macy's). She has or is in process of terminating the Rich's account, the Saks Fifth has one 30, 60, and 90 day late from 1998 that is reporting. We are in the process of disputing that now. I never had interest in the Neiman Marcus card,... but I already have as many revolving accounts as I need (8 of them including the AU's). What I want to do is cut up some of the subprime cards, replacing them with prime cards. It seems that everyone worth a damn is pulling Equifax.

I received a turndown letter today from Amex LOC (membership banking). They said they pulled experian and turned me down because of "Length of time accounts have been established" and "Derogatory public record or collection filed". I have a 716 score with EX (according to credit expert) and it was 732 the day I applied for the Amex LOC. I have no negative trade lines at all, all my accounts are paid perfectly with low balances. Of course my report does show the discharged chapter 7 from 1996.

No. You get Experian's worthless score. All Fair Isaac scores are generally referred to as FICO scores, but it's also the short name for the Fair Isaac Experian score. The full name is "Fair, Isaac Experian Model" Talk about a clever setup to confuse people.

From myfico when you click "more info":

"Your current FICO score — the credit score lenders use to measure your credit risk. Score Power delivers the BEACON® score, the FICO score based on your Equifax Credit Profile."

The purpose of getting these AU accounts is absolutely NOT to go shopping!

And, do read that link in the reference section on increasing scores, specifically the part on account types.

Also read the part on account history.

AmEx told you it was 732?

And, I don't know how AmEx rates the bk. Why not call them and ask?

She has those department store cards but rarely uses them these days. She was a lot more active with those cards 2-5 years ago. Right now she is accutely aware as am I that we cannot go shopping with our new credit. We spend a fair amount of money each month in general. My income is high as an exec with a television network, her income is high as a professional model/actress. Both of us have made a few correct moves with investments despite the beating we both took last year in the stock market.

We need to get the Saks Fifth late deleted off her bureaus because that is (almost) her only negative tradeline. The only other one she has is a negative entry from a gas utility company. That account is paid with a $0 balance and the gas bill was from a rental property in 1997. It should fall to the next round of disputes, otherwise, we'll go through the validation process and estoppel if necessary.

So Christine, the score that comes with the equifax report is accurate?

I wouldn't say it's "ACCURATE." See "FICO is Fraud"

The Beacon score is the "basic" Fair, Isaac Equifax score. I've heard of the "modified" Beacon on mortgage credit reports, but have never seen one. Some (non mortgage) creditors use the customized Beacon with industry options, and the NEW Fair Isaac Equifax Pinnacle score is used by some creditors now. I still haven't seen one yet.

And not ALL creditors use Fair Isaac's scores, some have their own software or buy from Fair Isaac's competition.

The basic Beacon gives you the score that's most likely used for your mortgage, until the NextGen scores are approved for mortgage underwriting.

When do you think the NextGen scores will be used for credit cards, auto finance, etc.?

It's up to the creditors. I've heard Fair Isaac charges so much for the new scores, many creditors don't want to spend the money.

I'm glad that it appears that a little time will pass before the NextGen is widely used. The FICO is bad enough

Found out that AmEx is NOT a good AU account. Apparently they access the AU's credit and increase the rate accordingly, to 25%.

Did anyone else experience that?

Hubby was an AU on my Amex Blue account for a long time and I never experienced that. To be perfectly honest, how can Amex do something like base the interest rate on an authorized user, the AU is not responsible for the account. If I was the original cardholder I would tell Amex to go screw themselves if they pulled a stunt like that.

Dani

PS Currently, Amex has not been reporting to the CRAs since October of 2001. So if you're trying to rebuild your credit I wouldn't try Amex at this time.

Since I haven't seen the cardholder's credit, maybe that's the problem. I'll update if I find out, just had the AU removed.

I thought it was weird, but AmEx DOES weird stuff.

And 25% interest on 25K is a lot of interest!

I was an AU on my mothers AmEx. I had her remove me from her account. The APR on the account was 24.95%. They have now lowered it to 14.95%. She told me that AmEx said that its the lowest available APR that they offer.