OK, I've read numerous places where this can help your scores a lot. My father agreed to add me as an AU to his CC with a line of $12-$15k (he wasn't sure off the top of his head). Unfortunately, the account is only a few months old as my father has great credit (760-780 range) and dumps all his cards for new ones as soon as the introductory 0% period expires for a new card with a 0% introductory period. Considering I have a car loan, student loans, $200 CL Target card, $1000 limit Cap1 card and, maybe, a Crown Jewelers account (been approved, of course, not sure I want to activate), about how much will being an AU add to my scores? 3 Points? 30 points? 300 points? 3000 points?
Considering his account is relatively new, I doubt it would raise your score that much. You also have to consider that you are adding somewhere 12-15k of credit to your profile. Depending on your current debt-income ratio that may or may not help.
My DTI is low. TrueCredit tells me it's "Very Good", well below 20%. Only have a car payment and student loan and a $28 mthly min on Cap1 and $20 mthly min on Target, though Target was paid off yesterday and I'll only use it for around $30 per month and will pay it immediately, and will do similar with Cap1 in the next week. I was thinking that the 12-15 should help because I'll have more available credit, though as you said, I knew the "newness" of the account would limit the amount of help I got...
the problem with being added as an au is that it's not a true reflection of your credit. in some cases when companies are looking at your credit they do not even consider the au. in my opinion it's not the smartest way to rebuild your credit.
Doesn't every little bit help, though? $1200 available revolving credit vs. $13,200-$15,200? I'm doing other things as well, but this was pretty easy...
the point is that you are misrepresntng yourself to potential creditors. the actual credit line isn't yours. you did not earn a $12-15,000 line your dads good credit earned it. rebuilding your credit isn't supposed to be easy.
