AU Account Questions Hi all, There have been a few threads that I've seen on here about AU accounts. Thought it might be helpful to ask a few questions and have them all in one place - plus I have one "new" one of my own. 1. My mom is willing to put me on as a AU on several of her cards. (thanks Mom!) The problem is when she went to do so on her Visa card - which is from a federal credit union - they wanted a notarized statement from me and her. Is this bad? (we didn't do it). I think if she'd just gone in an asked to put me on as an AU it might have been fine - but she told them that it was so I could "borrow" her credit rating. (darn....) I'm wondering if she went to another teller (and it's now been almost a month later) and just asked to add an AU that it might work. BUT, if they ask again for the notarized statement - should I do this? I'd LOVE to get on that card - she's had it for years, has high limits and low balances, and has NEVER been late. 2. Others ask this a lot - but I don't think I've seen the answer: How long does it usually take for an AU account to show up on your reports. 3. Does it really help your score all that much? (for me I think it would - the reasons given for my lower scores are "lack of revolving credit" and "lack of installment credit". Thanks! Mommy2cats
Re: AU Account Questions 1. That sounds pretty bogus. They shouldn't even need your SS#. My wife put me on 4 of her cards without anything except my name. All of them made their way to my credit reports anyway. I would try again, without all the extra info. If they ask for the notarized statement again, I can't see how that would be a bad thing. All it would be is a letter asking them to add you as an AU and then notarized. 2. This varied for me. I had her AT&T Universal card show up on all 3 in less than 2 mos. Discover and the others were all there in less than 3 mos. 3. I think it helped me a great deal. It increased my available credit, gave me some nice old tradelines. Others have disagreed, saying they don't count AU accounts. I can't say for sure because I had them show up as negatives were going away. But even if they don't help as much as your own account, they've gotta help some.
Re: AU Account Questions Thanks. I'm going to ask her to try again. This time I'm asking her to just ASK to put me on as an AU. I think my mom thought she had to give several reasons as to why. She was trying to help me. If they ask for a notarized statement - I'll see what it says before we sign it. If we get that - I'll post what they ask here first. Thanks! Mommy2cats
