Hi All,
Quick question... My credit is "excellent" - 813 through Discover card, 788 and 789 on CreditKarma (TransUnion and Equifax), but my average age of account is "poor" (3 years, 11 months) because I went through a divorce 3 years ago and got all new accounts. So before applying for a bunch of cards (and further reducing it), I wanted to see about boosting that AAoA.

Would it be wise to become an Authorized User on my parents' much older credit card accounts?

I assume that would be a hard pull to my credit? What about theirs?

Anything else I should consider about this? Thank you!
--Kyle

I wouldn't bother. Other than Chase, have you been getting apps declined?

I don't think it will be a hard pull (or any pull), since the primary cardholder is responsible.

I haven't, but it would be so easy to do (not really a bother) and since my AAoA is rated as "poor," I'd like to improve it. I'm afraid that my score will drop a lot once I have hard pulls, get new cards, and then my AAoA goes down even further. And I want to keep it high to be able to churn new cards every few months going forward (obviously not much with Chase since it's so hard with them now). Thanks,
--Kyle

No. Your credit is not bad. In fact, it is excellent. It will be minimal to what you try to achieve.

No and no.

Okay, thanks guys. I'm surprised, but I guess I won't change anything unless I being to have an issue for some reason. Take care,
--Kyle

Aside from the recommendation to do this or not, would this actually work in theory? Would the authorized users account be backdated to when the account was originally open?

According to CreditKarma.com, it does. Here's the wording of their suggestion:
"Consider becoming an authorized user or joint account holder on someone else's account to help build your credit."

If you're an AU on an account that's 30 years old, that 30 years should be included with your other accounts for your Average Age of Account. That's why I was thinking about doing this (since mine is just under 4 years - and will go down as I apply for new cards). TTYL,
--Kyle

It depends on the issuer. Most used to backdate AU accounts, but some do not. I few years ago I did this for my wife, and boosted her score by almost 100 points by adding her to my Discover and Amex cards that had over 10 year history.

Thanks for the insight!

Where are you gettting the AAoA from? If it's from Credit Karma keep in mind that CK only considers open accounts. Most creditors use a FICO model which considers both open and closed accounts.

In any case, an 813 TU FICO is very good. 740-760 is typically the range where best terms are offered. It's not worth worrying about AAoA. Consider the typical relative weight of Length of Credit History.
http://www.myfico.com/crediteducatio...yourscore.aspx

Don't try to "fix" what ain't broken.

The scores from CK won't mean much unless you have creditors that use a TU or EQ VantageScore.

It's a waste of time IMO for reasons I've already stated. Additionally, accounts where one is an AU aren't always considered.

It would -- at least in cases where the TL would report for the AU and where the TL is actually considered.. It's not really backdating. The AU doesn't have a separate account. The TL just reports for the AU. I'm not sure if AmEx still does this but the account for the AU reported the open date as the date the AU was added.

Thank you, I'll leave it alone! And yes, I was getting the AAoA from Credit Karma. I didn't realize other scores consider open and closed accounts as well. That's all good news - and perhaps why my score through Discover card (813) was higher than the 788 and 789 scores on Credit Karma? Thanks again,
--Kyle

amex backdating died march 2015. no other CC backdates.
to my knowledge on WF backdates, but this is on bank accounts and not CC.
and CK isnt real scores, you want to check real scores go to creditchecktotal.com, $1 7 days trial then cancel before the trial is over. sign up again next month when your scores update, wash, rinse, repeat.
your AAoA is good, nothing to worry about.

close accounts adds to ur AAoA upto 10 years.

You are correct that Amex stopped backdating new accounts, but that's not what we're not talking about here. We're talking about piggybacking, which is entirely different.