Comments on: Buying a Higher FICO Score?!?

By: Stepahny

Stepahny — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:16:24 +0000

I can understand that this is doable. I mean I don’t know if it’s legal or not but they can actually use a person with a good credit to buy a house. The thing I don’t understand is if the person with a good credit knows that his/her credit good credit is being used for this purpose because who in the world can risk such a thing? What happens if the buyer with bad credit falls behind the payments on the house? who is responsible? the whole thing sounds a little bit fishy to me.

By: Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:08:23 +0000

Candy –

I had to go back and re-read this post since I wrote it over a year and a half ago.

You mention going on a friend/family member’s credit card as an authorized user. I see that differently than what this article talks about — selling an “authorized membership” to a complete and total stranger for the express purpose of raising their credit score.

If I want to put a family member on a card, and they are really going to use it and help pay it and work on their credit, fine. But selling that credit to a complete stranger violates (in my opinion) the “spirit” of what it’s intended for.

As I mentioned, I don’t know if it constitutes legal fraud. But it’s “moral fraud” in my book.

I’m “pro consumer” too. Heck, I AM a consumer. But I also believe in doing the right thing. And to answer some of the comments from way back, just because the credit system is flawed and “screws us” doesn’t make being deceitful right..

By: Candy

Candy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:12:33 +0000

How is this fraud when it shows “Auth. User” on the credit report? That does not seem to be hiding anything to me, or in Jay’s words – FRAUD? If someone wants to go on a friend/family member’s good credit card as an AU to bump scores up a bit to get a better interest rate then so be it…….I am happy for them that they figured that out. The credit system is so flawed anyway. It takes a creditor no time to put a late pay on someone’s account, but if that was an error then it can take them a lifetime to take that late pay off. I am pro consumer in this battle so AU on as long as it is legal!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:08:39 +0000

The Fair Isaac estimates that 50 million consumers are “legitimate” authorized users on someone else’s credit card.
Authorized user accounts do impact your FICO scores, but they aren’t a major factor in and of themselves.
Here are factors a legal authorized user must consider. Being either an authorized user or a primary accountholder carries risk. Authorized users could see their credit scores plummet if the primary cardholders default on the accounts. Primary cardholders are liable for any debt incurred by the authorized user, and high balances could damage their credit scores.
Issuers must report authorized-user information when the authorized user is the accountholder’s spouse, thanks to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974. Issuers decide whether to report payment history data for other authorized users.
What FICO and the Credit Reporting agencies should concentrate on is how to eliminate the bogus inquiries and bogus accounts in consumer files. Credit reports they are issuing to lenders have a ninety percent inaccuracy rate. In other words 90% of their reports have one or more errors that depress a consumers scoring. I think this is evil.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:16:39 +0000

Jay, I thought I’d jump in a little late on this one because Fair Isaac has not done away with the auth user loophole but they claim they have found a way to spot the nefarious users and have the credit score reflect [ie remain unchanged] for these folks. More on this in my video update at http://www.videocreditscore.com/fico-08-update/ . Time will tell to see if the Fair Isaac system is working.

*Andys last blog post..Average Credit Score

By: Teenage Credit Cards

Teenage Credit Cards — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:45:44 +0000

my question is …how long does the person have to stay on the Mr.Goodcredit credit for? Can they be removed as soon as they get the loan? and also even tho you think this is fraud, doesnt the Mr.goodcredit have a chance of getting his credit screwed?? please send me a email with your thoughts…..this is very interesting…..

By: Kansas City

Kansas City — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:41:48 +0000

“My take is if anybody has figured out a method of “gaming” the system without breaking the law good, because the system sure-as-hell games us.”

I agree that if the system is broke, then fix the system rather than knocking those who are positioning themselves as best possible under the current system. A spouse is going to help the spouse’s credit score, if needed, as will a parent who’ll help their child’s credit score.

By: Illinois Mortgage Rates and News » Blog Archive » How to Understand and Make the Most of Your Credit Scores - Part 3 -Ten Ways to Raise your Fico Scores

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:39:09 +0000

[...] history (but not letting them actually use the credit cards). It took a while, but Fico figured out this scheme and it no longer [...]

By: Michael-8187739111

Michael-8187739111 — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:56:09 +0000

Give me a break!

Definition of Fraud: All multifarious means which human ingenuity can devise, and which are resorted to by one individual (read: “CREDIT CARD COMPANY”, “MORTAGAE BROKER”, et al)) to get an advantage over another (read “unsophisticated consumer) by false suggestions (you can “always refinance later”) or suppression of the truth (hiding late charges/ over-limit fees/ option to re-price credit based on criteria completely external to the creditor-borrower relationship, etc.) criteria. It includes all surprises (”we have increased your interest rate to 28%), tricks (universities colluding with credit card lenders to issue credit cards UNDER THE UNIVERSITY to its students so the debt will be considered a “student loan” and NOT DISCHARGEABLE IN BANKRUPTCY – Have you HEARD THAT ONE?, cunning or dissembling, and any unfair way which another is cheated.

Wake up. Modern economic & behavioral metrics allow these people to analyze human behavior sufficiently to rig the system to create a literal mine-field of “gotcha” debt for the average consumer the 25 (not 30)-day credit card billing cycle, for example. Late fee heaven.

And finally, what the hell makes any of you cool-aid drinkers think the FICO credit scoring model is a measure of anybody’s credit “worthiness”? THE FICO SCORE IS A STATITICAL MODEL DESIGNED TO QUANTIFY RISK – NOT CHARACTER, NOT “WORTHINESS” – JUST RISK, and it does a poor job of even that! There are a literal dozen scenarios where the MODEL, being “blind” to data and behavior (good or bad) for which it was NOT PROGRAMED and thus fails to give a score the is in any measure indicative of the true risk quotient of a particular person.

My take is if anybody has figured out a method of “gaming” the system without breaking the law good, because the system sure-as-hell games us.

By: Pay to Raise your FICO score

Pay to Raise your FICO score — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:31:45 +0000

[...] Buying a Higher FICO Score?!? [...]