get added as a joint holder???

[FijiTime]

Has anyone had luck being added as a joint account holder on a family members citibank cc in order to rebuild credit? I understand that simply being an authorized user doesn't do anything for credit scores anymore and I'm wondering if being added as a joint holder would be possible with a fresh BK on the books.

I'm the first to tell people never to cosign, or have joint accounts with anyone. In this case I can benefit so the usual rules don't apply... LOL

Just trying to get my ducks in a row for when I can buy another home...

[movingon]

Absolutely wrong; Authorized User accounts are still used for FICO scoring.

They were going to exclude in FICO 08, but that got removed.

Now getting them to show up on your account is another matter; but if you do, its a very helpful tool to give your scores a boost especially if the trade line you're AU is old and has a nice low ult%. Some consider this cheating; I say its bending...

I'm waiting for 3 of my parents 20+ years tradelines to show up in the next couple months (I've heard it can take that long to post) and I'm anxiously seeing what effect it will have on my FICO scores. Nice thing is their address is listed as a previous address in my credit reports plus same last name; that should assist it finding my account.

Edit: For the "AU Accounts are not reported anymore" crowd:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2008-08-11-credit-card-authorized-user_N.htm

[imaloser]

my story

i've been an authorized user for 20 years on two accounts for my mother - mainly because when she lived alone out of town, us kids wanted to keep accurate accounting measures of "help" we provided so that we could split the costs.

then, ten years ago, i bought a house and moved my mother in with me and there really was no need anymore to use the cards. i just stuck them in a file folder and actually forgot about them.

i never looked at my credit report. i mean, my own credit was excellent when i bought the house ten years ago. i don't think i looked at my credit report until i filed c13 in early 2007 - the authorized user accounts did not show up on my credit report, at least in early 2007.

then, i checked out my credit report around october or november 2008. the authorized user accounts were on my credit reports ! ! !

so, here's what i have on my credit report: mortgage (still reporting), two authorized user accounts, and i opened a prime secured card attached to my savings account. 689/705/695 were my scores last fall. i'm sure they've inched up a bit since then.

now the bad: 5 other accounts - all charged off/collection/judgements. these were in various stages of collection when i filed in early 07. however, they will fall off because of their age, in spite of being included in bk.

and then some old good stuff, paid off - which will also fall off because of age which might actually lower my score. who knows.