Question about credit score.

[ourfirsthome]

Question about FICO score. It went from 811 to currently 795 and now says the following why it went down a bit.

It says:

Your FICOŽ Credit Score is affected by these key factors:

1. LENGTH OF TIME REVOLVING ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED:

Longer credit histories indicate less risk to lenders. The age of your revolving accounts is relatively low.


2. NO RECENT BANK/NATIONAL REVOLVING BALANCES:

Your report shows you are not actively using revolving credit on credit cards.

--

So for the first one. Would adding myself as an authorized user to my wife cc that is the oldest cc we have be a benefit or would be effect us negatively? Mainly should my cards have my name and hers and authorized user and her cards have her name as main and my name as authorized user to give us the best credit score?

Secondly, will my score continue to decrease because we are no longer using our credit cards? If so, how do we combat this so keep our score numbers high?

I want to make sure our credit score stays high for when we sell our home and buy a new home so I want to make sure we are doing the correct thing until that time takes place.

[bjl584]

If you use your credit card for a few small purchases every month then pay off the bill in full every month, your score should stay up.

But, there may not be much of a benefit to you for a score of 795 versus 811. You probably aren't going to get much better of a rate at the bank.

[tom edward]

use no more then 25 percent of your credit limit, pay off the credit card more then once a month if you have to to keep it under that. 3 or more credit cards looks good for the fico and the older the better. 4 year old or older credit cards yield the best results. I hate the great fico but same as you I want it for the ease of getting a home mortgage

[ourfirsthome]

Ok thank you.

Any replies on adding our names to each others cards, or is that pointless to do?

[cougs4bcs]

at this point, who cares? an 811 score will do the same for you as a 795.

[corn18]

Ok thank you.

Any replies on adding our names to each others cards, or is that pointless to do?

It won't hurt and it may help. If this is important to you, then do it. When I added my wife to my 25 year old credit card, her score went up.

[btctony]

Ok thank you.

Any replies on adding our names to each others cards, or is that pointless to do?

Adding you will not help or hurt your wife. It will help you, if you currently do not have any revolving trade lines being reported. The only way it hurts anyone is if a payment gets missed. In that case, it hurts everyone on the card.

[btctony]

use no more then 25 percent of your credit limit, pay off the credit card more then once a month if you have to to keep it under that. 3 or more credit cards looks good for the fico and the older the better. 4 year old or older credit cards yield the best results. I hate the great fico but same as you I want it for the ease of getting a home mortgage

25% is a little much. Having somewhere between 1% and 10% utilization reporting to the CRA's among all revolving accounts will be the best case scenario.

[btctony]

at this point, who cares? an 811 score will do the same for you as a 795.

And then there is that. I doubt you'll be able find a lender who isn't willing to give you their best rate with a 795 middle FICO score.

For first time home buyers, a lot of underwriters want to see a mix of revolving and installment accounts in good standing on your credit report. Your case is different though. If your name is already on a mortgage that is in good standing, you shouldn't have any trouble at all buying your next home. With that said, I'd still have your wife add you to her revolving account. It's only going to make a very good situation better.

[ourfirsthome]

Thank you for all the replies on this. I'll add both of our names to each others cards then. Thanks again for all of the helpful information.