Married? Spouse's Credit Score Won't Count - CHICAGO -- It's A Three Digit Number That Packs A Lot Of Punch -- Especially If You Want To Borrow Money. But Major Changes To A Widely Used Credit Formula Are On The Way That Will Affect The Creditworthiness O

Anonymous writes "CHICAGO -- It's a three digit number that packs a lot of punch -- especially if you want to borrow money.

But major changes to a widely used credit formula are on the way that will affect the creditworthiness of consumers across the country.

Consumers haven't heard much about this change yet, but it is sure to affect a lot of people.

This change will affect a broad number, including spouses, and college kids who are on their parents' accounts.

When this change kicks in, being listed as an authorized user gets you zero in terms of building credit. Ultimately, you will need a card listing you as the primary card holder in order to do that.

Sometime this fall, the Fair Isaac Company that created the widely used FICO credit scoring method will change the way it gives credit benefits to credit card users.

How does that affect you? It depends on where you put your name on the original application.

Consumers may not recognize the name, but feel its impact daily: that three-digit number that makes all the difference when applying for credit, buying insurance and countless other things.

"Your FICO score is more important than your SAT score was when you were trying to get into college," said Sun-Times financial columnist and author Terry Savage. "They're saying anybody who was just a signer on the card, an authorized user, will not have (that) good credit considered in their FICO score."

"It frustrates me as a consumer," said Arlington Heights resident Holly Alberts is one of those who stands to lose under the new policy. Her husband is listed as the primary cardholder on their credit card accounts; she's called the authorized user.

They're titles that now matter.

"I don't think it's fair to me being that I've collectively created this with my husband and being good consumers using our credit, paying it off and now it's just going to go away for me," said Alberts.

It's a change blamed on a group of people referred to as "malicious users."

What happened was some companies sprung up on the Internet offering people with terrible credit the chance to borrow the credit of people who had good credit by becoming an authorized user of a card.

Fair Isaac acknowledges legitimate authorized users will be punished along with the "malicious" ones, but say they have to tighten this loophole.

Anybody who is just an authorized user should immediately take steps to sign up credit in her own name, they said
http://www.nbc5.com/money/14062385/detail.html "