What Are Seasoned Credit Trade Lines?
WHAT IS A TRADE LINE: The answer is simple: Any account reported to your credit file is considered a trade line. They can include Mortgages, Your credit cards, Auto Loans, Furniture stores, Jewelry Stores, Gym memberships, and any other account that you have been granted credit for that reports to the bureaus.
WHAT IS SEASONING: Seasoned trade lines are again simply, accounts that have been posted for a period of time.
THREE POINTS MAKE UP A GOOD SEASONED TRADE LINE
Accounts with a history or seasoning. Top FICO scores are given to accounts with 2 to 6 years of history. Anything less or more barely effects your score.
Accounts with a perfect payment record. If your account has any 30-day or more late payments recorded, it will adversely effect your FICO scores. One late 30-day late will effect your score between 25 and 50 points.
Keep the Balance Low. To get a good credit utilization score on your FICO report, you need to keep your balances below 9% of your credit limit. Having no balance can also adversely effect your score. Try keeping a small balance on your accounts to keep your credit card companies from lowering your Credit Limit for non-use.
TWO KINDS OF TRADE LINES
The AUTHORIZED USER or cosigner type trade lines are the most common. Your Father, friend, boss or who ever, with a good payment record can add you to their credit file. This is normally done with credit cards. The Primary user, will call their credit card company, and ask for an additional card who then becomes an authorized user. The AU (Authorized User) will have the payment and history record of the Primary user added to his or her credit file. Remember, if the primary user has 30-day late payment, so will you. The new FICO 08 scoring has largely reduced the credit score for the Authorized user.
Investors have been "piggybacking" for years to help raise their scores and get approved, and up until recently the technique has been considered a "best kept secret". With the influx of companies promoting these accounts, many creditors have decided to no longer report authorized users.
