Does high utilization hurt an AU?

[rpss4844]

I have my wife as an AU on 3 of my credit cards.  They are $500, $500, and $5000.  all have perfect pmt history, the oldest is a little over 2 yrs and youngest is just over a yeear.  I tend to keep the balance on the $5000 card real high and I want to know if it is hurting her credit scores being an AU?  I know when I check her CK scores it shows her as having high util.  Would it be beneficial to remove her from this acct until i can get the balance back real low?  the other 3 cards are easily kept low balance because they are crappy cards so I really dont use them but once a month for small purchases, I just dont want to close them because they are my oldest cards and what I used to rebuild.

[gdale6]

Yes its going to affect her Fico score. Fico doesnt differentiate between her own accounts and an AU account. When one has AU accounts they should be older ones with little to no balance or the advantage of having an AU card on file will be lost.

[rpss4844]

Ok thanks. I had added her own back when i first got it and kept the balance super low for a long time but have had to really use it lately. At the time i suppose it was a great idea so she would have a higher limit on her reports to bring down her util and it would build history together. So if i remove her as an AU, it will be deleted from her profile or show closed? Also if later on I add her back will it show back up like it was never gone?

[gdale6]

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@rpss4844 wrote:
Ok thanks. I had added her own back when i first got it and kept the balance super low for a long time but have had to really use it lately. At the time i suppose it was a great idea so she would have a higher limit on her reports to bring down her util and it would build history together. So if i remove her as an AU, it will be deleted from her profile or show closed? Also if later on I add her back will it show back up like it was never gone?

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Some creditors completly remove the AU from the CR when its terminated others update it to 0 balance and note the relationship has been terminated. As to re-adding at a later time I dont have any experience with whether or not it would show up again, I would tend to think it would.

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

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@rpss4844 wrote:
Ok thanks. I had added her own back when i first got it and kept the balance super low for a long time but have had to really use it lately. At the time i suppose it was a great idea so she would have a higher limit on her reports to bring down her util and it would build history together. So if i remove her as an AU, it will be deleted from her profile or show closed? Also if later on I add her back will it show back up like it was never gone?

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Some creditors completly remove the AU from the CR when its terminated others update it to 0 balance and note the relationship has been terminated. As to re-adding at a later time I dont have any experience with whether or not it would show up again, I would tend to think it would.

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Yup, it would.  There are people out there that constantly add and drop AU accounts.  Part of the reason I think AU accounts don't affect Fico scores as much as before.

[vanillabean]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@gdale6 wrote:

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@rpss4844 wrote:
Ok thanks. I had added her own back when i first got it and kept the balance super low for a long time but have had to really use it lately. At the time i suppose it was a great idea so she would have a higher limit on her reports to bring down her util and it would build history together. So if i remove her as an AU, it will be deleted from her profile or show closed? Also if later on I add her back will it show back up like it was never gone?

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Some creditors completly remove the AU from the CR when its terminated others update it to 0 balance and note the relationship has been terminated. As to re-adding at a later time I dont have any experience with whether or not it would show up again, I would tend to think it would.

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Yup, it would.  There are people out there that constantly add and drop AU accounts.  Part of the reason I think AU accounts don't affect Fico scores as much as before.

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Come to think of it, you don't have to remove and add an AU card to see if it impacts your FICO score. Simply zero all accounts and note the score which typically decreases by somewhere around twenty to thirty points, then let an AU card report. If the points are restored, FICO considers the account; if not, it doesn't.

[Kb109]

Yes it does.

[takeshi74]

When an account where one is an AU is considered the entire TL matters.  High utilization, negative payment history and young accounts can be detrimiental.  Low utilization, positive payment history and a long age can be beneficial.