General Credit Card Questions

[Anonymous]

1. Are store revolving credit cards i.e. HomeDepot,Sears, etc. treated the same way as Bank Credit Cards?  Will your credit score suffer by closing these cards?

2. I was stunned to find that being a card holder on someone elses Credit Card account is the same as if I was the account owner and that it appears on my credit report. Is this correct? Even if I neverused the card, am I liable if the primary holder does not pay and is my credit card score affected accordingly?

3. Am I able to have my card cancelled? If yes, how will this affect my credit?  If no, is there anything that can be done ?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

1. They are treated the same. It might help to have a store card if all you have is bank cards. It definitely helps to have a bank card if all you have are store cards. At any rate, they don't hurt.

2. I assume you're talking about being an authorized user (AU), where you weren't an original applicant, and you aren't responsible to the bank for the account. Yes, you'll get all the good and bad from the account, if it shows up on your reports. Not all AU accounts do. If you were a joint holder (NOT advised!), the account will be listed, and you will be responsible for it if the other person flakes out.

3. Are you talking about getting off the AU card? If so, yes. You can ask the cardholder to remove you, or you can call the bank yourself. Some banks want to hear from the cardholder. If you can't get anywhere in this manner, you can dispute with the credit bureaus as "not mine", although you should do this as a last resort. Disputing with the CRA's can open up all sorts of headaches.

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 12-21-2009 03:40 PM