No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
Last year after I got married, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to add my husband to my USAA Mastercard (limit = $8,500 balance = $8,200) to help rebuild his credit. He filed Ch 7 Bk in 2005 and I thought adding my account would help rebuild his credit. We've taken other good steps to rebuild his credit (2 CC's and a car loan w/ low DTI ratio), but dummy me didn't realize that now his Credit report shows all of my $8,200 CC debt from the card he is an authorized user on.
Six months ago I removed him from the account after pulling his CR's and realizing what a dumb idea it is since the card is maxed out (never had any lates, though, in 8 years history). It's still showing on his credit report today (EQ) and affects his DTI ratio.
How do I get this removed? I've already drafted a letter to the credit bureau (thanks to this site) asking to have the account removed since my husband is no longer an AU. Will they completely remove the account from his report or will it just show as the account closed w/ a high balance??
Thanks,
Lisa
The credit card company will automatically report it after a while. If after 2-3 months they don't show it, send them a letter stating that he's not authorized on it and to be reconciled on the reports as such (from him, not you).
This is one time I would say to dispute with the CRA.
Dispute as not his account and it should be removed.
I recently disputed an account I was AU on and was removed from last year with the CRA as not mine and account was deleted the next day.
Of course, in my case, the account was 5 years 2 months old and with my short credit history (1 year) that dumb move cost me 30 points to my score, even though the account had a balance at the time it was closed of >50% of highest ever balance (it was an AMEX account so no limit reported)
My guess it was probably not being used to calculate utilization but only AAOA. And although it was reported as closed it was still worth 30 points!!!