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Did my father hurt my credit score?

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dndandrea
Established Member

Did my father hurt my credit score?

My father has been a member at Sam's club for a long time. When he signed up they do the "Is there anyone else in your family that'd like a card to use here?" He got one from himself, my mother, and myself. I needed one since I use it to pick up supplies for our small company. I don't remember having to sign any documents or anything while I was there either, but it was a long time ago so the memory is vague.

 

Here's the interesting part, everytime my father uses his card, it goes on my credit score. My father doesn't know anything about credit cards and thinks that he's allowed to use up to $500 on his $500 limit even after I told him I'm supposed to keep my utilization around 10% since i'm building credit. Every month his bill is usually $300-$400 on the account. Our limit is $500 so I keep getting these alerts to my credit karma account saying it's way too high utilization.

 

Again, it's not ME using the card, it's my father. It's not ME paying the bill, it's my father. So why is this showing up on my credit report history? Yes the 5+ years of credit history is nice, but not when the utilization on it is 75%+ everytime. I feel if I cancel the card it'll hurt me because of long credit history, but if I keep it it'll still hurt me. What am I supposed to do??? I've already talked to me father and he refuses to listen to me, he said he's allowed to spend as much as he wants as long as it's under the $500 limit. I'm not responsible for any of these, they should not be on my credit report... But would it be worse if I got all of it erased (if that's even possible)?

 

Thanks for any advice in advance!

 

edit: btw i'm 22 so i'm pretty young. Which is why i'm worried about my credit score getting ruined at such a young age.

Message 1 of 22
21 REPLIES 21
enharu
Super Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

he probably added you as an AU.

Dispute that on your CRA as "account not mine"

or call the lender to have you removed as AU; you might need him to do that however.

JPMorgan Palladium (100k), AmEx Platinum (NPSL), AmEx SPG (46k), AmEx BCP (42k), Chase Sapphire Preferred (47k), Citi Prestige (31k), Citi Thank You Preferred (27k), Citi Executive AAdvantage (25k), JPMorgan Ritz-Carlton (21k), Merrill+ (15k), US Bank Cash+ (22.5k), Wells Fargo (12k), Bloomingdale’s (12.4k), Chase Freedom (5k), Discover IT (5k).
Message 2 of 22
madmann26
Valued Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

In short,

 

If this is the only card you have, it will definitely hurt.

 

If you have more than just this one card, it will hurt less.

 

In the end, your getting dinged by someone else's spending habits. If this bothers you, then ask your father to terminate the relationship with GEMB and this will stop your score from getting dinged.

Current FICO 9 Scores



Message 3 of 22
dodfire
Valued Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

If it is just the UTL that you are worried about.......DON"T!!

FICO has no memory of UTL...the only ..time that having the high UTL will hurt you is if you are trying to get a CLI or apply for a new line of credit at the time that it is reporting high.

*8/10/13
Message 4 of 22
dndandrea
Established Member

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

Well I just got my first 2 actual credit cards last month. The limits are $300 and $1000. How will I ever get a credit limit increase on these if the utilization on this Sam's Club card is always 75%+? Also, i thought if you terminate a credit card it will erase all the past history i've had with the account. That's 5+ years of credit history that will disappear.

 

So technically i'm screwed either way. If i take my name off the credit card it will erase a huge chunk of my credit history, but if I keep the account I will always have a very high utilization every month. 

 

edit: if it makes a difference i've also had 2 car loans that are completely paid off.

 

edit2: also, is this whole thing legal? I don't think I sign away on this... Why is this reporting to my credit history..?

Message 5 of 22
dodfire
Valued Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

1. You could ask your father to request a CLI on the sams card and that will help with the UTL.

2. You said that you have two cards $1000 / $300 and then your fathers card of $500

     That is $1800 and if he carries a balance on the card of $400 that puts YOU at 22% UTL not 75%.

For the best possible scoring it is suggested to be at 1-9%, again this is if you are going to apply for a CLI or a new line of credit.

 

 

 

*8/10/13
Message 6 of 22
dndandrea
Established Member

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?


@dodfire wrote:

1. You could ask your father to request a CLI on the sams card and that will help with the UTL.

2. You said that you have two cards $1000 / $300 and then your fathers card of $500

     That is $1800 and if he carries a balance on the card of $400 that puts YOU at 22% UTL not 75%.

For the best possible scoring it is suggested to be at 1-9%, again this is if you are going to apply for a CLI or a new line of credit.

 

 

 


Thanks i'll see if he can get a CLI, but I doubt he can. It used to have a higher limit but he has a bad credit score, in deep debt, and he charges all his credit cards just like this sam's club card. If all his utilization is 75%+, i doubt they'll give him a CLI. 

 

So let me see if I understand this. This is not affecting my overall credit score? This is actually increasing it every time he pays the bill? It's only bad if i'm trying to apply for a CLI or a new line of credit? That doesn't really make sense. My idea is that every time he pays the bill my credit score goes down. Now it's going up a bit because I just paid my first 2 bills from my credit cards, but it would have went up higher if i didn't have the sam's club right?

Message 7 of 22
solxp
Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?


@dndandrea wrote:

Well I just got my first 2 actual credit cards last month. The limits are $300 and $1000. How will I ever get a credit limit increase on these if the utilization on this Sam's Club card is always 75%+? Also, i thought if you terminate a credit card it will erase all the past history i've had with the account. That's 5+ years of credit history that will disappear.

 

So technically i'm screwed either way. If i take my name off the credit card it will erase a huge chunk of my credit history, but if I keep the account I will always have a very high utilization every month. 

 

edit: if it makes a difference i've also had 2 car loans that are completely paid off.

 

edit2: also, is this whole thing legal? I don't think I sign away on this... Why is this reporting to my credit history..?


I think your making this into a bigger deal then it really is. The thing about accounts that report AU is that all you have to do is request you be taking off the account as an AU and boom its all gone. Your not financially responsible for a card that your a AU on. The primary cardholder is responsible. So instead of being mad at your Father you might want to thank him for trusting you enough to have you on his account that he and he alone can be held responsible for if you were to run up the bill and not pay it. Utilization of 90% if not ideal but its also not that Big a deal especially if its being PIF each month on a toy limit of 500.00. When you need a CLI on the other accounts if you don't get an auto or you want to initiate it, if the AU account even comes up for discussion about its high utilization simply tell the UW, "Its a account that my Father has and I am a authorized user on it  for a small business we run and its PIF every month" End of story.   

 

Message 8 of 22
webhopper
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?

In this situation, I would ask him kindly to remove you as an authorized user.  If the account is removed, then it will no longer affect your score.

 

The effect of this card being maxed out is hurting you, but as long as he pays the bill on time, the effects of overutilization is not long term.

 

Do you have other credit accounts in your own name??

 

If so, please list the account, Credit Limit, and what your balance is on the account?

 

I also agree with the other scenarios proposed...   if your father pays off the balance and closes the account, then the card will report for 10 more years and the "ding" that you are experiencing now will go away.

 

If your father asks for a Credit Limit increase, and keeps utilization below $500, then this will actually help you out.

 

$500 is a low limit to have for a Sams Card. 

 

My family spends $800-$900 every time we go.  We buy food in bulk

FICO 9:
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.

Goal: Gardening!


Message 9 of 22
dodfire
Valued Contributor

Re: Did my father hurt my credit score?


@dndandrea wrote:

@dodfire wrote:

1. You could ask your father to request a CLI on the sams card and that will help with the UTL.

2. You said that you have two cards $1000 / $300 and then your fathers card of $500

     That is $1800 and if he carries a balance on the card of $400 that puts YOU at 22% UTL not 75%.

For the best possible scoring it is suggested to be at 1-9%, again this is if you are going to apply for a CLI or a new line of credit.

 

 

 


Thanks i'll see if he can get a CLI, but I doubt he can. It used to have a higher limit but he has a bad credit score, in deep debt, and he charges all his credit cards just like this sam's club card. If all his utilization is 75%+, i doubt they'll give him a CLI. 

 

So let me see if I understand this. This is not affecting my overall credit score? This is actually increasing it every time he pays the bill? It's only bad if i'm trying to apply for a CLI or a new line of credit? That doesn't really make sense. My idea is that every time he pays the bill my credit score goes down. Now it's going up a bit because I just paid my first 2 bills from my credit cards, but it would have went up higher if i didn't have the sam's club right?


To answer your question here....This is not affecting my overall credit score? Yes it is affecting your score.

 

The higher your overall utilization is the lower your score will be. ( so in one view you can say he is hurting your score). However, it is not doing any DAMAGE to your credit history.

Now if he is late on payments, that is a different story.

 

The on time payment history each month is helping your score and history.

 

The increase in score that you saw from your other credit cards was probably the reduction in UTL. Because before you got your two credit cards the your utilization was showing as you said 75% because the only credit you had reporting was the $500 limit at Sams.

You have now added an additional $1300 to your overall limits thus reducing the UTL to 22%.

 

*8/10/13
Message 10 of 22
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