Authorized user account - get it deleted or not?

[Anonymous]

Ok, I'm currently in the 640 to 650 range and my goal is 720+. I have three credit card acounts open. One of them, I'm just an authorized user on, but it happens to be the highest limit. It is my ex wife's card. Has been 30 days late once. It is almost maxed out so I'm not sure if it's helping me at all besides being open for 3+ years.

My question is would this help my credit to get this taken off. I don't think it would be an issue to get it taken off since we are divorced and I'm no longer an authorized user. I just don't want to mess with it if it will lower my score for losing the long term account. My other two cards are over a year, but not at 2 yet. Less than half balance owed on those. Any insight would be appreciated.

Message Edited by sellin28 on 03-04-2009 12:37 PM

[Anonymous]

I would imagine that with the late and the high utilization, it would help your score to have it removed but that's just a guess?

[Anonymous]

Figure you AAoA with this card and without.

Figure your util with this card and without.

Is this your oldest account?

Is this your only late? How old is the late?

[Anonymous]

Sorry I just checked the Abreviations thread and can't figure out what you mean.

What is AAoA?

What is util? (utilized credit?)

This is my oldest open account.

I have an auto installment loan open for 2+years

I have 2 credit cards besides this open for 1 year.

I have a carecredit account that hasn't been used in 3 years, but its still showing as open and current. That one is 5 years old. 

It is my only 30 day late payment showing, however I have 2 CA's for $98 each recently from a hospital which some reason split the bill.

30 day late on the card was about 5 months ago.

Thanks so much for your help.

[kjm79]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sorry I just checked the Abreviations thread and can't figure out what you mean.

What is AAoA?Average Age of Account you have three accounts, add up how long each account has been open and then divide by three.  one account is 2 years old, one account is 1 year old, and the last account is 5 years old.  2+1+5=8/3=2.6 years is your average age of accounts. 

What is util? (utilized credit?)  If you have two accounts (one with a 5000 limit and another with a 5000 limit then you have $10,000 of available credit).  One account has a balance of 1,000 and the other 1,500, so you are using 2,500 of your available credit or 25% of your available credit. 

This is my oldest open account.

I have an auto installment loan open for 2+years

I have 2 credit cards besides this open for 1 year.

I have a carecredit account that hasn't been used in 3 years, but its still showing as open and current. That one is 5 years old. 

It is my only 30 day late payment showing, however I have 2 CA's for $98 each recently from a hospital which some reason split the bill.

30 day late on the card was about 5 months ago.

Thanks so much for your help.

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[Anonymous]

Sidewinder--

Ok I did what you asked.

AAoA = 2.03 yr with this account/////1.47 w/o this account 

util= 91% with this account/////29% w/o this account

It is my oldest account on file. It is my only late payment on file (30 days once) about 10 months ago. 

So back to the question to remove or not to remove? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you use all accounts(besides collections reported under the collections section) when you calculate AAoA. If you did that, your AAoA isn't going to change much and you can bounce back from that as accounts age.

You say this is your oldest account, opened about 3 years ago, but you state that your CareCredit has been opened for 5 years.

Your util would decrease quite a bit.

If it were me, I'd drop it like a bad habit for the simple reason that you have no control over what happens with it. She could default tomorrow and tank your scores overnight, then you have to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

I was counting all open accounts. Should I count all closed accounts as well. CareCredit account was closed by the credit grantor for non use.

[Anonymous]

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sellin28 wrote:

I was counting all open accounts. Should I count all closed accounts as well. CareCredit account was closed by the credit grantor for non use.

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Yes!

[RobertEG]

Dropping a 30-day late and a hgh %util account looks like a win to me.

Plus, being an AU is always a risk situation that is out of your control.  If the account holder has another delinquency, it will hit you from out of the blue.

AAoA is not major here, IMHO. 

If for no reason other than to put you back into control, I would drop the AU account.  Too many perils, when balanced against the potential bennies.