Rebuilding Your Credit

[MDfive21]

i am an authorized user on my wife's mastercard. it has been open since 2005, and there are no derogs at all. no lates. the utilization is quite high, and that won't be changing soon. using >90% tho we are paying it down slowly. all else being equal, would it be better for my fico to remove myself from the account due to high utilization, or to keep it for the good history and age or account?

[MDfive21]

also, if i remove myself from her account, will the TL still be reported? and if so, will it affect my util?

[MarineVietVet]

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MDfive21 wrote:
i am an authorized user on my wife's mastercard. it has been open since 2005, and there are no derogs at all. no lates. the utilization is quite high, and that won't be changing soon. using >90% tho we are paying it down slowly. all else being equal, would it be better for my fico to remove myself from the account due to high utilization, or to keep it for the good history and age or account?

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Welcome to the forums.

It's hard to know exactly what might happen if you remove yourself. If this account is older than any of yours then yes it might affect your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) and credit length history. But having that high utilization off your report might more than offset the lower AAoA.

What you can do is have yourself removed for several months and see what happens. It's easy enough to be added back on the account in the future. Just as you inherited the entire history of this account when you were added you will lose all it's history once you are removed.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800, 10/10-813
TU - 10/10-774
You can do the same thing with hard work

[RobertEG]

% util counts twice as much in scoring as lenght of credit.  I would strongly suspect that this card is hurting more than it is helping.

[MDfive21]

you guys were right on the money about teh card hurting more than helping.  i decided to have myself taken off just to see how it would affect my scores.  so far my USAA Fako score has jumped 16 points from 635 to 651!  i know it's fako, but the moves correspond to myfico point wise even if the absolute score value is off.  the usaa fako has been 20 points lower than fico.

[beamMEup]

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so far my USAA Fako score has jumped 16 points from 635 to 651!  i know it's fako, but the moves correspond to myfico point wise even if the absolute score value is off.  the usaa fako has been 20 points lower than fico.

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For others reading this thread, and to avoid confusion, let me say that USAA FAKO's do not correspond with FICO's pointwise even if the absolute score value is off.  They use different algorithms and behave differently in addition to having a different score range.  There are lots of informational posts on the differences between the two, including this one.  It's always tempting to attribute a universal pattern though, when you can see a short-term pattern in your own scores.  I've sometimes wanted to do that myself - it just doesn't work.  FICO is a maze of sophisticated formulae and FAKO's simply don't provide similar patterns in score changes universally.

Congrats MDfive on solving your CC dilemma - nicely done!  When you get an opportunity, check out your FICO score - that's when you'll know what the true FICO impact was.

[MDfive21]

consider me schooled.   thanks for link and info beammeup.  that's why i like this forum!

[MyFicoAddict]

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RobertEG wrote:

% util counts twice as much in scoring as lenght of credit.  I would strongly suspect that this card is hurting more than it is helping.

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+1... I agree with RobertEG. RobertEG had adviced same to my gf through here and she removed herself from an AU account with 70% uti and her score jumped from high 600's to 721 (as of yest). I would recommend detaching from the high uti card. The card will still report but as a zero balance - like as if it were a closed TL