@rmduhon wrote:
In the first post the OP also said he was added as joint so maybe it's not an AU situation? That would explain having to close the card instead of being removed from it.
Nice catch! I bet you are right. Newcomers can occasionally use a word that doesn't capture their intent, so I am not surprised that we all saw "joint" and assumed AU (partly too because joint cards are very rare now).
Our OP later indicates that he's been persuaded by us to keep it open for the next few years and to pay off some of his high CC debt during that time. That's a great decision.
If he's up for a little more guidance I would strengthen that decision in the following ways:
(a) He and his mom should not close the card ever, since it sounds like it is their oldest card by a good stretch. (If he can tell us the ages of all her cards we can give much better advice.) She may also have only two cards total, in which case going from two open cards to one would be a very bad move as well.
(b) Either his mom or himself should resolve to use the card for something small once every six months (to ensure it stays open) but otherwise not use it. Keeping almost all their expenses off that card is smart because it is a JOINT card, which puts the other person at risk for the other person's purchases.
(c) He should go further than paying down some of his CC debt. He should pay off all of it. When all of the debt is paid off, he can use one card each month, keep his reported utilization very low, and then at that point think about opening more cards. But the fact that he got himself into very high CC debt suggests that opening cards right now puts him at risk of using them for spending.
