If I were to keep my own credit cards at a 0 balance with only the cards I am an AU on showing a balance each month, is that scored the same as if I wasn't an AU and only had a balance on a couple of my own cards?
I will try to clarify if this post is confusing. LOL. Thank you.
Starting Score: 648
* squints *
(not much coffee in me yet, lol)
OK, so you have a combo of your own cards and AU cards, right? And you're asking if balances on AU cards are somehow scored differently than if they were your own cards?
If that's what you're asking, then no, the AU part is irrelevant to calculating revolving util. A balance is a balance is a balance, whether on your own card or AU. If you have (for instance) 7 cards, four are yours and three are AU's, it doesn't matter if the three AU cards report balances and yours are $0, or if three of your own cards report balances and the rest, including the AU cards, report $0. Obviously the impact would vary according to the balances that report and the CL on those cards. Remember that util looks at both total util and individual card util.
Having balances on AU cards can be one of the tricky parts of AU-ness. You can hardly go demanding of the person who was kind enough to add you to their card that they not allow balances to report. 
If I mis-read, my apologies. If you'll post back, I'll swig down some more coffee. 
Great, thank you! You understood perfectly despite the lack of coffee and my lack of written articulation. This is exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks again. 
I totally get that and that's an excellent point. I never really thought of it like that before; thank you. I was thinking of laying off of my own personal credit cards because the 2 AU accounts I'm on are being charged on monthly. Either that, or I'll use mine and pay them off before the statement drops. I don't want anything shut down, or decreased, due to inactivity.
Thanks again.
^^ True. My situation may be a little different then since I have full access to the account online and it's also attached to my bank account for payments.
Generally speaking, is it easy to have an AU deleted from your CRs at any point in time? A couple of nights ago I disputed an AU TL that stated it was open when it's been closed for several months and they ended up deleting the entire account (although I didn't mind).
@clocktick wrote:^^ True. My situation may be a little different then since I have full access to the account online and it's also attached to my bank account for payments.
Generally speaking, is it easy to have an AU deleted from your CRs at any point in time? A couple of nights ago I disputed an AU TL that stated it was open when it's been closed for several months and they ended up deleting the entire account (although I didn't mind).
Most AU accounts stop reporting once you come off the card. But not all.
My American Express Gold card still reports on DXH and DD#2's credit reports, even though they've been off the card for 2 1/2 years. In fact, after they came off, I had to replace the card due to fraud, and the replacement account shows up on their reports as well, even though they were already off. Now the original (my) account is closed, and by golly, the two TL's are still on their accounts. I tried to get American Express to stop reporting it on their reports, and they wanted report numbers from Experian to do so, meaning that I would have to buy a full report for each of them. No, thank you!
I came off of DXH's Discover card this past January, and it still reports on all three of my accounts. In fact, on Experian it's still updating, including reporting a balance last month. But I'm letting it stay for now, as it's a lovely, clean, 20+ year old account.
If you really need to get a former AU account to stop reporting, just dispute with the bureaus as "not mine." First try going through the CCC though, as you don't want to get on the credit bureaus' lists of "frivolous disputers." 