topic Dropping Authorized User Account Advice in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:20:01 GMT

Hi everyone,

I hope im posting this in the correct board. Im writing this post for my sister. My mom has an amex card with no limit. She added both myself & my sister as authorized users. Pretty much every month, the balance due has been going up and is now at $6100. The last reported amount was $5100. I dropped myself from the card last night.

My sister who is also rebuilding her credit is considering doing the same, but would love some opinions on how it would affect her score, which is averaging 608 across all 3 agencies. She is hoping to have her score high enough to go for a mortgage in spring of 2019, but is willing to wait a year if that would make more sense.

She currently has the following:
Discover - 0/200 - 5 mos old

She is an authorized user on:
Discover - 3389/11500 - 21 mos old
Cap One - 771/3800 - 29 mos old
Amex. - bal 6100 - 5 mos old

So i believe if she drops the Amex her overall utilization will go from 66% to 26%. Any other pros, cons or advice she should consider?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

grower1 — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:28:41 GMT

If the Amex card is a charge card, which I assume it is because you meantioned "no limit", it won't be factored in to the utilization. What is the name of the Amex card?

Re: Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:41:53 GMT

Its the Amex premier rewards.

Re: Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

grower1 — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 15:12:45 GMT

I can't give much insight on exactly how it reports as I just picked up my 1st Amex charge card in October and it has not reported yet, but based on all of the feedback here in the forum, it will not be factored in to the utilization. See the threads below:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Charge-card-and-overall-utilization/m-p/5216370#M258936

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Charge-cards-and-utilization/m-p/965526#M55699

Re: Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

HeavenOhio — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 08:49:09 GMT

FICO 8 ignores the balance on charge cards, but some flavors of FICO include it. The older scores used for mortgages may be among them. In those cases, utilization is determined by dividing the current balance by the card's highest balance.

Re: Dropping Authorized User Account Advice

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 15:31:25 GMT

@HeavenOhio wrote:
FICO 8 ignores the balance on charge cards, but some flavors of FICO include it. The older scores used for mortgages may be among them. In those cases, utilization is determined by dividing the current balance by the card's highest balance.

Yes, EX Fico 98 "mortgage Fico" looks at chage card, balance/high balance, when computing utilization.

BTW - You should be a Senior by month's end.