AMEX Authorized user account with a high balance - would removing myself help my utilization?

[Brody700]

I am an Authorized user on my husband's Amex Everyday card. It has a high balance. It states on my score details that the utilization on AU accounts are not calculated in the total utilization - so if that is the case... will removing myself from that card even affect my score?  I was hoping that my score would come up because it would help my overall utilization.   I am trying to obtain a mortgage.

[Anonymous]

---

@Brody700 wrote:

I am an Authorized user on my husband's Amex Everyday card. It has a high balance. It states on my score details that the utilization on AU accounts are not calculated in the total utilization - so if that is the case... will removing myself from that card even affect my score?  I was hoping that my score would come up because it would help my overall utilization.   I am trying to obtain a mortgage.

---

Utilization on any card, whether it's yours or one you're an AU on affects your overall utilization and therefore your credit score.

[melillobm]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Brody700 wrote:

I am an Authorized user on my husband's Amex Everyday card. It has a high balance. It states on my score details that the utilization on AU accounts are not calculated in the total utilization - so if that is the case... will removing myself from that card even affect my score?  I was hoping that my score would come up because it would help my overall utilization.   I am trying to obtain a mortgage.

---

Utilization on any card, whether it's yours or one you're an AU on affects your overall utilization and therefore your credit score.

---

+1 in my experience, it has been the same for me. If I'm an AU and they have low utilization it helps my score, if it's high it hurts it just like the ones where I'm the owner.

[newhis]

I'm AU on DW card that have BT, the card didn't report to the bureaus. 2 years later it started reporting and that UTIL made my Score drop 20-25 points.

[NRB525]

OP it seems to me that you have two items to consider;

1 - Is the AU account when added to your CR profile helping you because of weaknesses in number of cards or age of accounts or any baddies in your file?

2 - Does the utilization level affect your score if util is too high on DH card?

Removing the AU account might very well improve your score on the point 2 above, but if point 1 above is substantially helping, the net change to your score would be expected to be negative, after removing the AU.

[Brody700]

The age of the card is not helping me - I have the same card/ opened the same day, we just put me as an authorized user on his for some reason.  I have plenty of other cards.  His balance is high $10,000/$9500.

I have the following - AMEX Everyday 10K/$7000, Discover IT $7200/$4000, BOA $4000 / $2000 , Cap One $2500 / $1000, Cap One $750 / 0, Matrix $400 / 0, 1st Premier 750 / 0, Care Credit  - $9000 / $3400.  I am working on paying down my own utilization and was hoping that if I removed myself from his AMEX, my scores would go up a little.  

Curent scores are :Equifax - 676, Experian- 691, TU - 674.  I have one collection on Equ that is being removed in the next couple of weeks.  I am needing a mid score of 700 for the mortgage.  Also- the scores here are using the FICO 8 model and is 7 points lower than the FICO 5 Mortgage report - so I am trying to track it as best I can to make it to 700 by December.

[ojefferyo]

If you're looking for mid 700's the removing yourself won't make it jump that high anyhow. 

[Anonymous]

---

@ojefferyo wrote:

If you're looking for mid 700's the removing yourself won't make it jump that high anyhow. 

---

They didn't say they were looking for mid 700's. They said they were looking for a mid score of 700.

[Anonymous]

---

@Brody700 wrote:

The age of the card is not helping me - I have the same card/ opened the same day, we just put me as an authorized user on his for some reason.  I have plenty of other cards.  His balance is high $10,000/$9500.

I have the following - AMEX Everyday 10K/$7000, Discover IT $7200/$4000, BOA $4000 / $2000 , Cap One $2500 / $1000, Cap One $750 / 0, Matrix $400 / 0, 1st Premier 750 / 0, Care Credit  - $9000 / $3400.  I am working on paying down my own utilization and was hoping that if I removed myself from his AMEX, my scores would go up a little.  

Curent scores are :Equifax - 676, Experian- 691, TU - 674.  I have one collection on Equ that is being removed in the next couple of weeks.  I am needing a mid score of 700 for the mortgage.  Also- the scores here are using the FICO 8 model and is 7 points lower than the FICO 5 Mortgage report - so I am trying to track it as best I can to make it to 700 by December.

---

My ex husband had me on his CC's and his utilization was extremely high. I took myself off of all of them and my score went up significantly, but I also have 0% utilization on my own credit cards because I pay them off immediately. In about a year I've gone from the low 500's to my current scores. 

[newhis]

---

@Brody700 wrote:

The age of the card is not helping me - I have the same card/ opened the same day, we just put me as an authorized user on his for some reason.  I have plenty of other cards.  His balance is high $10,000/$9500.

... so I am trying to track it as best I can to make it to 700 by December.

---

You may make it to 700 if you remove that card from your reports and lower your util. Try to get all cards below 30% and overall as low as possible (less than 10% is better). Good luck.