Authorized User on Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card - 80-Point Drop in Equifax Score

[Anonymous]

The last FICO score I have available to me is one from TransUnion from September 25 2007 at 833 when I applied for a home equity line of credit with Bank of America (the negative points were lack of recent installment loan information & revolving-account balance too high - I was renovating my condo & putting everything on American Express, paying it off on time and in full monthly).  I am an authorized user on a separate Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card with a credit limit of $8000 that has been open for 8 months.  This card is paid in full every month soon after the statement is available.  In July 2011 there were a few large charges and the statement had a balance of $5236 - which meant the utilization was very high.  I signed up for the MyFico 10-day free trial to do a check on my score; the Equifax score showed 754 with the problem being 'ratio of revolving balances to your credit lines is 49%' showing the balance on the revolving cards was $5900.   The Equifax report shows 7 active accounts, 4 with balances (the 3 accounts without balances are all closed for 9 or more years).  Of the 4 accounts with balances, one is a Bank of America Visa with a $66 balance on a $12000 credit limit (paid on time and in full), an American Express Platinum Card with a balance of $622 (paid on time and in full), and a home equity line of credit, properly reported as a mortgage (unused).  The average age of my accounts is 15 years with the longest being the American Express Platinum Card open for 27+ years.  The owner of the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card could easily get a credit-line increase since the account has been open for more than 6 months and the total history with American Express is almost 7 years.  Periodically we do put large purchases on the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles card and always pay them on time and in full.  To get my score back up to the 800+ level, would it be best to close my Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card authorized-user account or have the card owner get the largest credit-limit increase possible and continue to use the card?  Thanks for your suggestions and let me know if any other information is needed.

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Let me try to do some untangling. Your 833 score was your TransUnion FICO score. Your 754 score is your Equifax FICO score. Furthermore, the TU score is 4 years old.

Generally there is different info on your three credit reports. Also, the three FICO scoring formulae for the three different bureau reports are different from one another. It is rare to have the same score on EQ and TU (and EX), even when they're all pulled on the same day, which these definitely were not.

The reason your score is low at the moment is because the cardholder is allowing the balance due to report on the statement before paying it. This is certainly a reasonable thing to do, but it's tough on scores if a high balance reports.

It's up to to as to whether to stay on the card or not. The cardholder can choose to either request a CLI, or start paying all or most of the balance before the statement drops. Either should help, but it's that person's decision.

How do you have balances on long-closed cards with no lates? (Just maybe figured it out --did the lates fall off, but the balances remain?) I guess I'm a bit baffled as to why you wouldn't pay these off, especially since the balances seem quite trivial. Of course, if you do, you'll lose the reported CL's, as the accounts are closed, but it does seem odd.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, haulingthescoreup, for the thoughtful comments and for the suggestion to simply pay the balance on the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles card before the statement is dropped.  That could be easy to do because Amex clearly publishes the closing date.  To respond to your other questions about the small balances:  of the 4 accounts listed as open, the balances are what was reported as owed when I pulled the EQ score - they have all been paid off on time and in full.  I rarely use the Visa card (open account #1) so I expect that to remain at $0 balance until its next use.  I use the Amex Platinum Card (open account #2) more and there's usually a balance - usually under $1000 monthly and always paid on time and in full.  The third open account is the HELOC and the fourth is the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card - so with your suggestions we'll probably get a CLI and see about paying the balance before the statement drops.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks, haulingthescoreup, for the thoughtful comments and for the suggestion to simply pay the balance on the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles card before the statement is dropped.  That could be easy to do because Amex clearly publishes the closing date.  To respond to your other questions about the small balances:  of the 4 accounts listed as open, the balances are what was reported as owed when I pulled the EQ score - they have all been paid off on time and in full.  I rarely use the Visa card (open account #1) so I expect that to remain at $0 balance until its next use.  I use the Amex Platinum Card (open account #2) more and there's usually a balance - usually under $1000 monthly and always paid on time and in full.  The third open account is the HELOC and the fourth is the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card - so with your suggestions we'll probably get a CLI and see about paying the balance before the statement drops.

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The usual advice people give on this forum is to have all but one accounts report $ 0 in the monthly statement, and one report something between 1-9% of CL, which can then be paid in full when the statement is issued.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks, haulingthescoreup, for the thoughtful comments and for the suggestion to simply pay the balance on the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles card before the statement is dropped.  That could be easy to do because Amex clearly publishes the closing date.  To respond to your other questions about the small balances:  of the 4 accounts listed as open, the balances are what was reported as owed when I pulled the EQ score - they have all been paid off on time and in full.  I rarely use the Visa card (open account #1) so I expect that to remain at $0 balance until its next use.  I use the Amex Platinum Card (open account #2) more and there's usually a balance - usually under $1000 monthly and always paid on time and in full.  The third open account is the HELOC and the fourth is the Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card - so with your suggestions we'll probably get a CLI and see about paying the balance before the statement drops.

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Oh, duh me, I misread your original post, and I thought you wrote that the closed accounts had balances. That's what stumped me. Sorry for any confusion!