Authorized User

[Anonymous]

If I were to remove myself as an AU from my wife's credit cards, would that remove the history of credit reporting?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I were to remove myself as an AU from my wife's credit cards, would that remove the history of credit reporting?

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The account would remain in your CR unless you dispute the account, only then it will be removed completely from your CR.

[youngmark5]

I sent letters to all credit issuers in which I was an authorized user. I instructed them to remove e from the account and notify the credit reporting agencies of same and instruct them to remove the accounts from my credit profile.

It took certified letters, 2 follow-up letters and about 2-months to get the accounts removed from my credit report. My FICO Score went from 593 to 688. Be careful not to have Auth User accounts removed that are in good standing and that contribute to your good credit history.

They will tell you that being an Auth User in not factored into your credit rating and score. That is not true. If it appears in your credit report, it is considered in evaluating your credit worthiness.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  Trying to boost for two auto loans: Lease buyout and refi.  I'm up almost 60 points since December and hope to be above 670 in the beginning of March as Fifth Third said their minimum is 670.

[Anonymous]

Nothing is negative on the accounts.  I'm just trying to reduce the number of accounts that I have opened. I currently have Chase ($2K), Cap One ($4k), Citi Card ($5.5k), HSBC($405).  I am also AU on Chase ($2.2k), Cap One ($1.5k) and Express ($1.7k). I recently closed out an old Fortunoff ($2500) and recent Express ($1400) to try and reduce the number the number of open accounts as I have plenty of open credit with the major banks.

[Anonymous]

Hi ajmero--

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@Anonymous wrote:

Nothing is negative on the accounts.  I'm just trying to reduce the number of accounts that I have opened. Why are you trying to do this?

I currently have Chase ($2K), Cap One ($4k), Citi Card ($5.5k), HSBC($405).  What is your utilization on each card and your overall utilization? 

I am also AU on Chase ($2.2k), Cap One ($1.5k) and Express ($1.7k). IME, that's not considered an excessive number of cards  - and I don't believe it will hurt you FICO wise to have seven revolving accounts reporting - this is a reasonable number.  However, depending on the usage and age of the accounts, removing yourself as an AU may help or hurt you FICO-wise. 

I recently closed out an old Fortunoff ($2500) and recent Express ($1400) to try and reduce the number the number of open accounts as I have plenty of open credit with the major banks.  Again, your number of open accounts is not an issue.  I'm not sure why you're under the impression that it is.

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Although your number of open accounts is not excessive, FICO will be watching a few things:

-Total revolving utilization

-Individual card utilization

-Number of accounts reporting a balance

-AAofA

Your AU cards can hurt or help you depending on utilization, whether or not it reports a balance, and your AAofA.  You can increase or decrease your FICO scores by closing AU accounts depending on how they are impacting these factors.

Sometimes, when we're working on improving our credit reports, we tend to want to clean them up and simplify them.  In the case of your CR, you don't want to bleach it clean, you want to avoid removing positive information and history.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous wrote:

Nothing is negative on the accounts.  I'm just trying to reduce the number of accounts that I have opened. Why are you trying to do this? I recently read that FICO high acheivers have between 3-5 cards.

I currently have Chase ($2K), Cap One ($4k), Citi Card ($5.5k), HSBC($405).  What is your utilization on each card and your overall utilization?  My utilization will be between 0 and 9% since I now PIF.  I need some guidance as to how much I should leave on each statement.

I am also AU on Chase ($2.2k), Cap One ($1.5k) and Express ($1.7k). IME, that's not considered an excessive number of cards  - and I don't believe it will hurt you FICO wise to have seven revolving accounts reporting - this is a reasonable number.  However, depending on the usage and age of the accounts, removing yourself as an AU may help or hurt you FICO-wise.  I wasn't really wanting to remove myself as AU since I do use the cards, but was more intersted in how it would affect me and the credit score

I recently closed out an old Fortunoff ($2500) and recent Express ($1400) (I also closed an HSBC reward zone with $500 CL but a $35 AF) to try and reduce the number the number of open accounts as I have plenty of open credit with the major banks.  Again, your number of open accounts is not an issue.  I'm not sure why you're under the impression that it is. I did this more to simplify and clean up my report but the closures were somewhat offset by a recent increase of CLI on Cap One (2k) and Chase (1k).  Is there any merit to having 3-5 accounts open as opposed to 6-10?  Or is it more based on the positive information (lack of negative) associated with open accounts?

[Anonymous]

Hi ajmeromeo--

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Nothing is negative on the accounts.  I'm just trying to reduce the number of accounts that I have opened. Why are you trying to do this? I recently read that FICO high acheivers have between 3-5 cards. If you've pulled a myFICO report, check out the items on the scale.  The negative side of the scale "What's Hurting Your FICO Score" - are the items to concentrate on.  If an item shows up on the negative side of the scale, it'll give you some stats to help you know how High Achievers most often report on that same characteristic, but that doesn't mean that 100% of High Achievers do that (well, unless it says that 100% of High Achievers do that). 

There's some support for your thinking.  FICO Reason Code #4 is "Too many bank or national revolving accounts."  One poster on these forums reported recieving this reason code when he had six open bank/national cc accounts.  Do you get this as one of your negative reason codes?  Recently, DH has had six open revolving accounts, did not receive this reason code, and his FICO was in the High Achiever category at the time - so you really want to look at your individual situation.

I currently have Chase ($2K), Cap One ($4k), Citi Card ($5.5k), HSBC($405).  What is your utilization on each card and your overall utilization?  My utilization will be between 0 and 9% since I now PIF.  I need some guidance as to how much I should leave on each statement.  Most folks find their FICO sweet spot by reporting a zero balance on all cards but one; with that remaining one reporting a less than 9% balance.  As an AU, some folks may find they have less control over the balances reporting on the cards they are AU's on.

I am also AU on Chase ($2.2k), Cap One ($1.5k) and Express ($1.7k). IME, that's not considered an excessive number of cards  - and I don't believe it will hurt you FICO wise to have seven revolving accounts reporting - this is a reasonable number.  However, depending on the usage and age of the accounts, removing yourself as an AU may help or hurt you FICO-wise.  I wasn't really wanting to remove myself as AU since I do use the cards, but was more intersted in how it would affect me and the credit score.  So it looks like you have six bank/national cc cards and one merchant (Express) card.  The Express, I believe, isn't counted in FICO Reason Code #4.  Again, I would look to see if "number of open accounts" is on your myFICO report as a negative factor.  And you'll want to evaluate each account individually before deciding whether to stay on as an AU or not.

I recently closed out an old Fortunoff ($2500) and recent Express ($1400) (I also closed an HSBC reward zone with $500 CL but a $35 AF) to try and reduce the number the number of open accounts as I have plenty of open credit with the major banks.  Again, your number of open accounts is not an issue.  I'm not sure why you're under the impression that it is. I did this more to simplify and clean up my report but the closures were somewhat offset by a recent increase of CLI on Cap One (2k) and Chase (1k).  Is there any merit to having 3-5 accounts open as opposed to 6-10?  Or is it more based on the positive information (lack of negative) associated with open accounts?  Hmmm.  I think that the best way to measure this is by looking at the positive and negative factors that are on your report because they're specific to your credit history.  If you share your positive and negative factors, you'll get some pretty helpful feedback from the folks here.

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I hope it is at least a little bit of help.  You'll get lots of good info as you post additional info.  Glad you're here!

[Anonymous]

Hurting your score
1. Delinquency+collections  (Sep 2008 - $192 Columbia Gas - paid - $0 balance)

2. Bad payment history (recent Sep 09 - 30 day NY&C0 - I actually got that to be reported so it shouldn't appear next time.  Sep- Dec 2008 there were multiple on 2 car loans, 1 LOC, 4 Student loans, 1 furniture store(30-7/60-5/90-2) ; 30 day Jul 06;

3. Recent missed payment (not sure how recent they consider recent - NY&Co was 1 yr 3 mo. but that should change to over 2 years next time I pull.)

4. Short account history (student loan- 10 years, 6 months)

Helping your score

1. Low credit usage (Recently paid off all of my cards but 4 balances were reporting (BAL/CL: 32/1400; 789/2200; 620/1000; 3/2000)

2. Recent credit card use

[Anonymous]

I am an AU on a Discover card that is 15 years old, its my oldest line of credit. The utilization is 100%. When I checked my credit reports its says this is hurting my credit scores should i remove myself. I'm looking to buy a home within the next 2 months. I have a car loan on file I paid off over two years with chase. A consolidated student loan that I pay every month. I have a macys revolving account and a capital one account. The limits are low but I would like to increase my score. I'm at 693 and need some advice.