@neverrain wrote:I'm not sure if the family would be cool with me piggybacking onto their credit cards, so I'll have to go that alone. The Orchard card is my oldest credit card listed on my credit history (that I can see), so should I not close that even if I can't get the AF removed?
Are you trying to solve a 3 month problem or a three year one?
The AF is frankly who cares over the course of the lifetime. Yes it's expensive, yes there are absolutely better cards; however, you don't have access to them yet (neither do I for that matter). 2 vs 3 credit cards *shrug*, they're both good numbers, but I suspect 3 might be slightly better when it comes down to it, especially on a manual review.
Since we're stuck in this position together: we had issues in the past, we're attempting to re-establish credit now. We need to prove to lenders that you're worthy of being granted credit again... until that happens we frankly get stuck with some stupid crap like a $79 dollar fee, or a 19% APR on a car, and various other expensive and somewhat humiliating crap: banks are like that, we hosed somebody in the past, and they're going to take their pound of flesh until we make it right.
Clean up your report, take the extra Cap 1 card, use it responsibilty, and don't randomly close the Orchard card with the ridiculous AF unless you really need that 80 bucks right now. Wait till you can get a *real* card and then start trashing your starter ones, which both the Orchard and the Cap 1 qualify as. Also the secured card is definitely worth keeping too, again, if you don't have a short-term cash flow problem and it sounds like you don't. You're trying to show that you can handle additional credit... heck, use closing one of them as a selling point in a manual review when you go for a prime card, it'll make them feel better (more likely you'll use theirs!) and it's something you'd probably do anyway.
As for the authorized user (AU) bit, if you can get it, take it. It will help both short-term (3 months) and mid-long term (3+ years); unfortunately I don't have that luxury as my folks lived the same cash-based existance that I have, and I have a longer credit card history than they do. Sure, too many might be a flag in a in either an automatic approval or manual review, but you only want one. It'll boost your FICO and that can get you auto-approved for other things later, though you're right it probably doesn't help much in a manual review; however, you have to *get* to the manual review step first, and an AU account can greatly facilitate that.
You don't want your parents card in this case, you just want to be listed as one for credit scoring purposes. If you get sent a card, cut it up right in front of them or some similar melodramatic gesture. If your parents are helping you out with a car loan, you obviously haven't pissed them off enough that they wouldn't be willing to do that 
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