Should I remove my oldest tradeline?

[800Hopeful]

Here's the situation: I'm joint co-owner on a Discover card with my brother. The tradeline has perfect payment history and 25 years old. BUT, my brother keeps the card at 50% utilization so that absolutely crushes my score each month. He just doesn't care about paying it down *before* it reports to the bureaus. It's his card and I don't even use it. I asked him to add me several years ago because I only had tradelines a few years old so it helps a lot with the average age of accounts. BUT what I'm debating now since I can't convince my brother to lower the utilization, should I just remove myself from that card and take back control of my FICO? Or will removing myself from that card have such a big impact on my average age of accounts (since all of my other credit cards are only a few years old) that it's not worth it and I should just suck it up and take the 50% utilization reporting on that card?

Thanks in advance!

[GZG]

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@800Hopeful wrote:

Here's the situation: I'm joint co-owner on a Discover card with my brother. The tradeline has perfect payment history and 25 years old. BUT, my brother keeps the card at 50% utilization so that absolutely crushes my score each month. He just doesn't care about paying it down *before* it reports to the bureaus. It's his card and I don't even use it. I asked him to add me several years ago because I only had tradelines a few years old so it helps a lot with the average age of accounts. BUT what I'm debating now since I can't convince my brother to lower the utilization, should I just remove myself from that card and take back control of my FICO? Or will removing myself from that card have such a big impact on my average age of accounts (since all of my other credit cards are only a few years old) that it's not worth it and I should just suck it up and take the 50% utilization reporting on that card?

Thanks in advance!

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are you actually a 'joint co-owner' or are you just an authorized user?

based on what you said about only being added a few years ago, you are likely an authorized user, not a joint co-owner.

a joint co-owner actually is responsible for the debt, so you would not be able to remove yourself, you would have the authority to close the account and you'd be jointly and equally responsible for that debt 

if you are just an authorized user, get yourself removed.

the account isn't in your name and you're not personally responsible for it, FICO likes it, but it's fake, it's not yours and most creditors underwriting understands that and discounts authorized user information when they make creditor decisions and on top of that, the high balance on the card will be seen as a negative against you, so a lose-lose there.

discover also will do an off-cycle credit reporting update of the balance if you pay the balance, idk if they will do that if the authorized user requests it or if it has to come from the account owner 

[JoeRockhead]

Sounds like you're an authorized user. Have yourself removed. You'll build a better score and file using credit in your own name.

[800Hopeful]

Thanks guy but just to clarify I am a joint co-owner, not an authorized user. This was back when Discover still allowed one to add a co-owner so I'm "grandfathered" into that with this account. 

[ptatohed]

Does Brother PIF in full each month and this 50% is his regular monthly spend, or is he carrying a balance of 50% month after month?

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@800Hopeful wrote:

Here's the situation: I'm joint co-owner on a Discover card with my brother. The tradeline has perfect payment history and 25 years old. BUT, my brother keeps the card at 50% utilization so that absolutely crushes my score each month. He just doesn't care about paying it down *before* it reports to the bureaus. It's his card and I don't even use it. I asked him to add me several years ago because I only had tradelines a few years old so it helps a lot with the average age of accounts. BUT what I'm debating now since I can't convince my brother to lower the utilization, should I just remove myself from that card and take back control of my FICO? Or will removing myself from that card have such a big impact on my average age of accounts (since all of my other credit cards are only a few years old) that it's not worth it and I should just suck it up and take the 50% utilization reporting on that card?

Thanks in advance!

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You don't provide any info on age of the Discover card or age of your other personal credit card accounts. Also, no info on credit limit of the Discover card and other CC accounts you have. Those details are important in assessing your situation.

Generally speaking AAoA is over hyped relative to impact on score. No idea what your's is now or what it would be if you are removed as joint owner. I would say - get out regardless. If AAoA stays over 3 years post removal any impact on score should be trivial.

Being liable for your brother's charges is bad news. You are liable as a joint account holder.

[800Hopeful]

The Discover card account is 27 years old. CL is 20k, which is in line with my other active cards. My other active accounts are only 1-5 years old. I have no concern about being liable for his charges as he is more than financially capable of paying for everything, and always will be.

[800Hopeful]

Yes, he's PIF each month and he just puts about 8-10k on the card each month.

[Thomas_Thumb]

So, it looks like your age of oldest account will drop from over 20 years to 5 years. That could shift you to a different scorecard - if you don't have older closed accounts on file.

It looks like your AAoA could drop from above 8 years to around 3 years. That, plus the lower AoOA may drop score 10-15 points, imo - assuming a clean credit file. Key point is not opening any new revolving accounts to drop newest account to new from other 12 months.

Not a fan of joint accounts and not seeing much value for the OP if other cards have similar CLs.

Fwiw: a couple important thresholds for cards are under 49% and under 29%. Going over 49% can have a substantial negative impact on score particularly if it causes aggregate UT to go above 9%. A 40 point drop vs optimized utilization is possible.

Full disclosure - I don't practice AZE1 or AZE2. I just PIF statement balances. That being said my "normal" monthly charges keep AG UT under 5% and any cards reporting under 20%. So, not a practioner of micromanaging payments.

[JoeRockhead]

I'm not sure they'd allow you to remove yourself from the account without closing it altogether. Have you asked them if that's possible?