Should I remove myself as authorized user?

[alexvale]

I set myself as authorized user on my dad's Sears/Citi account, so I could use the card (if I needed to, which I haven't and won't).  He took the card out for when I bought my house to let me have more credit available to finish furnishing it with applianances, since I didn't have a single thing at the time and my Sears Card was maxed out with part of the appliances for the house.  Now that I think of it, adding myself as AU was a slight mistake...

The card has 36% utilization rate, $3k CL with $1,094 current balance.  I'm paying it monthly on time, since it's technically my debt.  My Sears/Citi was closed off by Citibank about 2yrs ago and that card currently has zero balance, since I've transferred the remaining balance to my new DiscoverIT card.

My current UR, my estimates since I've paid off two accounts to zero balance (Sears and Amazon) and they haven't been updated in my credit file, is 27% and if my numbers are correct then my UR would drop to 24% if I manage to get my Dad's Sears account of my reports. The other thing I've thought of is make a big payment, 50%, of the total when I get my tax refund...

I'm trying to bring down my UR and bring up my credit to apply for a new car loan in a few months.

Thanks,

Alex

[Twas_Sovereign]

The only issue with removing yourself as an AU is you lose the age of the account on your report. So if it is the oldest account that is on your report, it will lower your overrall AAoA. 

[Jeff007245]

I would just keep it on and pay it off. You will benefit in the long run as you pay it down, whereas you will hurt your AAOA as mentioned if you were to remove yourself.

[alexvale]

thanks for the advice!

Thought as much but wanted to be sure.  This isnt the oldest account on my file, there's one that is about 10yrs old but that one is closed because it was a small loan and it was paid in full.  But I think this is oldest good standing open line of credit ATM on my file.

I'll pay off a lump sum with tax return and cancel it before the year ends.

THANKS!

[Burned2manybridgesB4]

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@Twas_Sovereign wrote:

The only issue with removing yourself as an AU is you lose the age of the account on your report. So if it is the oldest account that is on your report, it will lower your overrall AAoA. 

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That's not completely true. If you dispute it to remove, you may get that result, but typically it stays in place for the typical CRA reporting time of a closed account, but the difference is that the status will say "terminated," or "removed."

*edit: if it stays, it'll still factor into your AAOA, but not utilization.