So DW added me to her BR card when she app'd for it last year. The thought was that I'd be able to take advantage of discounts when buying gifts for her without spoiling the surprise (at least until the statement posted). But they gave her such a ridiculously low limit that it wasn't much use, only able to buy an item or two at the time, and I would end up using one of my other cards instead. This past June, as I was planning some new card acquisitions, I asked her to remove me as an AU as she would usually let a balance post for items that she purchased and I'm the PIF before statement type. Account in good standing and greens across the board.
So the following day she tells me that she just closed the card - can't remove AU online and she's not the type that wants to deal with speaking to a person, especially a CSR, so she just axed the whole thing. What was done was done and I wasn't going to try to explain that it didn't really accomplish what I was trying to do, as the account would still be reporting. I let it be and accomplished my card acquisition plans, regardless.
Fast forward to this morning when I finally decided to call in to Sync/BR and remove myself. Want to keep my options open and would knock me down to 3/24. It kind of went like this:
Me: I'm an AU on my wife's account that was closed this past June and I want to have the tradeline removed from my credit reports.
CSR: I can see that you are on her account and it is closed, but as our authorized users do not report to the credit reports, there's nothing I can do.
Me: But it is on my reports, why else would I be calling?
CSR: We do not require a SSN when adding an AU, so therefore it does not report to the CRA's.
Me: I'm telling you that it is on my reports, so you must have gotten some bad information. Is there someone else I can speak to?
CSR: No sir. There is nobody that can do anything for you.
Me: So you're telling me that this account will continue to show on my reports because it's not being reported? That makes no sense. Can I speak to a supervisor?
CSR: No sir. A supervisor will not be able to do anything as the account is not being reported. If you could have the primary card holder give us a call we could discuss the situation further with her.
Me: (Not wanting to get DW involved - she'd end up ripping this guy a new one worse than me!) It's my credit reports we're talking about here, not her's. For the same reasons that you can't give me access to details of her account, you shouldn't be giving her any say-so over what shows or doesn't show on my credit reports. Can I speak with a supervisor please?
CSR: Sir, a supervisor can't help you. Have the primary account holder give us a call.
Me: OK, here's a hypothetical for ya. Say the primary account holder and I are no longer on speaking terms. Say some catostrophic relationship incident occurred between when the account was closed and now, and we are no longer allowed to have any type of contact. I can't even legally have someone contact them on my behalf. In that case you're saying I'm totally up a creek without a paddle (not the phrase I used, but a creek was involved...) and this account will continue to report. Is that what you're saying?
CSR: Sir, um...sir.....sir.....if you could just have the primary acc...
Me: So in that case you would be advising me to break the law, and risk being locked up? Just because you apparently don't have the access to see what I'm talking about? That's why I've been asking to speak with a supervisor. Are you going to tell me that I can't speak with a supervisor again? I know this call is being recorded as per the automated disclosure at the beginning of the call. Is that going to go well for you during your monthly or quarterly performance review? Would you like to tell me again that I can't speak with a supervisor?
CSR: Please hold a moment, sir, while I transfer you.
After about a five minute hold it seemed as if I was transferred back to somewhere in the lower 48 and spoke with a very pleasant young woman who stated she was an "on-call manager". A very simple explanation by me of what I was trying to do was all it took, and she said "No problem, I can take care of that for you".
We'll see how it goes.
