Does length of credit history or percent of credit used count for more?

[Anonymous]

When I was back in college my mom added me as an authorized user to her credit cards. I have now graduated and been paying my own student loans (on time) for the past year. In checking my credit scores, I realized that she is using a large portion of her available balance on these credit cards, but has not made a late payment.

My credit scores are in the low 700's but I am looking to get a car loan in the near future. I was wondering if it would be better to be removed as an authorized user (which would lower my debt-to-income ratio as well as the percentage of my credit I am using) or leave them on there (in favor of a longer credit history--if these two cards were removed my credit history would only be for the past year for my own student loans). I am not sure if losing my credit history would be worse than having a large balance on these cards (since they are paid on time).

Thanks!

[Lel]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

When I was back in college my mom added me as an authorized user to her credit cards. I have now graduated and been paying my own student loans (on time) for the past year. In checking my credit scores, I realized that she is using a large portion of her available balance on these credit cards, but has not made a late payment.

My credit scores are in the low 700's but I am looking to get a car loan in the near future. I was wondering if it would be better to be removed as an authorized user (which would lower my debt-to-income ratio as well as the percentage of my credit I am using) or leave them on there (in favor of a longer credit history--if these two cards were removed my credit history would only be for the past year for my own student loans). I am not sure if losing my credit history would be worse than having a large balance on these cards (since they are paid on time).

Thanks!

---

Hello, and welcome to the FICO Forums.

The high utilization of revolving balances on those credit cards are most likely weighing on your score more than the effect of having a short average account age.  How high is the utilization?

You also mentioned that you've graduated from college and are now paying your student loans.  When were those loans actually opened?  The account age calculation goes by the date opened, not the date that payments began.  So, for example, if you started college in 2007 and took out your first loan at the time, then that account is now over 4 years old.  So, you credit history may not be as short as you think.  However, it is thin since it sounds like you don't have any CCs of your own, so losing the AU cards would also affect your mix of credit.

You could have yourself removed as an AU and check your scores to see if there was any significant change.  It's easy enough to be added back if it actually seems to be hurting your score.

[Anonymous]

---

@Lel wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

When I was back in college my mom added me as an authorized user to her credit cards. I have now graduated and been paying my own student loans (on time) for the past year. In checking my credit scores, I realized that she is using a large portion of her available balance on these credit cards, but has not made a late payment.

My credit scores are in the low 700's but I am looking to get a car loan in the near future. I was wondering if it would be better to be removed as an authorized user (which would lower my debt-to-income ratio as well as the percentage of my credit I am using) or leave them on there (in favor of a longer credit history--if these two cards were removed my credit history would only be for the past year for my own student loans). I am not sure if losing my credit history would be worse than having a large balance on these cards (since they are paid on time).

Thanks!

---

Hello, and welcome to the FICO Forums.

The high utilization of revolving balances on those credit cards are most likely weighing on your score more than the effect of having a short average account age.  How high is the utilization?

You also mentioned that you've graduated from college and are now paying your student loans.  When were those loans actually opened?  The account age calculation goes by the date opened, not the date that payments began.  So, for example, if you started college in 2007 and took out your first loan at the time, then that account is now over 4 years old.  So, you credit history may not be as short as you think.  However, it is thin since it sounds like you don't have any CCs of your own, so losing the AU cards would also affect your mix of credit.

You could have yourself removed as an AU and check your scores to see if there was any significant change.  It's easy enough to be added back if it actually seems to be hurting your score.

---

Thanks for your help!  I actually didn't even think about the mix of credit portion of my score when considering this so I'm glad you brought that up.  I have two loans, one from 2007 and one from 2010 so you are right that my credit history is pretty thin (no CCs of my own so no revolving credit).  The utilization level on the CCs are at about 85% but date back to 1993.  Also, to note is that even with these cards, my debt is still only 8 % of my current income.

I will definitely look into removing myself as an authorized user to see how this affects my scores.  I was hoping to get a better sense of what would happen before doing that though since I know it can take from 30-60 days for this to be updated in my credit report and scores.  Since my scores aren't too low I might be able to get a decent car loan rate with them as they are, I just didn't want them to drop drastically if I removed myself as an authorized user and then have to wait on my new scores and then wait again after being put back on (if being on them proved to be more beneficial).

Thanks again.

[crunching_numbers]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Lel wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

When I was back in college my mom added me as an authorized user to her credit cards. I have now graduated and been paying my own student loans (on time) for the past year. In checking my credit scores, I realized that she is using a large portion of her available balance on these credit cards, but has not made a late payment.

My credit scores are in the low 700's but I am looking to get a car loan in the near future. I was wondering if it would be better to be removed as an authorized user (which would lower my debt-to-income ratio as well as the percentage of my credit I am using) or leave them on there (in favor of a longer credit history--if these two cards were removed my credit history would only be for the past year for my own student loans). I am not sure if losing my credit history would be worse than having a large balance on these cards (since they are paid on time).

Thanks!

---

Hello, and welcome to the FICO Forums.

The high utilization of revolving balances on those credit cards are most likely weighing on your score more than the effect of having a short average account age.  How high is the utilization?

You also mentioned that you've graduated from college and are now paying your student loans.  When were those loans actually opened?  The account age calculation goes by the date opened, not the date that payments began.  So, for example, if you started college in 2007 and took out your first loan at the time, then that account is now over 4 years old.  So, you credit history may not be as short as you think.  However, it is thin since it sounds like you don't have any CCs of your own, so losing the AU cards would also affect your mix of credit.

You could have yourself removed as an AU and check your scores to see if there was any significant change.  It's easy enough to be added back if it actually seems to be hurting your score.

---

Thanks for your help!  I actually didn't even think about the mix of credit portion of my score when considering this so I'm glad you brought that up.  I have two loans, one from 2007 and one from 2010 so you are right that my credit history is pretty thin (no CCs of my own so no revolving credit).  The utilization level on the CCs are at about 85% but date back to 1993.  Also, to note is that even with these cards, my debt is still only 8 % of my current income.

I will definitely look into removing myself as an authorized user to see how this affects my scores.  I was hoping to get a better sense of what would happen before doing that though since I know it can take from 30-60 days for this to be updated in my credit report and scores.  Since my scores aren't too low I might be able to get a decent car loan rate with them as they are, I just didn't want them to drop drastically if I removed myself as an authorized user and then have to wait on my new scores and then wait again after being put back on (if being on them proved to be more beneficial).

Thanks again.

---

The removal part can go much faster if after you are removed from the cards by the primary cardholder, you wait a day or two, and then dispute the items to the CRA. They will investigate and remove them within days. Maybe you could remove yourself from all but one with a lower balance?

[Anonymous]

---

The removal part can go much faster if after you are removed from the cards by the primary cardholder, you wait a day or two, and then dispute the items to the CRA. They will investigate and remove them within days. Maybe you could remove yourself from all but one with a lower balance?

---

Thank you that is good to know!  And will those changes be reported to the credit bureaus in the same amount of time?

You guys have been really helpful!

[RobertEG]

An intangible, yet in my opinion important, drawback of being an AU is that, should a prospective creditor want to evaluate your own personal risk based on your FICO score, having an AU status in your file will prevent that.  There is no way, just as you cant separate your personal risk with and without the AU status, for a creditor to do the same.

It may result in your entire FICO score being discounted as a factor in their evaluation.