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Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

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K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

I've been noticing a disturbing trend on Equifax and wanted to see if anyone else has this happening.  In November, DW's Chase Freedom Unlimited from 1994 fell off of my Equifax report.  I assumed it would eventually come back and it was just an anamoly.  In December, DW's Citi Best Buy store card from 1996 fell off of my Equifax report.  I assumed it would eventually come back and it was just an anamoly. 

 

Today I was updating my spreadsheet that lists all accounts (open and closed) on each of the three major CRAs, along with open date, last reported date, limits, current reported balance - then sections for each CRA that calculates my average age of accounts, average age of open accounts, number of open accounts, number of closed accounts, number of accounts last 3/6/12/24 months, and age of oldest account.

 

To my horror, the other two cards have been joined by her Amex EveryDay ($40k, no balance, 2016), BoA ($70k, lowish under 15% BT balance, 2001), her new Chase Sapphire Preferred ($27k, no balance, 2017), her Citi Double Cash ($19,600, no balance, 2004), and her Discover it ($31k, fairly high 60%ish BT balance, 1995). 

 

That's now $217,000 in credit lines that have disappeared from my EQ reports!  Worse, I closed all of my 1990s credit cards a LONG time ago and they've all fallen off of my reports.  The current oldest one still reporting on EQ is her CapOne card from a few days before Y2K, dropping my age of credit nearly 6 years from 24 to just over 18 years.  Fortunately, there's still some breathing room with AAoA, but it's down from over 8 years to just over 7 now and I have certainly seen drops in the past when AAoA has crept below 8 years for me.  That CapOne is my last remaining AU card reporting on EQ.  If it disappears, my age of credit history will drop to 16 years.  Because of the balances on the BoA and especially the Discover card, it's not altering my overall utilization by more than maybe a percent, so I'm more concerned about the account ages. (And to be honest, during a manual review I really like them seeing that $70k credit card.)

 

Is this happening to anyone else?  We have the same address and same last name, and this isn't happening on Experian or TransUnion.

22 REPLIES 22
simplynoir
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

Aren't AAoA thresholds as far as the entire credit report concerned see minimal to no gains after 6-7 years anyways? Because as long as that and your oldest card reporting are solid I don't know if it is even going to drop your score as much as you think as long as you toe that line if/until you get those AU cards reporting back to your EQ report. Or perhaps that's just me being optimistic. I would research this on my own end but the only AU I have is a Dillards AMEX that I doubt would affect my credit much if at all.

Message 2 of 23
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing


@K-in-Bostonwrote:

I've been noticing a disturbing trend on Equifax and wanted to see if anyone else has this happening.  In November, DW's Chase Freedom Unlimited from 1994 fell off of my Equifax report.  I assumed it would eventually come back and it was just an anamoly.  In December, DW's Citi Best Buy store card from 1996 fell off of my Equifax report.  I assumed it would eventually come back and it was just an anamoly. 

 

Today I was updating my spreadsheet that lists all accounts (open and closed) on each of the three major CRAs, along with open date, last reported date, limits, current reported balance - then sections for each CRA that calculates my average age of accounts, average age of open accounts, number of open accounts, number of closed accounts, number of accounts last 3/6/12/24 months, and age of oldest account.

 

To my horror, the other two cards have been joined by her Amex EveryDay ($40k, no balance, 2016), BoA ($70k, lowish under 15% BT balance, 2001), her new Chase Sapphire Preferred ($27k, no balance, 2017), her Citi Double Cash ($19,600, no balance, 2004), and her Discover it ($31k, fairly high 60%ish BT balance, 1995). 

 

That's now $217,000 in credit lines that have disappeared from my EQ reports!  Worse, I closed all of my 1990s credit cards a LONG time ago and they've all fallen off of my reports.  The current oldest one still reporting on EQ is her CapOne card from a few days before Y2K, dropping my age of credit nearly 6 years from 24 to just over 18 years.  Fortunately, there's still some breathing room with AAoA, but it's down from over 8 years to just over 7 now and I have certainly seen drops in the past when AAoA has crept below 8 years for me.  That CapOne is my last remaining AU card reporting on EQ.  If it disappears, my age of credit history will drop to 16 years.  Because of the balances on the BoA and especially the Discover card, it's not altering my overall utilization by more than maybe a percent, so I'm more concerned about the account ages. (And to be honest, during a manual review I really like them seeing that $70k credit card.)

 

Is this happening to anyone else?  We have the same address and same last name, and this isn't happening on Experian or TransUnion.


If you're talking about closed accounts dropping off of Equifax, I had 5 closed accounts disappear from my Equifax report within a year of my closing the accounts.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 3 of 23
Adkins
Legendary Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

I pulled my 3B reports last month, and so far all my AU cards are still there. I will be watching though now. None of my accounts are closed though.

Last HP 08-07-2023



Message 4 of 23
simplynoir
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing


@SouthJamaicawrote:

@K-in-Boston

If you're talking about closed accounts dropping off of Equifax, I had 5 closed accounts disappear from my Equifax report within a year of my closing the accounts.


No, he's talking about active cards he's an authorized user on atm (BoA, Chase, AMEX, Citi, Disco)  that have dropped off his EQ credit report. He expected the closed accounts to drop off which they did if I'm understanding the post correctly.

Message 5 of 23
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

@simplynoir when my AAoA has dipped below 8 years, I've seen a few drops that seemed more than usual for adding a new account or two.  It likely depends on bucketing and other factors.  For me, the more important factor though is the entire age of credit history since the oldest non-AU account still reporting is from 2002.  (Lesson learned; never close your oldest account if at all possible.)  24 down to 16 years is enough to ding me a bit on that scoring factor.

 

@SouthJamaica these are all open and active accounts.  With the exception of the Amex ED, all have had downward changes in balances within the past month (part of DW's sudden sprint well into the 800s all around this month).  Again, they're reporting normally on EX and TU.

 

@Adkins thanks for checking; hopefully this is a temporary goof and not widespread.

 

@simplynoir #2 (Hey, I checked for new replies before clicking Post this time!) Correct; these are all open and active accounts.  I know sometimes people have had closed accounts drop off early, but mine seem to truly be on the 10 year schedule and all accounts that I closed 10-20+ years ago have all fallen off.  I do have other odds and ends (auto loans, LOC, store cards, etc.) closed accounts that only report to 1 or 2 bureaus, but I'm pretty sure they always reported to only 1 or 2.

Message 6 of 23
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing


@K-in-Bostonwrote:

@simplynoir when my AAoA has dipped below 8 years, I've seen a few drops that seemed more than usual for adding a new account or two.  It likely depends on bucketing and other factors.  For me, the more important factor though is the entire age of credit history since the oldest non-AU account still reporting is from 2002.  (Lesson learned; never close your oldest account if at all possible.)  24 down to 16 years is enough to ding me a bit on that scoring factor.

 

@SouthJamaica these are all open and active accounts.  With the exception of the Amex ED, all have had downward changes in balances within the past month (part of DW's sudden sprint well into the 800s all around this month).  Again, they're reporting normally on EX and TU.

 

@Adkins thanks for checking; hopefully this is a temporary goof and not widespread.

 

@simplynoir #2 (Hey, I checked for new replies before clicking Post this time!) Correct; these are all open and active accounts.  I know sometimes people have had closed accounts drop off early, but mine seem to truly be on the 10 year schedule and all accounts that I closed 10-20+ years ago have all fallen off.  I do have other odds and ends (auto loans, LOC, store cards, etc.) closed accounts that only report to 1 or 2 bureaus, but I'm pretty sure they always reported to only 1 or 2.


Wow, not reporting open accounts. That's got to be a mistake.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 7 of 23
simplynoir
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

The bucketing factor was what I was getting at and I'm honestly surprised your score dropped as much even leaning on 8 years of AAoA. It seems anecdotally that anything past 7 yrs gets so little gained there's no point in worrying about it but you indicated otherwise which is interesting. Something I need to keep an eye on when I talk to GF about it later today.

 

Also, if you do some forum searching whether through this website or Google you'll see that your experience isn't an isolated incident. There seems to people reportin this same type of issue going back a few years at least so it's not related to the EQ breach as I maybe thought. Supposedly, some have tried to speak to the creditors to get EQ to update their records but don't see a lot, if any, luck on that end.

Message 8 of 23
simplynoir
Community Leader
Mega Contributor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing


@SouthJamaicawrote:

@K-in-Bostonwrote:

@simplynoir when my AAoA has dipped below 8 years, I've seen a few drops that seemed more than usual for adding a new account or two.  It likely depends on bucketing and other factors.  For me, the more important factor though is the entire age of credit history since the oldest non-AU account still reporting is from 2002.  (Lesson learned; never close your oldest account if at all possible.)  24 down to 16 years is enough to ding me a bit on that scoring factor.

 

@SouthJamaica these are all open and active accounts.  With the exception of the Amex ED, all have had downward changes in balances within the past month (part of DW's sudden sprint well into the 800s all around this month).  Again, they're reporting normally on EX and TU.

 

@Adkins thanks for checking; hopefully this is a temporary goof and not widespread.

 

@simplynoir #2 (Hey, I checked for new replies before clicking Post this time!) Correct; these are all open and active accounts.  I know sometimes people have had closed accounts drop off early, but mine seem to truly be on the 10 year schedule and all accounts that I closed 10-20+ years ago have all fallen off.  I do have other odds and ends (auto loans, LOC, store cards, etc.) closed accounts that only report to 1 or 2 bureaus, but I'm pretty sure they always reported to only 1 or 2.


Wow, not reporting open accounts. That's got to be a mistake.


Nope, seems to be an EQ issue for whatever reason.

 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Equifax-removed-authorized-user-for-no-reason/...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Equifax-not-reportoing-AU-Cards/td-p/4289835

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/problems-with-equifax-fico-score-reporting/td-...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Equifax-hates-me/td-p/4947730

Message 9 of 23
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Equifax - Authorized User Accounts Disappearing

@simplynoir you are simplythebest.  Thanks for those links.  Doesn't help my problem, but at least I know I'm not alone.  Will be interesting to see how this changes things with EQ pullers.

Message 10 of 23
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