Heavyweight Fight -- AAoA VS Utilization

[CosmoKramer-]

Question: I am an authorized user on my parent's credit card account from when I was in high school. This is considered my oldest account by far (16 years since they opened it), but they have high utilization (around 60%) because they are not concerned with that sort of thing. Would it be better to drop my name from their account (thus lowering my AAoA to about 1.5 years and decreasing utilization to around 10%) or to stay on and keep the older account but take the hit for high utilization? 

I have tried to play through the scenarios and am not sure which will affect my score the most. Thanks in advance. 

[SoCalifornia]

I'm mainly here for the title of the thread. It's a new week and you already won Monday. But, yes, I believe utilization is the knock-out punch here. It's high. Your parents would be well advised to lower it in half. If not, I would remove myself.

KO

[SoCalifornia]

[Anonymous]

Utilization is 30% of your score. Age factors are 10%. Utilization wins - remove yourself.

[Anonymous]

What is your next oldest account? What does it make your aggregate utilization? You're crossing 2 individual revolving utilization breakpoints, probably ~10 points, depending on scorecard.

Now, if its causing your aggregate utilization to cross 8.9%, and/or other breakpoints, then its gonna be hurting alot more.

Do you even know if the AU account is counting on Version 8? The anti-abuse algorithm could be excluding it, keep in mind. If so, it doesn't matter either way.

Regardless, you haven't given us any detail about your profile, so we can't even guess the ageing effects or potential scorecard reassignment effects.

Clean/dirty? If dirty, details. If clean, number of accounts (open and closed), AoOA with and without the AU, and AOYRA, and any loans on record, please, if you'd like further analysis.

It is 30% v. 10%, but scorecard matters and whether its individual or aggregate matters.

[SouthJamaica]

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@CosmoKramer- wrote:

Question: I am an authorized user on my parent's credit card account from when I was in high school. This is considered my oldest account by far (16 years since they opened it), but they have high utilization (around 60%) because they are not concerned with that sort of thing. Would it be better to drop my name from their account (thus lowering my AAoA to about 1.5 years and decreasing utilization to around 10%) or to stay on and keep the older account but take the hit for high utilization? 

I have tried to play through the scenarios and am not sure which will affect my score the most. Thanks in advance. 

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1. The only way to be sure is to try it. If you get slammed, then go back on.

2. IMHO your mortgage scores will be affected differently than your FICO 8 scores. I think your mortgage scores will get hurt more than your FICO 8 scores.

3. My guesstimate is that your mortgage scores will go down and your FICO 8 scores will go up.

[Anonymous]

SJ brings up a very good point. The only problem is some lenders won’t report it when you get put back on, I have heard (Cap 1) So who is the lender for that particular card if you don’t mind us asking?

[CosmoKramer-]

Sorry trying to tie this all together while at work. This all helps a lot though and clears the situation up. 

The card I am an AU is pretty much the only driver of utilization for me, as I use charge cards for most all spend with the exception of maybe 1% utilization on my revolver. I think the utilization outweighs AAoA for me. 

The AU card shows up on Experian and Transunion, but not on Equifax. Thinking I will likely drop and see what happens, as I have a good bit of time to garden and save before any big purchases and/or new cards. 

Thanks for the help. 

[Anonymous]

What is the ag utilization? Its not just AAoA, although it can add up.

AoOA is a scorecard segmenter, depending on what your next oldest account is, it could cause a big change.

How much different is your EQ score? Just because its on the CR does NOT mean it is counting. People were doing TL renting, so they have a process that filters some out based on unknown criteria.

[CosmoKramer-]

Ag utilization is around 67%. Next oldest account is almost 2 yo. Was recently approved for a charge card a few months back, but other than that no inquiries, loans, etc. The average of all three scores has been around 725 for the last 12 months. Transunion score recently dropped down due to higher utilization I am assuming. 

Experian 710 (AU card listed)

Transunion 638 (AU card listed)

Equifax 746 (AU card not listed)