Inquiry about FICO score component

[bobkmn]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question--if not, hopefully this will be transfered accordingly. I received myFICO score on 3/14/14 and one thing I noticed that was negative was that I had excessive credit card balances--totaling over $8,000. Now here is the situation; only about $600 of that is my credit. All of the rest of it is the fact that I am an authorized user on my wife's cards. We were married in 2009 and are both seniors and decided to keep our cards as they presently are. Since I am an authorized user on her accounts (makes it easier for me to go get things by having a card in my name) but not the cardholder or responsible for the accounts--is there a way to have those

balances removed from my FICO score? I am under the impression that if that cc balance were reduced by that much, my FICO score would be higher.

Hopefully this makes sense. If not, let me know and I will explain further.

[Anonymous]

The only way to have the balances removed is to have the entire TL removed.

That is one drawback to being an AU.  Even though you are not responsible for the debt your inherit everything about the TL on your CR.  The good, the bad and the ugly.

[bobkmn]

Thanks, am new....what is TL?

[Revelate]

---

@bobkmn wrote:

Thanks, am new....what is TL?

---

Welcome to the forums!

TL = tradeline: an entry in your credit history.  In this case, each credit card is a seperate tradeline.

Common Abbreviations

[RobertEG]

The additional disadvantage in having the history of another in your CR is that it automatically means the score produced from your credit report is not representative of only your own history.

If a prospective business or creditor pulls your report and does a manual review, seeing an AU status tells them that your score is not based only on your history.

If they desire to evaluate your credit app based on your own history, they have no way to "back out" the AU account and produce your "own" score.

It could thus lead to discounting their normal reliance on your score in their evaluation process.

AU score boosts are great when appling for credit where the creditor may not do a thorough manual review, but could be a disadvantage when apping for higher levels of credit that traditionally involve a more thorough review.

[bobkmn]

I have another question about the credit bureaus using cards for which I am only an AU. I understand your response that it is appropriate and the benefit is that I benefit from all the good information on those cards. So, would it be fair when I am asked for annual income information on an app, to use the total household income figure? To not do so would seem to severly affect my debt to income ratio.

Thanks!

[takeshi74]

Depends on what the app specifically asks for.  Some allow for household income.  Some do not.

---

@bobkmn wrote:

Since I am an authorized user on her accounts (makes it easier for me to go get things by having a card in my name) but not the cardholder or responsible for the accounts--is there a way to have those balances removed from my FICO score? I am under the impression that if that cc balance were reduced by that much, my FICO score would be higher.

---

Sure -- have her remove you as an AU.  As for the balances, it's really utilization that you need to consider and you can do the math before and after to determine how utilization would change.