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Two identical authorized user cards on one Amex account - weird or normal?

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Anonymous
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Two identical authorized user cards on one Amex account - weird or normal?

Hi - wonder if anyone has some advice on a weird situation where I ended up with 2 authorized user cards on my wife's credit card. 

 

Background:  I am building up my credit score after moving to the US from Europe 4 years ago.  Up to Dec 21 I has a FICO8 of 792 with an average account age of 2 years and 10 months.  I have been super careful about taking on accounts without a planned reason - now I have a mortgage, 3 credit cards, car lease and unused line of credit.  

 

I started my journey by getting an authorized user card on my wife's Delta Amex account as getting my own card was impossible at first.  This is my longest standing account.

 

She upgraded the card to an Amex Delta Platinum over the holidays and the process asked he if she wanted an additional card holder.  Not thinking that it would automatically assign me own anyway she said yes.  I then had two identical authorized user cards (with my social security number attached) and now my average age of credit has of course dropped (FICO 2 to 776) becuase Amex are reporting both cards to the burueas.  I have since cancelled the second (newest card).

 

Okay, so onto my question (sorry for the long explanation) - I don't think Amex should have allowed the second card application to go through - does it seem unsual to others?  Is it worth me trying to get them to stop reporting this as an account (even as a closed account) to get my average age of credit back up? I am trying to maximise my scores so that I can get a favourable car loan rate in 2023 - by next year I would have had my average account age > 4 years.

 

Any advice, thoughts, guidance appreciated !  Cheers, Mark

2 REPLIES 2
brk1971
Frequent Contributor

Re: Two identical authorized user cards on one Amex account - weird or normal?

Seems odd to me, but there are some quirks in their system.

I used to have an AU card issued ot myself to use as a secondary number for online purchases back when I mistakenly thought that would reduce potential fraud. 

 

As to the reporting, if you deal with the CRA directly, the account can be removed very quickly by selecting the "Not mine" on the dispute reasons... Yes, in the current FICO models (most of them anyway) AU accounts are still included in the scoring, so removing them should return you to the AAoA you had before the second card was issued.

Fico8 = EQ 779, TU 802, EX 771 (6/22/2022), util = 6.5% ish
INQ in 12 mo: EQ 4, TU 4, EX 7
Cards: NFCU: Flagship VS $45k, Plat $24.3k, Plat $10.7k | Amex: Delta Reserve $50k | Citi: DC WE MC $28.8k | Discover: It $22.5k | Barclays: Juniper $15.25k | USAA: PCR VS $15k, RA $5k | UMB: SR VS $15k | PenFed: Path VS $20k, Plat Rew VS $15k | Synchrony: Lowes’s store $25k | Truist: Bright $10.5k, Bright $6.5k | Cap1: Venture1 Plat MC $10.3k, Kohls store $3k | Comenity: MyCash MC $17.5k | Wells Fargo: AC $10.3k | TD Bank: Target MC $6k (Reports as retail card despite now being MC) | BoA: CCR VS $30k | Affinity FCU: Premium VS $25k
Message 2 of 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Two identical authorized user cards on one Amex account - weird or normal?

Great advice - thank you so much!

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