Hi,
This is my first post and I am a bit of a ways into finally looking at my scores and reports and making an effort to improve things rather than leaving my head in the sand.
Two years ago I got a couple cards, one partly secured through BoA (Cash Rewards) for $500, then an Orchard for $300.
Last November when I started looking I was around 620 which was a lot better than I thought. I asked for my now Capital One card to be increased and they raised me to $800, I was denied a raise on the BoA, though after the first year the $100 security amount had been returned. I've never missed any payments on any cards and I applied for a Barclays and got $500 there and a Credit One and got $400 there (Their terms seem to have really improved so I took a shot) Within a month Credit One had bumped me to $600. I also got a Target card for $500 and Best Buy for $1000.
So all of this is good. My main problem is a whole bunch of old collections accounts like phone bills and cable bills from old residences, a couple unpaid speeding tickets, so I have 4-6 of those, which were different on each bureau ranging from about $50 to $400. I'm planning to pay those as I can and hopefully get them off as soon as I can.
But the elephant in the room and ther reason for my post is that I am also listed on a card with my mother. We opened this card 5.5 years ago when I went back to school. It's a Chase Freedom with a 14,700 limit and it's constantly just maxed.
Until I saw my reports I had no idea being so ignorant that since I had a card in my name on the account it also counted for me too. Much of the debt there is from when I was in school for 2 years and not working, so I'd like to work on paying it down, but up against all my other cards (currently $3900 across all my cards) I'll nevere get a good utilization number with that on my record.
My question is, if I wanted to get myself off that account, I assume then my available credit would plummet to just the cards I've opened in the last 2 years and remove my one long term card (nearly 6 years this summer) but it would also mean that I'd go from something like 89% utilization down to something that is more representative of my own personal current cards that I use and represent my current situation (the Chase card I don't use at all now and my mom is basically making the minimums and using it but not getting it down, once I have the collections stuff paid and a couple other debts I'm planning to start helping her out on that card a few hundred a month even if I don't still have a card to use it myself)
Any advice on this - how to do it so that it will be taken off my report, or if it's a bad idea to get off it for some reason. Thanks in advance.
