AU account and experian

pkenn · ‎04-02-2021

Question...

are AU's counted towards debt?
Im on my wifes citicard for the last 14 years and at the moment she is using $16k of $21k.

ive been paying off my personal cards like crazy and according to my fico subscription

equifax says im down to 10% usage

transunion says 10% usage

but experian says 35% usage?

my question is should i have her take me off as a AU? Will it increase my score or is it not worth it?

thank you!!

Anonymous · ‎04-02-2021

It's definitely dinging your scores. As to whether you should remove yourself, that depends - is this a habitually carried balance or will it be paid off relatively soon? Do you have any apps coming up and if so, will it be paid down/off by then? The answers to those questions will tell you what to do. The credit line isn't helping you at all, it's hurting you for probably 25-30 points. Usage far outweighs age factors when figuring the benefit of an AU card. Examine and act accordingly.

CH-7-Mission-Accomplished · ‎04-02-2021

@pkenn wrote:
Question...
are AU's counted towards debt?
Im on my wifes citicard for the last 14 years and at the moment she is using $16k of $21k.
ive been paying off my personal cards like crazy and according to my fico subscription
equifax says im down to 10% usage
transunion says 10% usage
but experian says 35% usage?
my question is should i have her take me off as a AU? Will it increase my score or is it not worth it?
thank you!!

Have her call and remove you. It will show as "terminated" under status. The major lenders will leave the account on your reports under closed accounts, it will update the balance to zero, and you will still get the benefit of the card's age - just as if you had closed one of your own accounts. I have a bunch of closed AU accounts on my reports from Citi, Chase, BofA, Cap 1, Discover. You can always have her add you back to the card when she gets that utilization way down. But if you don't need the padding for utilization, just let it stay there under closed accounts.

pkenn · ‎04-02-2021

Wow! 25-30 points? Whod have guessed

Anonymous · ‎04-02-2021

It's profile-dependent, but you're losing probably 4-7 points for each scoring tier above 9% that you've crossed, and are taking additional losses for however many your aggregate usage has crossed above that same breakpoint. Usage is huge. When I did my big paydown last year, I went from 38% aggregate to single-digit usage and gained 60-65 points per bureau.

Remedios · ‎04-03-2021

@pkenn Could you please list your scores for each CRA?

pkenn · ‎04-03-2021

Hi

EQ- 743

TU- 737

EX- 739

Remedios · ‎04-03-2021

@pkenn wrote:
Hi
EQ- 743
TU- 737
EX- 739

You're just looking at user interface that is excluding limit on AU account, but algorithm is obviously using it for score calculation.

If it wasn't, your EX score with utilization over 30% would me much lower.

Relax, everything is fine.

pkenn · ‎04-03-2021

Thank you! I had my wife remove me last night, so we will see how it effects anything. hopefully i will get a bump, if not ill just have her put me back on when we knock het utilization down.

pkenn · ‎04-03-2021

Given the scores etc do you think the scores will go up after being taken off as an AU?

@Remedios wrote:
@pkenn wrote:
Hi
EQ- 743
TU- 737
EX- 739
You're just looking at user interface that is excluding limit on AU account, but algorithm is obviously using it for score calculation.

If it wasn't, your EX score with utilization over 30% would me much lower.
Relax, everything is fine.