Authorized user for old high balance card. Should I remove?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I'm an authorized user for my dad's credit card but it has a very high balance, around  $12,000 with about $13,000 limit. This is tho my oldest source of credit history. Since 1999 and has no late payments

Other than that a have about 4 cards from around 2004/2005 with a combined balance of around $4000 and max limit of about $9000. Current score is around 640's. Should I remove that old card or would that hurt more? I have 0 history of late payments on my cards and my dads card but my credit report always says my revolving balance is too high!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You can always take the AU off the account, and see what the effect is.  If you don't like the impact on your FICO, you can always be added back on as an AU. 

It's a totally different universe than closing an account, which is typically difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

[Anonymous]

Ah good idea, I didn't know that.

Thank you!

Message Edited by vtsuser on 11-06-2009 05:21 AM

[RobertEG]

With a percent util of over 90% on that card, it is having a big impact, and is accruing a massive amount of monthly interest,  Even if Dad pays the min. each month, most of that is gobbled up by interest accruing.  And you dont know if he will miss a payment, which will hit you hard.

I see tremendous risk in staying on this card, and would ditch it.  Your credit is sound.  All you are getting from this card is length of credit history, which is not a big scoring factor, and not worth the risk.