How does removing myself as an AU affect my credit score?

[CorySoccer]

Hello,

So over the past few years I've been improving my credit quite steadily from the low 500's up to about 750 across all 3 CRA's.  In September my scores were around 750 and over the next few months til January 15th my credit dropped periodically to 710.  No new changes...just a little more usage on some of my cards.  Then in December my wife and I both had unexpected surgeries and my credit utilization went from about 0-3% to 38%. 

I'm an authorized user on 2 credit cards of my wife.  A Walmart card and a Home Depot card.  I chose to be an AU because my credit history was not long but since then she's used it to the point where both of these cards are at 90% credit utilization.  This is obviously hurting my credit utilization ratio.

In January, this is what happened:

TU (Vantage 3.0) Score dropped 106 pts to 604. 

EQ (Vantage 3.0) Score dropped 98 pts to 638

EX (Fico 9) Score dropped 103 pts to 649 

I'm wanting to get my credit back where it was and I was thinking of removing myself as an Authorized User from those two cards.  I'll gain braething room in the credit utilization ration piece of the pie, but lose in the Average of accounts (or will I?  Do closed accounts or will those two accounts still appear and positively affect my credit since they have always been paid on time?).  Or do I stay on the cards and just work on paying them down?

Thanks in advance!  (and mods, if this needs to be moved, please do so...I didn't see another category to move it to.)

[SouthJamaica]

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@CorySoccer wrote:

Hello,

So over the past few years I've been improving my credit quite steadily from the low 500's up to about 750 across all 3 CRA's.  In September my scores were around 750 and over the next few months til January 15th my credit dropped periodically to 710.  No new changes...just a little more usage on some of my cards.  Then in December my wife and I both had unexpected surgeries and my credit utilization went from about 0-3% to 38%. 

I'm an authorized user on 2 credit cards of my wife.  A Walmart card and a Home Depot card.  I chose to be an AU because my credit history was not long but since then she's used it to the point where both of these cards are at 90% credit utilization.  This is obviously hurting my credit utilization ratio.

In January, this is what happened:

TU (Vantage 3.0) Score dropped 106 pts to 604. 

EQ (Vantage 3.0) Score dropped 98 pts to 638

EX (Fico 9) Score dropped 103 pts to 649 

I'm wanting to get my credit back where it was and I was thinking of removing myself as an Authorized User from those two cards.  I'll gain braething room in the credit utilization ration piece of the pie, but lose in the Average of accounts (or will I?  Do closed accounts or will those two accounts still appear and positively affect my credit since they have always been paid on time?).  Or do I stay on the cards and just work on paying them down?

Thanks in advance!  (and mods, if this needs to be moved, please do so...I didn't see another category to move it to.)

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I'm guessing but I have a hunch your scores would be a bit higher without the AU cards

[CorySoccer]

@SouthJamaica 

Thanks for the info.  That's my "hunch" too.

[OmarGB9]

Since "amount of debt" is a bigger piece of the FICO pie than "length of history," (although I don't know if it's weighed the same when it's an AU vs your own), I'd also say you'd be better off removing yourself.

[CCrew]

I think that this is a 100% valid question, and I'd be interested in hearing some concise opinions. 

At the end of the day I'm an AU on my wife's NFCU card, I don't have login access to an account, nor can I see it's balance other than what's in my credit report. Yet I do see it affecting my UTIL and total revolving debt. 

Case in point: I have 21 active accounts showing on my report. 20 are mine, all 20 of which are $0 balance. 1 is my wife's NFCU card which she's carrying a $10k balance on. That $10k is showing on my report as my debt, and as a hit toward my UTIL.. 

Kinda "Guilt by association"  I think! :-)

[RSX]

@CCrew  since you have 20 accounts of your own, i don't see the benefit in having that one AU

ask her to remove you - you can usually do this online

it can take a couple of months - if it doesnt disappear after 70 days, you can dispute it as Not my Account and it will get removed from the CRAs

[AzCreditGuy]

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@RSX wrote:

@CCrew  since you have 20 accounts of your own, i don't see the benefit in having that one AU

ask her to remove you - you can usually do this online

it can take a couple of months - if it doesnt disappear after 70 days, you can dispute it as Not my Account and it will get removed from the CRAs

Be aware if you do go this route and dispuite the CRAs may not add your future AU accounts to your profile. I requested I be removed from a Chase, Discover and Wells cards, which the creditor did and the CRAs did not. Open a dispute and had to get legal letters written on my behalf to get them removed, once I wanted to add the accounts again to help me rebuild, they refused to add the accounts. They were added again, but it took disputes and another round of legal letters to get them added on again. Now I am just keeping these AU accounts, since they carry very small balances. 

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[donkort]

It's that old bugaboo-----credit card "utilization"!

I had absolutely no lates, no collections, no charge-offs, no nothing for over 10 years.  Yet, I couldn't get out of the lower 680s because I had extremely high utilization with sometimes "maxed out" cards.  When I had "maxed out" cards, I couldn't get out of the 660s.

Definitely.....encourage your wife to take your name off her cards.

[W261w261]

In my experience, Vantage is much more sensitive to util than F8. How did your FICO do when the util went up? Also, a couple of years ago I put myself on my wife's Bloomingdale's and Nordstroms account. The Bloomies has been open since 1981! I can't remember why I did this now, but I remember the answer quite well, which was "the only way to get off her account is to close the whole thing." What!? Close out 40 years of aging? No way! She would kill me. 

[donkort]

Trust me.....FICO is "sensitive" towards utilization, too.  I gained about 130 FICO points when I paid down on my $40,000 credit card debt.  From maxed/nearly maxed out cards, to less than 1% utilization.