Impact of an authorized user account w/90% utilization

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, I’m working on rebuilding my credit after it plummeted last fall due to a loan I co-signed with my sister falling behind for five months. When I found out, I paid it off, and have been working on rebuilding. I had a lot of luck just paying down credit cards, have three charge cards, two with 0 balance and one at 5%. My Fico 8 scores are 612, 625, and 637 just from paying down the cards (Fico auto scores are still in mid-500s and I’m sure will be for a while). My question to the group is this: My father added me as an authorized user on one of his retail store cards to help build my credit - he has 9 years of good payment history (vs my cards that are all less than 2 years old). However, his card is at 90% utilization. Should I 1) remove myself as an authorized user, which would reduce the age of my credit history, 2) just pay down the balance myself and leave it (however this reduces the amount I’m saving toward a down payment on a vehicle in a few more months, which I’ve saved about $6000 for), 3) leave it alone - since I’m not sure if an authorized user account is even factored into the score at all?

[kilroy8]

Drop that account like a hot potato. Utilization is worth far more points than credit age.

[Anonymous]

OP, You really haven’t given us very much information to work with. For example what’s your AooA, AAoA, AoYA, payment history, inquiries, do you have a active installment loan?

But in any event, you don’t know if the account is counting or not because you don’t know whether it’s flagged by the anti-abuse algorithm. With that being said, 90% utilization would probably kill you more than nine years age would help you, as stated by kilroy8. I don’t know what the balance is and what it would be worth it to you to pay it off and I can’t even estimate the benefit because I don’t know your current ages because you haven’t told us. So based on the limited information, I have to concur with the prior advice: drop it or give us more information to consider.

By the way welcome to MF.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help! I had to look up those terms, so I’m definitely learning a lot. I’ll answer as best I can:

Average age of accounts: 5 y 4 m
Age of oldest account: 12 y 9 m (this is that authorized user account, I was wrong about how old it is in my first post)
Age of newest account: three months
One auto loan, never late
5 late payments (all from auto loan paid off October 2018)
One inquiry in last 4 months

[Anonymous]

Can you tell me did you notice a score change after your dad added you? And can you tell me what they were?

[Andypanda]

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@Anonymous wrote:
OP, You really haven’t given us very much information to work with. For example what’s your AooA, AAoA, AoYA, payment history, inquiries, do you have a active installment loan?

But in any event, you don’t know if the account is counting or not because you don’t know whether it’s flagged by the anti-abuse algorithm. With that being said, 90% utilization would probably kill you more than nine years age would help you, as stated by kilroy8. I don’t know what the balance is and what it would be worth it to you to pay it off and I can’t even estimate the benefit because I don’t know your current ages because you haven’t told us. So based on the limited information, I have to concur with the prior advice: drop it or give us more information to consider.

By the way welcome to MF.

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Anti abuse algorithms? I would love to learn something new.

[Anonymous]

@Andypanda: OK it’s like this, people were selling AU spots to improve credit. This was seen as abuse. The FICO 8 algorithm included an anti-abuse algorithm that somehow identifies certain AU accounts as not genuine and then excludes them from scoring purposes. No one knows exactly how it works.

[Andypanda]

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@Anonymous  thanks 

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[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone, I’m working on rebuilding my credit after it plummeted last fall due to a loan I co-signed with my sister falling behind for five months. When I found out, I paid it off, and have been working on rebuilding. I had a lot of luck just paying down credit cards, have three charge cards, two with 0 balance and one at 5%. My Fico 8 scores are 612, 625, and 637 just from paying down the cards (Fico auto scores are still in mid-500s and I’m sure will be for a while). My question to the group is this: My father added me as an authorized user on one of his retail store cards to help build my credit - he has 9 years of good payment history (vs my cards that are all less than 2 years old). However, his card is at 90% utilization. Should I 1) remove myself as an authorized user, which would reduce the age of my credit history, 2) just pay down the balance myself and leave it (however this reduces the amount I’m saving toward a down payment on a vehicle in a few more months, which I’ve saved about $6000 for), 3) leave it alone - since I’m not sure if an authorized user account is even factored into the score at all?

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Didn't we just discuss this in your other thread?

And didn't I advise you to ditch the AU card?

[Queen_Etherea]

My dad added me on his PenFed card about 2 years ago to help me with my credit. Only problem is that he ended up maxing the card out, which was about $15,000/$16,000. I had him remove me as an authorized user, then I had the account deleted from all 3 reports. My score jumped quite a bit (can't remember how much, exactly, but I remember it being a substantial amount). I can't tell you what to do, only share my experience. I know utilization makes a big impact on your credit, so it may be a good idea to remove yourself.

I would also try goodwilling those late payments. Doesn't hurt to send some letters/make some phone calls. I was able to get my one late payment removed from my old auto loan, but it was just one 30 day late payment, and it was the very last payment. I had a **bleep** good reason for not paying it, and explained everything in the email I sent, so they were kind enough to remove it. I would just explain what happened in a letter/email and send it to as many people as possible.