Mortgage, Authorized User & Age of Credit

[Anonymous]

Hello - I am very sorry to trouble everyone, but I am looking to apply for my first mortgage in the next 1-2 months and could use some advice.

Back when I was in high school, my father added me as an authorized user to his credit card to help start building my credit history. The silly part though, is I never bothered having myself removed after I stopped using the account. Now that I am looking to apply for a mortgage I am trying to find out what would be best for my mortgage score - staying an authorized user on my father's account, or remove myself and having a shorter credit history. My credit accounts, as they are today, are listed below. Any words of advice would be appreciated!

Personal Credit Card / Balance / Limit / Age

Chase / $200 / $25,000 / 2018

Chase Freedom / $0 / $15,000 / 2013

Capital One / $0 / $17,000 / 2012

Authorized User Card / Balance / Limit / Age

Bank of America / $4,000 / $24,000 / 2003

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello - I am very sorry to trouble everyone, but I am looking to apply for my first mortgage in the next 1-2 months and could use some advice.

Back when I was in high school, my father added me as an authorized user to his credit card to help start building my credit history. The silly part though, is I never bothered having myself removed after I stopped using the account. Now that I am looking to apply for a mortgage I am trying to find out what would be best for my mortgage score - staying an authorized user on my father's account, or remove myself and having a shorter credit history. My credit accounts, as they are today, are listed below. Any words of advice would be appreciated!

Personal Credit Card / Balance / Limit / Age

Chase / $200 / $25,000 / 2018

Chase Freedom / $0 / $15,000 / 2013

Capital One / $0 / $17,000 / 2012

Authorized User Card / Balance / Limit / Age

Bank of America / $4,000 / $24,000 / 2003

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Dont do anything now. A prospective lender will advise you if they need you to remove AU account, so your profile can be scored on it's own merit.

Most of them will ask applicants to remove themselves from AU accounts, so you may not even have a choice in this, but I'd wait till you're advised by them on what to do 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply!

So if most banks will ask applicants to remove themselves, wouldn't it make sense to just remove myself now and decrease the mortgage closing time (not have to wait for the bank to come back with a list of things they want fixed)? Or are you thinking that the hit to my credit score will be enough that it is worth not doing anything now and hoping the bank doesn't ask that?

[iv]

Your account ages are more than enough to stand one your own at this point.

I'd suggest that losing the age of his one account wouldn't have much (if any) negative effect on your mortage scores.

I'd get that $4k balance removed from my reports before applying, personally.

Time to take the training wheels off! You can stand on your own now.

(Thank him for getting you started early and well, though.)

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for your reply!

So if most banks will ask applicants to remove themselves, wouldn't it make sense to just remove myself now and decrease the mortgage closing time (not have to wait for the bank to come back with a list of things they want fixed)? Or are you thinking that the hit to my credit score will be enough that it is worth not doing anything now and hoping the bank doesn't ask that?

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Like @iv  stated, you should do just fine without it.

Do you happen to know your mortgage scores?

Are you applying with someone else and is their profile in good shape?