Question about removing AU account and possible AA resulting?

[OnWayUpinTexas]

I have just one "baddie" on revolving accounts on my Transunion report pulled here.  It is on a Nordstrom store card that I was an AU on (DW's card).  It's the only revolving account showing with a "negative flag" in my list of accounts.  The late occurred way back in 2005-06.  The account has since been PIF and closed under a DMP (paid and closed since about 2008-09, as I recall).

Yesterday I started to dispute the account on TU's online dispute website, claiming the account as "not mine, but belonging to a relative or other person with a similar name/address" (that seemed to be the closest choice of the possible selections provided).  I was just about to pull the trigger when I began to worry that somehow this might cause some sort of negative impact on my TU score -- don't know why ... that is why I'm posting.

Should I take this action to see if I get a TU score bump out of it, or are there risks that I'm not seeing and, therefore, should let sleeping dogs lie?

Thanks!

[OnWayUpinTexas]

ttt

Any takers on this one?  Informed advice will be much appreciated!

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

You can remove yourself as an AU at any time. If the scores are impacted in a negative way you can just add yourself back on as an AU again.

[OnWayUpinTexas]

Thanks JM-AM.

Only problem is the account is closed as a result of the DMP, so there will be no going back to add me as an AU if there is a negative impact. 

[haulingthescoreup]

How late was the late? If it was only a 30-day, it's probably not affecting you. If it's 60 or higher, it puts you in a negative score bucket.

The way to answer questions like this is to look at one of your FICO score reports. Go to screen 2 and look at the negatives on the left. Is "late payment" the first or maybe second factor? If so, you might want to get rid of it.

Otherwise, I assume it's closed with a $0 balance, so it's not doing anything for your util.

How old is the account, and what is your AAoA? If it's older, it might be helping, depending on the math; if it's around the same, probably no impact; if it's younger, it might well be hurting.

There are a lot of different ways that an AU card can impact your credit.

[OnWayUpinTexas]

Thanks for the response, Hauling ...

The "details" page of the account shows for the "Seven year payment history" 0 times 30-day late, 0 times 60 days late, and 0 times 90 days late, but then under "Worst Delinquency" it says 90-days late.  Almost sounds like a mistake?  It is possible that the creditor marked us as 90-days late while we were transitioning onto the DMP, which the creditor eventually accepted.  (Others did.)  But that would have been in 2005 when we went on the DMP, so it should definitely fall into the above-noted seven year payment history.  (Funny sidenote, I remember a congratulatory letter from Nordstrom when they had accepted the DMP proposal, saying that "when this is paid off, we'll restore your account for you to its previous status," or something like that.   I remember it because it was surprising to me at the time.  'SHOCKINGLY'  Nordstrom hasn't offered to reopen the account since it was paid in 2008.  Of course a lot has happened in the credit markets since 2005, when we went on the DMP.)

On screen 2, the first thing listed is a "Serious delinquency," 60 days or more -- and it shows 1 account and it must refer to this one.

Yes, closed with 0 balance, so utility is not an issue.

The account opened in 2003, but I have an 8 year AAoA, with my oldest card reporting as 25 years.

More thoughts?

[haulingthescoreup]

Is this your TU FICO report? If I recall correctly, TU sometimes hallucinates lates where there aren't any.

You might want to pull the other one and see what it says.

But the best bet would be to pull the full version of whichever report you're looking at, directly from the bureau or from annualcreditreport.com and see if there's a late on there somewhere.

Your FICO scores are created from the full reports, not from the ones that come with your FICO score, so it's whatever is on that full report that is affecting you.

If you really do have a 60 or 90 showing, you should dump the thing, IMO. Even if there isn't one, the account isn't particularly helping, as it's slightly less than your AAoA, and it isn't contributing to your util.

eta: lol at the SHOCKING failure of Nordie's to follow through!