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Adding your partner as an authorized user to your credit card is one way to increase your partner’s creditworthiness – provided, of course, that you are responsible for your own use of the card.
However, if your relationship ends, you can deactivate it as an authorized user. How will this affect your credit score? What is the easiest and cleanest way to do this? Here’s what you need to know.
How to remove your partner as an authorized user
Erasing your name from your partner’s cards and vice versa should be a relatively easy task. Just contact your card issuer and let them know that you want your partner to be removed as an authorized user. And your partner should have the same conversation with their issuers.
Another option is to contact your partner’s card issuer yourself and ask to be removed as an authorized user. This sounds like a simple task, but card issuers have different approaches to having an authorized user remove themselves from an account. Some may remove you on their own, but others will also need your partner’s consent to remove you as an authorized user.
If you are on good terms with your partner and he agrees with the plan you outlined, getting his consent should not be a problem. If your partner doesn’t agree with this plan, it can be a little more difficult.
In any case, when you delete an authorized user, it is recommended that you obtain a new card with a new number for your account as a guarantee, since your partner has an existing card number. If you have any recurring card-related charges, be sure to let the merchants know your new card number.
What impact will this have on my credit score?
The main impact on your credit score will be your use of credit, which accounts for approximately 30 percent of your FICO credit score. Given the credit line you had access to while the authorized user is no longer available to you, you will have less total credit to use.
If you have a total line of credit of $20,000 on your own cards and $15,000 on your authorized user accounts, your total line of credit, which used to be $35,000, will now drop to $20,000 USA. If you have a balance on your cards, say $5,000, that means your credit usage will jump from 14 percent to 25 percent. Credit scoring formulas look more favorable at lower credit utilization rates, so there may be a negative impact as a result.
For those who use an authorized user account to build their credit history and do not have much experience with cards, in addition, removing yourself from an authorized user account may affect the length of your credit history. This factor makes up about 15 percent of your credit score.
If you have your own cards that you use responsibly and you have a credit history that is fading away, deleting as an authorized user will not have much of an impact on the average age of your accounts and therefore your credit score. If an account is held up on your credit report, it will be counted as your credit age even if the account is not updated.
bottom line
Removing yourself as an authorized user from a partner’s credit card account is a relatively easy process if your partner agrees to the plan. Two potential credit score effects can be attributed to any impact on your credit utilization rate and the age of your credit history.
If you pay off the balances on all your cards immediately after the situation with the authorized user is resolved, your credit usage will decrease, taking into account the zero balance. This will be a short-term positive for the use of your credit. However, if you keep balances in the future, your credit utilization rate will be higher, which will mean a less favorable impact on your account.
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