Being an authorized user on an account is a good strategy for building or rebuilding credit history and credit scores. You get the benefits of that person’s established credit account. It gives you an opportunity to have a credit card with history, which will make it easier to obtain credit under your name as long as the primary cardholder has good credit.
Authorized users are not financially responsible for the credit account. But the credit card’s current and past payment history are reported on the credit reports of both the person responsible for the card and the authorized user. Their credit directly impacts yours.
What happens when there are missed payments.
If the primary cardholder misses a payment, makes late payments or racks up high balances that will also show up on the authorized user’s credit reports. The authorized user’s credit scores will also be negatively impacted.
How to get removed as an authorized user.
The primary cardholder needs to contact the credit card issuer and remove the authorized user from the account. The authorized user should dispute the account with each credit bureau reporting the account and request the account be deleted. Give them 30 days to complete their work and they’ll send you a letter summarizing their actions
Or, contact the lender and ask to be removed from the account. When your name is no longer associated with the account, it will no longer be reported in your credit history with any of the major credit bureaus.
Once the account is removed you will lose the benefit of ever being an authorized user. You may see an increase in your credit scores but that’s not a guarantee. The payment history of an account is extremely important to credit scores. And, if you have negatives on your report due to your own credit history you may not see any improvement in scores.
