I was an authorized user on an account that went bad. It is now hurting my credit repair. Can I get removed from the card?

Check Your Donor Carefully

Authorized user accounts are a great help with credit repair, at least as long as they are managed properly. Anyone considering becoming an authorized user on the account of a friend or relative for credit repair purposes should make sure the account is in good standing. If anything goes wrong with the donor account it will affect your credit score negatively. A late payment will lower your score, and a high balance can be very detrimental. In other words, once you are an authorized user your credit scores are in the hands of your card donor.

Remove Yourself

There is a simple solution for a bad authorized user account. Just have the donor call the creditor and ask them to remove you from the account. Within sixty days the account should vanish from your credit report and your credit repair progress will be back on track.

You Could Get Stuck

There is one unfortunate exception to the rule. If the account gets charged off it is likely that the creditor will be unwilling to modify the account in any way, including removing you as an authorized user. We encounter this situation regularly. It may not make a lot of sense to you, but it does to the creditor. They are fully aware that the presence of the derogatory item on your report could potentially apply pressure on the donor to resolve the issue.