Given that Chase counts credit/charge cards that your an authorized user of when determining if their 5/24 rule applies to you, I thought it would be helpful to look at removing these accounts from your credit report (DEM Flyers has tackled this before, but not all card issuers were accounted for). Obviously this isn’t necessary if you’re never added as an authorized user, but increasingly card issuers are offering increased bonuses for adding an authorized user so chances are you’ve been in this situation before.
[Read: How Does Being An Authorized User Affect Your Credit?]
Before getting started you should first make sure that the authorized user account has been closed (no need to close the primary account, just the authorized user account), as it’s usually not possible to get it removed when it’s still open.
Contents
Ways To Remove Authorized User Accounts
To get started it’s important to know that there are two ways to get authorized user accounts removed from your report:
- Request that the card issuer removes them (normally has to be done by the primary account holder)
- Request that the credit bureau (e.g TransUnion, Equifax or Experian) removes them
In general it’s going to be much easier to to ask the card issuer to remove the account from a credit report first. This is because if they say yes then they will automatically contact all three credit bureaus and ask them to remove the account. If you contact the credit bureaus, you’ll need to make sure all three remove the account otherwise it might still show on some of your credit reports.
Specific Card Issuers
American Express
American Express is definitely the most difficult card issuer to get authorized users removed from credit reports. Using the chat function simply does not work and calling doesn’t have a much better success rate either, often they will tell you that this cannot be done due to legal reasons. I’m unaware of any law that prevents them from doing this and some represenatives will process it for you, so it seems to be a case of hanging up and calling again (positive data points: 1, 2)
The other option is a dispute with the credit bureau and that has limited success as well:
Bank of America
Calling Bank of America will work but the authorized user account needs to be closed before they will remove it (1). The Credit Karma dispute feature will also work for at least TransUnion according to this data point (1). Authorized user can call in as well and it will automatically drop off within 30 days: 1.
Barclaycard
The authorized user account needs to be closed for thirty days before Barclaycard will consider removing it from your credit report. Once this time period is over, you should be able to just send a message requesting the card be removed from your credit reports. This message should come from the authorized user and not the primary account holder (only the authorized user account needs to have been closed for thirty days). Barclaycard state that this will be done when the next statement closes.
Capital One
Authorized user can removed themselves in the online portal. The account falls off your report within 30 days of doing so.
Chase
Removing an authorized user account with Chase couldn’t be easier (probably because they don’t even require a SSN for these accounts). All you need to do is send them a secured message and ask for the account to be removed. The message should be sent by the authorized user that wants the account removed from their credit report and not the primary cardholder. If the authorized user doesn’t have an account with Chase it should be sent via the primary account holder.
Citi
Citi will also remove authorized user accounts from credit reports if it’s requested, although only phone requests will be processed. Again this request should be initiated by the authorized user account holder and the account must be closed first. Citi states that your credit report should be updated within 30 – 90 days.
Discover
Update: Readers are reporting that Discover is refusing to do this now.
Discover allows you to get authorized user accounts removed from your credit report by sending them a secured message. For some reason sometimes this is done incorrectly and it’ll show as ‘Closed – Terminated’ on your credit report. Sending them another message should get this fixed.
Synchrony
Removing an authorized user account with Synchrony is very easy via secured message.
U.S. Bank
No idea, share experiences in the comments.
Wells Fargo
No idea, share the experiences in the comments.
Removal Via Credit Bureaus
Equifax
- Head to their dispute portal/credit investigation page
Experian
- Head to their dispute portal
TransUnion
Easily done through Credit Karma, using their direct dispute feature:
- Pull up your list of accounts
- Under each account there is a link to dispute that account
- Click this link
- Click “Ownership – I am no longer liable for this account” as your dispute reason
View Comments (155)
Re: CITI, Home Depot. Was an auth user on family member card. I had myself removed as an authorized user, then the account was closed. It was still reporting on my Experian report. Then the account was put into a credit management plan by the primary and the acct was noted with the statement saying so, which is now STILL showing up on my credit report. I received a letter from CITI cardmember services (AFTER I had initially requested to be removed as an authorized user) telling me to contact them if there were any discrepancies. I called them as directed, explaining that they needed to delete the account from my credit report, they refused to even listen to me. Even though the letter they sent had instructions for ME, the authorized user, to call them at the number on the back of my card if there were issues. SMH. When I asked them why they sent me a letter with these instructions and then were not following their own printed business processes the customer service rep said he had no clue. LOL. Clearly, this is beyond moronic.
Amex won't remove spousal AU from credit report.
Yep, this is well documented (by DPs in this thread, for one). Transunion and Equifax will agree to remove but Experian will not without authorization from Amex, and Amex will refuse to authorize.
It would be nice to include this in the Amex specific info. The details are a bit more diffuse in the comments. I found this out the hard way.
Now my assumption is if my spouse closes the account, then I can get the AU acct removed from my report. Is that the case? (The reason they said they woudn't take it off is that there is still joint financial responsibility -- I interpret that as they would go after me for debt even though it's not a joint account. But if the account is closed with zero balance there is no financial responsibility whatsoever.)
Fwiw closing AU accounts with Amex chat did not remove them from the credit report despite chat saying they would drop off in a month or two.
I have some questions regarding Amex authorized user accounts:
1. Does anyone have any experience with the process of getting a closed Amex AU card removed from their personal credit report, especially for Experian? I managed to get the AU account struck off from the other credit bureaus, namely TransUnion and Equifax.
2. Should I reach out to Experian, Amex CS, or perhaps both parties to get the closed AU account removed from my credit report?
Some more context:
I became an AU for someone else's Amex CC, presumably for them to take advantage of those AU bonuses, but I'm beginning to see that it was more trouble than it was worth. The issue is that it's causing a hurdle with automatic approvals for Chase applications due to me being at "5"/24, considering the AU card.
The process of having to clarify that one of the cards is an AU during recon is a hit or miss, since some agents don't accept that and still treat the AU card as counting towards 5/24. They also take a look at my past apps and accounts more closely during recon, which is not something I want, so automatic approval is much preferred.
I got TU and EQ immediately on filing disputes with them. Experian denied my dispute saying the info was accurate, I tried to dispute again under a different option but it was denied again. The only option I see left is to call Amex and ask to have the account removed. The players I'm working with don't want to do that so they're just gonna wait to get under 5/24 again.
Thanks for posting this! This worked great. I was able to get back inside Chase 5/24 and approved for a Chase new card.
I was able to remove an authorized user (amex gold) from my amex platinum account simply by using the chat function. The rep processed the request immediately and sent me a short disclosure about cancelling recurring payments, etc. You may want to update the information above about how easy it is to remove an authorized user from Amex.
There's a difference between canceling an AU account and getting that account removed from the AU's credit report. You did the former; this blog post is about the latter.
Confirming the latest post by my DP for AMEX:
Went throught the process of AU removal through the chat, was easy and fast, without any questions about relationships or anything else, will update my post after changes in credit bureaus...
Were you able to get your closed Amex AU card removed from your Experian credit report?
Update: Amex chat deleted my authorized user account today with no issues. Must have updated their policy at some point.
There are absolutely no laws forbiding credit card issuers from removing authorized users. Nor is ther any law forbidding them from changing anything like a late fee payment schedule, removing negative info etc. They have absolute 100% control of what they report, change, charge, etc. They dont do it because of$$$$$$ plain and simple they contract with the credit bureaus to keep negative reporting or any reporting on you and anyone else. So dont let them fool you. Also Credit bureaus NEVER show you what creditors use for so called proof. Mostly because it isnt. There needs to be a law where if they are accusing they need to show absolute proof of said accusation, not us having to prove our innocence
I know this is an old post, but I figured this can be helpful to others like me and maybe this post can be updated as well?
Just called the Amex Credit Bureau Department, they were able to remove the account as soon as I asked, after clarifying that I have no responsibility to pay the account.
I didn't have to close the AU account.
Will check in 40 days if it actually went through.
Number: 800-874-2717
I guess they changed their policy??
Awesome DP, just got myself and P2s AUs removed. Word of caution: your spouse can’t get removed.
Same for me too. Just called and they also asked what's the name of the primary account holder and what's your relationship to that person. I said friend and they promptly agreed to remove my AU items on my credit report.
do you know how long it took for the AU to show as removed on your credit report?
My experience with AMEX was the same. Called the number (800 874 2717) in the post above, identified myself and confirmed that I was a non-spouse AU for the agent to say that they will remove the account from the credit report by the next reporting cycle, which is just about two weeks away in my case. Ni need to close the account. Will check and update.
Helps me brotha! Thank you for taking the time. I love it when you find a gem of a DP like this, lol.