AMEX AU

[DCY030]

Hi,

 In 2016, I had let three Amex Account go to CO. One of them I ended up paying. In 2020, I then got myself an Amex AU just to see if I was on some kind of restriction. The AU account stayed on until March of 2023 when Amex terminated the AU status. My question now is should I call CRA to remove the AU line. Does it really help my FICO at this point? It is no longer updating.

[hdporter]

AU accounts, open or closed, factor into average account age.  If the age of the AU Amex is greater than your overall average account age, it's helping you and you may not wish to remove it.

 

[DCY030]

Thank you for your feed back. My average age of account is 8 years because of a wash I did back in 2015. AU is an AMEX Gold card with no PSL reporting with an open date of Oct 2020. I was more concerned on its negative impact due to having a balance before the AU relationship termination. I will upload a snapshot of its reporting on EX once I get to my laptop.  If there is no negative impact on FICO, I will leave it alone untill the newer CC age off beyond a 36 months. 

[hdporter]

Some of the latest discussion re the impact of AU card accounts is that such card balances and card limits are ignored when determining credit utilization.  Thus, any reported balances should not impact your credit score.  This should go doubly since, having terminated the relationship, the tradeline should reflect a $0 obligation.

 

One caveat re this treatment:  The implied context of that discussion is with regard to scores under FICO 8 and subsequent models.  I would expect that older "mortgage" score models (FICO 2/4/5) would still be impacted by AU balances.  (Even here, as noted, the tradeline should show a $0 current balance, and thus not impact these FICO scores either).

 

So that leaves age as the other consideration.  If your your average account age is 8 years, and the AU has only been opened for 3, then the presence of the AU account is going to diminish your average age.  You need to do the math to ascertain how much impact it has and assess whether that is sufficient my itself to provide reason to request removal from your reports.  (Generally speaking, I'd suggest there are not offsetting benefits to its presence.)

[DCY030]

Thank you. 

AU Account fell off of EQ but on TU and EX, it is still reporting. I have attached an Ex snap of Amex AU reporting. Only difference is on TU, it says relationship terminated.

[DCY030]

Here is an snap of AMEX on TU. I am not sure if it makes any difference removing it.

[hdporter]

36 minutes ago, DCY030 said:

Here is an snap of AMEX on TU. I am not sure if it makes any difference removing it.

 

As previously noted, for both EX and TU, this account is averaging into your average age of accounts with 3+ years of history.  This is true whether the account reports as open or closed.  If your other history is appreciably longer, you might want request removal by disputing it in writing, noting that your association with this AU account has been terminated.

 

If your overall account age is comparable to or less than 4 years, it might be best to keep it, since it helps anchor that age.

[DCY030]

Thank you so much for your feed back!