Can I get my listing as a Authorized User off my credit report?
Last updated Aug 29, 2008
You may also want to read these proposed changes to credit scoring which addresses Authorized Users.
I received this letter and thought it would make a good topic.
| I saw on a message board that it is illegal under the FCRA for the bureaus to report accounts on your report for which you are an "authorized user." I am on my brother's two Capital One accounts as an AU and he has been delinquent on this account. They are refusing to take it off my report. Could you send me the section of the FCRA stating that this is illegal/and or post to the site? |
According to section 603 of the FCRA, the way I interpret it, only information on credit issued to a consumer is allowed. If you are an authorized user, you do not fall under these categories, you are not responsible for the debt and did not receive credit. An authorized user doesn't have credit on this account and it's only the signor that is responsible. So, in essence, if an account on which you are an authorized user shows up on your report, it would be someone else's credit (the signor on the account.) I've had lots of readers successfully challenge this to both the creditors and the bureaus, and have accounts in which they were authorized users removed.
Here's the text:
FCRA Section § 603. Definitions; rules of construction [15 U.S.C. § 1681a] (what credit lines can be reported).
(l) Firm offer of credit or insurance.
The term "firm offer of credit or insurance" means any offer of credit or insurance to a consumer that will be honored if the consumer is determined, based on information in a consumer report on the consumer, to meet the specific criteria used to select the consumer for the offer, except that the offer may be further conditioned on one or more of the following:
The consumer being determined, based on information in the consumer's application for the credit or insurance, to meet specific criteria bearing on credit worthiness or insurability, as applicable, that are established
(A) before selection of the consumer for the offer; and
(B) for the purpose of determining whether to extend credit or insurance pursuant to the offer.
(2) Verification
(A) that the consumer continues to meet the specific criteria used to select the consumer for the offer, by using information in a consumer report on the consumer, information in the consumer's application for the credit or insurance, or other information bearing on the credit worthiness or insurability of the consumer; or
(B) of the information in the consumer's application for the credit or insurance, to determine that the consumer meets the specific criteria bearing on credit worthiness or insurability.
(3) The consumer furnishing any collateral that is a requirement for the extension of the credit or insurance that was
(A) established before selection of the consumer for the offer of credit or insurance; and
(B) disclosed to the consumer in the offer of credit or insurance.
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