Identification

• You can ask the credit bureaus to remove an authorized account from your credit report. The credit bureaus may allow this depending on their companies' policy. Experian, for instance, will grant this request if the primary borrower removes you as an authorized user first. Most creditors will remove you as an authorized user because they cannot pursue you for the debt, so taking your name off the account does not impact the company's risk.
  
  

Past History

• The creditor controls much of what appears on your credit history. It may delete all record of the authorized account or keep the history up until you ceased to be an authorized user, but note that you are no longer associated with the account. However, even if the lender keeps the previous history on your account, lenders can still ignore the authorized account when reviewing your credit history.
  
  

Time Frame

• The credit bureau needs about a month to remove the authorized account history. If the creditor does not agree to remove you as an authorized user on an account, you can contact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Because you have no legal liability to pay the debt as an authorized user, the credit company cannot keep you on the account as an authorized user, according to Don Taylor of Bankrate.com.
  
  

Tip

• You can write letters to creditors and anyone else checking your credit to explain negative items. You might say, for example, that you only had the authorized account so you could have a way to pay for items without carrying cash and that you removed yourself as an authorized user as soon as the primary borrower defaulted.