For me it was an 11 point drop in my credit score. I am not here to brag, but it didn’t change my credit rating in any meaningful way.
Why am I sharing this? For several reasons. One of the credit cards was closed for non use. That is fair. I didn’t ask for it when I signed up for the account, and so I didn’t need it/have a purpose for it. It just took up space in my wallet.
Two once that first credit card was closed, I evaluated the other credit cards that I had. I didn’t ever really use the Apple credit card and mostly tried it out because it I was curious. So I closed that. Then I was taken off as an Authorized user on another credit card. In all the balances of all the cards was $50k of potential credit.
While this was happening I figured I should probably open up a credit card account from the same company that I was an Authorized user of. Instead of helping some else credit score, I was going to focus on my own credit score. That gained me $10k credit limit.
In the last month I used about $1400 of that credit limit paying my bills and I paid it off today. So that was pretty easy to do and now I think in a few months my credit score might go back to where it was. Still if it doesn’t, that is ok because I am not planning a major purchase like a car/home or something like that and as this gains age it will improve my score further.
Is being an Authorized user helpful? Sure it gives you access to a credit line that otherwise you may not qualify for. However long term it might hurt you more. Consider the long term effect and make your decisions with wisdom.