No, that’s not true. Authorized users are in no way responsible for paying off the credit card and aren’t liable to the bank for their use. There’s no impact on credit at all. Maybe you’re confusing “authorized user” with “co-sign” on a card? But even still, that would only work for a new card; not one that you already have a history on.
This seems to be right. I used to have a GM Master Card in my name, as an authorized user under my mother’s account. I’ve never seen this account in my credit report.
Last week I received the free annual copies of my credit report. All three of the agencies listed two credit card accounts that my wife had opened before we were married. She added me as an authorized user later. So they do show up on the credit report with the previous payment history (before I was added as a user). Does this have an impact on the credit? I don’t know. Perhaps dauerbach can add the daughter as a user, and then after a few months the daughter can apply for her own card.
(OT to Balthisar - did you receive the e-mail I sent regarding the engineering forum? I sent it in response to your fluid flow question.)
No – well, maybe. I get soo much spam there that I don’t look too carefully. If you still have it in sent items, try my gmail – it’s my name here at gmail.com. Thanks!
No many banks where you are an authorised user reports the credit history on your credit report. I know Bank Of America does. That helped me out when I was nearly maxed out on my cards
(500 limit spending 300 a month then paying it off)
Was added as an AU to a card with a 10K limit and it reduced my overall utilization. You may want to look at www.creditboards.net
There doesn’t seem to be any standardization on the matter. My folks’ card certainly doesn’t report their AUs, because I’m still an AU on that card, and it’s never shown up on my report. (It would be beneficial if it did.)
So… my immigrant wife with no credit history in the USA actually does have a credit history? Even though I’ve never, ever supplied her SSN to any credit card company, and she’s just an authorized user? Actually, that would be very good news, especially if the account age is reported as being the age of my account.
But… how the heck does this work, and why? Let’s forget the fact that my wife is my wife. Let’s say that I make my next door neighbor an authorized user. This is just a convenience to me, like loaning him the card so I don’t have to go with him to buy his groceries. Why the hell should he benefit from my good credit? There can be absolutely no consequences to the authorized user if I default. I can make anyone I want an authorized user, and that person has no obligation to the bank to pay back. So why would the bank even want to report my good record on someone else’s credit record? What’s their possible motivation for this? It almost seems fraudulent, since that authorized user has absolutely nothing to do with the account whatsoever.
My roomate and I filled out applications on the capital one website our first year of college (in 2000). We listed our occupation as student, and added up the monthly allowance that our parents sent us and put the ammount in the annual income section. Both of us were approved.
Several years ago I co-signed for my daughter to get a credit card for her college education. She lost control of it and I had to take over.
My advice is that you put yourself in the position as her credit company. That way you at least have some control on your liability.
Good questions.
I got no answers on that.
By the way, there’s another risk here.
If someone has you on as an AU and then defaults on the card, it will actually HURT your credit. I’ve seen posts by people who had their mom add them to a card, and then wound up with a bankruptcy on their report… when they’d never been bankrupt.
On the opposite hand, I have a co-worker who put her 18-year-old son on her oldest Mastercard.
The kid had a 720 FICO score overnight, which would have gotten him a credit card if he’d had income.