Authorized User - Assisting Family Member

[Thunderseven]

I want to help my daughter establish some revolving credit on her CR.  She really doesn't want a card, so I told her I could still add her as an AU.  Before doing so, I have one question.  How will adding her affect my profile?

[JSS3]

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@Thunderseven wrote:

I want to help my daughter establish some revolving credit on her CR.  She really doesn't want a card, so I told her I could still add her as an AU.  Before doing so, I have one question.  How will adding her affect my profile?

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It won't affect it unless she runs up debt.

You can add her and keep the AU card since she doesn't want it.

[K-in-Boston]

The presence of AUs on your own accounts doesn't appear on your credit reports.  +1 on just adding her as an AU but not actually giving her the card; lots of parents do this.

[Kforce]

Yes -- Add her as an AU ( Conditional On )

1 You have good credit.

2 The CC that you want to put her on reports to the Credit Bureaus.

   Some banks do NOT report AUs to the credit bureaus

3 You keep the utility low on the card.

4 It has a few years of history. Tend to choose one of your older cards,

    "Age of oldest account" is the primary benefit that an AU card gives a young person"

5 You keep/control of the spend/payments on the AU-Card. (Protect your scores),

    Many do not give the card to there daughter or son. They don't even know that they have one.

    It is just there to help get them started. Others give them the card and use it as a

    teaching tool and keep a good eye on use and payments.

6 Amex is rumored to reset the age of account to new for an AU.

7. Banks and CU's all have different minimum age requirements for adding an AU or giving out a secured CC

    The average age from responses on previous post are about 15.5-16 for AU and minimum of 18

    for secured CC.

     I started helping my daughter when she wad 16. now 19.

     Added as AU on 2 of my Credit Union -CC's (3-years ago),

     At 17 she got a secured CC, and she now has a 790 Fico.

     It does speed things up, and give history for when they need it later.

[K-in-Boston]

Amex and Discover have a 15 minimum age, Barclays is 13.  Most lenders don't technically have a minimum age.  I wouldn't advise it, but lots of parents add their infants as AUs.  As long as the card reports the full history (I can confirm that Amex reports AU cards as newly opened accounts now), there's no advantage to adding them when they're 1 vs 15, but the likelihood of identity theft goes down the longer you wait.  Chase and Citi don't even ask for social security numbers so unless your address matches on the AU's report or there is some other way for the CBs to match them up, they may or may not even end up on their reports.

[Gmood1]

Citi, Chase nor Capital One have age limits on AUs..just a FYI. I added my now 3 yr old when she was two. I wanted to make sure she gets all of the history, if these creditors stop back dating in the future.