Authorized user accounts may not help someones' (FICO) score any longer....soon. Maybe.

[navigatethis12]

I am an authorized user on two cards but I am the only one who uses them. It was just I had no credit so my parents go the cards for me. I don't need them or use them anymore but the limits and history help out. Though If you have no responsibility for the card I don't think it should be counted. There would be no way for them to determine this other than asking but still. To me it's the same as adding yourself as an authorized user on an American Express card and backdating it so your credit history is longer. A friend of mine did that and was denied because his history was 35 years old and he is only 20. His dad also was contacted by American Express and was put through a financial review.

Anyway, I think it may be fine if you have zero credit but the lenders I've talked to don't even look at authorized user accounts.

[Anonymous]

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@navigatethis12 wrote:

I am an authorized user on two cards but I am the only one who uses them. It was just I had no credit so my parents go the cards for me. I don't need them or use them anymore but the limits and history help out. Though If you have no responsibility for the card I don't think it should be counted. There would be no way for them to determine this other than asking but still. To me it's the same as adding yourself as an authorized user on an American Express card and backdating it so your credit history is longer. A friend of mine did that and was denied because his history was 35 years old and he is only 20. His dad also was contacted by American Express and was put through a financial review.

Anyway, I think it may be fine if you have zero credit but the lenders I've talked to don't even look at authorized user accounts.

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Yea, and I think that's the problem.  They just look at the big things like FICO score, AAoA, age of oldest account, utilization, etc.  If they don't look specifically for accounts that you are responsible (legally) for and just group all of your open TLs together, they aren't necessarily getting an accurate picture of what kind of borrower you are.

[Anonymous]

For those of you with children, would you let someone babysit your kid if they had very little experience but were the younger sibling of the person who has been babysitting for you for years?  Probably not.  

[DantGwyrdd]

Just for being their sibiling? No. If their sibiling, whom I trust, gave them a reference: probably yes.

And AU is really the other one here: when you add someone as an AU you're essentially giving them a reference, line of credit even, and if they can't handle the LoC you gave them, you'd presumably remove them as an AU from your account. So, in some ways, it's not that different from getting a LoC from a bank, other then the requirements being somewhat different.