topic Re: Authorized User Question in Credit Cards

Authorized User Question

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 01:59:23 GMT

I have great credit. Currently, myself along with another relative are shared holders. I have the Chase Sapphire card. A few questions. 1. Can I sign up my 15 year old son as an authorized user? 2. Will he build credit? 3. Does Chase report authorized users to credit companies? Thanks.

Re: Authorized User Question

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:04:06 GMT

I don't know the answer but your son got a good parent.

If you have an AMEX card I would suggest to add him as AU, because they will backdate all his future credit cards with AMEX to current date which is a great help for average age of accounts and credit score

Re: Authorized User Question

Jlu — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 02:51:52 GMT

I am hardly judging your parenting skills however I must strongly caution you against doing this. I was given an Amex Platinum on my 18th birthday as an AU on my father's account. I cannot think of anything else that could have destroyed my appreciation of credit more than this. Giving your teenage son a top of the line credit card is like the parents that buy the Mercedes for their kids' 16th birthday and then wonder why it got wrecked so quickly. Except credit is more valuable than that Mercedes ever could be. Getting something that requires hard work and dedication by working hard and being dedicated will be the greatest feeling your young adult can experience. Bypassing that will almost undoubtedly cause credit to become an unappreciated ticket to free stuff in the mind of a teenager.

I'm 25 about to get married and still recovering from the mess of my late teenage years.

Think twice, please.

Re: Authorized User Question

Revelate — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 04:08:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have great credit. Currently, myself along with another relative are shared holders. I have the Chase Sapphire card. A few questions. 1. Can I sign up my 15 year old son as an authorized user? 2. Will he build credit? 3. Does Chase report authorized users to credit companies? Thanks.

Chase does report AU's; however the CRA's aren't *supposed* to keep datafiles on anyone under the age of 18 these days I think. That's not to say it doesn't happen, and it may make a difference for Chase later (like it does with Amex and their Membership date), but really, you can do the same thing at ANY point in the future and he'd get the same benefit FICO wise. AU's don't fall under the same category as one's own tradelines in terms of the wisdom of opening them up as soon as possible.

Whether Chase allows you to do that at 15 I don't know... they probably do.

As another poster suggested, if you're looking to help your son credit wise, get an Amex if you don't already have one (either one of their $0 AF revolvers or even a Zync charge card at $25/yr, whatever works) and get him added as an Additional Cardmember (Amex's term for AU) for pseudo building later regardless. Search on the term "backdating" on this forum, but long story short, when your son gets his own Amex at some point in the future, his account opening date will look like the year that you added him as an AC to your own card. Well worth the minimal effort and/or cost to set this feature up to benefit a child's future credit.

Re: Authorized User Question

Voodard — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 04:07:28 GMT

I thought you had to be 18 years of age of older to have a credit card, AU or not.

Re: Authorized User Question

Revelate — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 04:11:13 GMT

@Voodard wrote:
I thought you had to be 18 years of age of older to have a credit card, AU or not.

Your own absolutely (cannot be held legally responsible blah blah blah), but to be an AU I don't think so... you're not legally responsible for the debt in an AU's case. Amex's AC might be different. Not sure, I never really looked into it as I don't have kids yet.

Re: Authorized User Question

Voodard — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 04:52:40 GMT

This may be of help: http://www.creditorweb.com/articles/credit-card-options-for-minors.html

Re: Authorized User Question

slarano — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:58:12 GMT

In my opinion, the best course of action would be to get him an AU card, but not actually give him the card. If you want him to have something, apply for a secured card, have him save up money to fund the secured card, and allow him to learn about, and appreciate credit in that way. Best of luck.

Re: Authorized User Question

iMacDrew — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:06:57 GMT

@slarano wrote:
In my opinion, the best course of action would be to get him an AU card, but not actually give him the card. If you want him to have something, apply for a secured card, have him save up money to fund the secured card, and allow him to learn about, and appreciate credit in that way. Best of luck.

my parents had me as an AU, but never gave me the card. Not till I graduated anyways in case of emergencies.

Re: Authorized User Question

webhopper — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:24:08 GMT

Amex will let you add a 15 yo to the account as an ACM. You can set preferences on what the child's spending limit is. I was thinking of making my daughter an ACM on zync; as its a pain in the behind to go to the Atm for her to have cash to go to the movies with. And for those of you worried about ruining her appreciation of credit... I wouldn't let her keep the card. And she definately earns the privilege of going out with her friends. My husband and I both work so we are fairly strict when it comes to everyone pulling their own weight with the chores.

Re: Authorized User Question

Dishpro — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 03:03:05 GMT

Maybe adding him as an AU without issuing him a card would be the way to go. All the benefits of establishing credit and no worries about him crashing the Mercedes.