topic Re: Authorized user in Credit Cards

Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 11:52:34 GMT

I've even reading these forums for a few weeks now, this is my first post.

I added my son as a authorized user to my husbands credit card so when he turned 18 he would have established credit. The card is 2.5 years old. He turned 18 last month. He has a job and his own car so we thought we'd get him his own card. I thought it would be like a 300 - 500 credit limit. However imagine my shock when he was approved for a Capitol One student journey with a 3000 credit limit.

My question is this, I want to add myself as a authorized user. And If so, how bad will it hurt my AAoA with it being a new card?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for any typos it's still early.

Re: Authorized user

takeshi74 — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:44:17 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
My question is this, I want to add myself as a authorized user. And If so, how bad will it hurt my AAoA with it being a new card?

You haven't given us enough info to answer your question. You can do the math to determine your AAoA before and after adding the card. We'd need to know how many accounts you have and the total age of the accounts. If you have a long AAoA with many cards it will have less of an impact. If your AAoA is short with few cards it will have more of an impact.

If you haven't signed your son up for AmEx membership now is a good time to consider it as all his future AmEx cards would be backdated to his original membership date.

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:44:52 GMT

I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)

Quicksilver One - $500

Barclay's - $1500

Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)

Merrick - $1000

Walmart - $600

JCP - $400

Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

Re: Authorized user

Walt_K — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 14:46:37 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)
Quicksilver One - $500
Barclay's - $1500
Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)
Merrick - $1000
Walmart - $600
JCP - $400
Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

AAoA also includes closed accounts including installment lines, so not sure if you have any of those. Assuming all you have are the cards you have listed, if you add one additional card your AAoA would go to 8.9 months (8*10/9) .

Re: Authorized user

BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 15:37:13 GMT

Congrats to your son! Thats a great CL and a nice card to begin his credit journey.

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:02:23 GMT

Thanks, I just want him to start out good, We've been trying to enforce to him the importance of managing credit. I don't want him to make the same mistakes me and husband made when we were younger.

As far as Installment loans I have 16 total accounts on my credit report 8 credit cards and 8 installment accounts. Only 2 of those are currently open with balances. The others are paid off.

I really want to close the Credit One Bank card. But was worried it would hurt my utilization.without something to replace it, which was why I considering added myself to my son's card.

Thank you for all your help. This site has been so helpful in my journey and I've learned so much in the last month.

Re: Authorized user

BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:10:27 GMT

Its either lose the AAOA or UTL, If you add yourself to your sons card it will affect AAOA but if you only close Credit One Card then only your UTL will be affected.

Re: Authorized user

ezdoesit — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:23:26 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)
Quicksilver One - $500
Barclay's - $1500
Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)
Merrick - $1000
Walmart - $600
JCP - $400
Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

Also during your BK did you burn any of the big banks?

IMO Since you have been so patience in rebuilding since BK I would wait the two more years for it to fall off your reports and try to increase the limits on the cards you already have hopefully with SP increases. I don't feel it going to be any great benefit to get added as another AU.

Re: Authorized user

09Lexie — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 17:35:35 GMT

I agree with ezdoesit . Barclays, Wal and GE can be very generous with CLI's. What is your current util? And are you planning to receive the card or just be added as an AU?

Re: Authorized user

Walt_K — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:03:38 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
Thanks, I just want him to start out good, We've been trying to enforce to him the importance of managing credit. I don't want him to make the same mistakes me and husband made when we were younger.

As far as Installment loans I have 16 total accounts on my credit report 8 credit cards and 8 installment accounts. Only 2 of those are currently open with balances. The others are paid off.

I really want to close the Credit One Bank card. But was worried it would hurt my utilization.without something to replace it, which was why I considering added myself to my son's card.

Thank you for all your help. This site has been so helpful in my journey and I've learned so much in the last month.

In that case, it will have less of an effect on your AAoA. You'll go down to 9.4 months (16*10/17).

Re: Authorized user

SunriseEarth — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:30:26 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
I've even reading these forums for a few weeks now, this is my first post.

I added my son as a authorized user to my husbands credit card so when he turned 18 he would have established credit. The card is 2.5 years old. He turned 18 last month. He has a job and his own car so we thought we'd get him his own card. I thought it would be like a 300 - 500 credit limit. However imagine my shock when he was approved for a Capitol One student journey with a 3000 credit limit.

My question is this, I want to add myself as a authorized user. .

Ok. Let's just pause at this statement.

First off, congrats to your DS and his excellent new first CC! That's a great CL. Hopefully, he truly takes your concern and your experience and makes good credit decisions. The fact that he has a job and car at age 18 speak of his level of responsibily. You and your DH are clearly dedicated parents and you've given him a great foundation.

That being said, I find the statement above a bit problematic. It didn't say "I would like to ask my son to add me as an AU." I would be fine with that, actually, because it enforces his sole responsibility for his TL. To me, your DS seems kinda passive in this whole process and he needs to be active in managing his credit. I'm not sure that you being an AU on his TL would encourage that.

Re: Authorized user

djc1puno — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:42:56 GMT

congrats to DS! great starting CL like everyone has mentioned, since your AAOA is only 10 months, adding yourself (with your son's permission i'm assuming) as an AU to his newly printed card would bring your AAOA down...but by the looks of your CLs that you listed, it would be the highest on your CR so it would help with utilization.

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:54:21 GMT

Umm of course it's with his permission. Sorry for the way it was worded I was only on coffee cup number one. I didn't have a thought about getting a card. Was just going to go on there with him.

Re: Authorized user

SunriseEarth — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:54:30 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)
Quicksilver One - $500
Barclay's - $1500
Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)
Merrick - $1000
Walmart - $600
JCP - $400
Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

Your lineup is VERY similar to mine (except Barclays). Having experience, I can tell that that a few of the cards you have will grow their CLs. I'm assuming you already had the auto-CLI for Merrick? My account with them is still too new for it, but I'm expecting it by year's end. Other people on the board say Merrick reviews every 6 months for CLIs.

If you've had at least 4 statements post on JCP and Walmart and have not yet requested a CLI, hit that love button. On my first LUV button attempt with JCP, I went from $250 to $750. After a recent call to Credit Solutions, JCP is now my highest CL card. You could certainly try those options with these cards.

With Capital One, try their LUV button, too. If that isn't successful, try reaching their EO.

I'm not sure you'll see as much help in UTIL as being an AU on the DS's card from those actions, but you wouldn't harm your AAoA and you'd be keeping your DS's TL solely for him. I actually do think that's important. You're on a good path for your rebuild.

Re: Authorized user

djc1puno — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 04:58:34 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
Umm of course it's with his permission. Sorry for the way it was worded I was only on coffee cup number one. I didn't have a thought about getting a card. Was just going to go on there with him.

i know the feeling...lol...i don't function until cup 2!

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:01:34 GMT

Didn't burn any banks no. I checked my Jcp card today and noticed I had a 100 auto CLI. My walmart card was increased last month 200 when I found out from this site that there's a luv button. I got my Barclay card around the time i got my truck so I wasn't sure about how long you have to wait to ask for a increase. Don't get me started on the capital one cards. Only thing we got done with that was on my husbands card they PC to Quicksilver One with 1.5 cash back. Baby steps I guess.

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:04:08 GMT

My current Util is about 23% but only 8% is reported.

Re: Authorized user

SunriseEarth — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:04:57 GMT

@Ck10182011 wrote:
Didn't burn any banks no. I checked my Jcp card today and noticed I had a 100 auto CLI. My walmart card was increased last month 200 when I found out from this site that there's a luv button. I got my Barclay card around the time i got my truck so I wasn't sure about how long you have to wait to ask for a increase. Don't get me started on the capital one cards. Only thing we got done with that was on my husbands card they PC to Quicksilver One with 1.5 cash back. Baby steps I guess.

Did you go through the website on that PC or did you call the EO? If you haven't called the EO, try that! I got a $250 CLI out of them. Not much, but I was happy with anything over $1 from them!

Re: Authorized user

djc1puno — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:10:06 GMT

barclays...6 months

Re: Authorized user

Ck10182011 — Sat, 05 Oct 2013 05:10:32 GMT

Sometimes it's 3??