Adding an authorized user to your credit card.

[Anonymous]

My husband is from South Africa and has no credit here in the states. I recently added him as a AU on my Washington Mutual credit card account and they sent us a card with his name on it but never asked for his social security number. I know they report on my behlaf to the credit bureaus and they said he would establish credit as well, but how if they dont have his SS# to link it to? Also, his SS was just issued how long would it take to get some kind of credit on him?

Thank you~

[haulingthescoreup]

Welcome to the forums, and please welcome your husband to the US!

Well, for most of us who have an established credit history, all they need to do with an AU account is match the address and maybe the last name as extra confirmation. They don't generally ask for the SSN, which is unsettling, but there you are.

But your husband's case is interesting --if he doesn't have any existing credit, what would they match to??

He might not have a FICO score right off the bat, but once your card updates, he should have a credit report, IF it's reporting for him.

Which bank issues the card? We can tell you when they probably update. Once you know when they update, I'd wait about three days and try to pull an Experian report. EX usually updates immediately, as in within 24 hours of the lender reporting, so that would be a good indicator as to whether they were able to report the AU card.