Adding someone to your credit card - how exactly does that work?

[SoopremeBeing]

Hi everyone!

I am trying to get my fiance on the Rebuild Your Credit train. His credit is worse than mine, and due to his income in the past few years, he's never even attempted to obtain credit. I believe the last time he defaulted on anything was back in 2006, so essentially he has NO credit.

Right now he has an auto loan that he's been paying on time since December of 2012; it was in-house financing, so the rates were sky-high because of his credit score(when they ran it, it was in the 300s, ouch!

I was thinking about adding him to my Capital One credit card. I don't plan on giving him access to it or even allowing him to touch it. But I think in addition to the auto loan, having some type of revolving credit would boost his credit profile, since right now, he can't get even the basic of bad credit/no credit credit cards. We've also considered a secured credit card, but he's actually adamant about NOT having a credit card.

So if I wanted to add him to my credit card, does that only give him access priviledges to the card and the account? I have a very good relationship with Capital One, and I am very grateful to them for giving me a second chance when I screwed up my credit years ago. I've heard of parents adding their children to their credit card accounts in order to start them off when a decent credit profile. So how does this work? Or should I try to keep convincing him to get a secured CC with a $300 line just to start on his own?

[Anonymous]

A secured card with Cap1 is easy enough to get, but I would shop around.  That card will never unsecure, some secured cards through other banks will graduate.  I just closed a 3 year old Cap1 secured card recently.  Hated to do it, but it served its purpose and was time to get my money back.  

[09Lexie]

Is he adamant about not wanting to fix his credit or does not want to use credit cards?