Authorized User Credit Impact

[Anonymous]

I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with being an authorized user on someone else's account. My husband has a couple of different cards that we were debating making me an authorized user for and I've read some threads were people are talking about credit boosts from becoming one. Will it really boost my credit to be an authorized user for his well-managed cards?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with being an authorized user on someone else's account. My husband has a couple of different cards that we were debating making me an authorized user for and I've read some threads were people are talking about credit boosts from becoming one. Will it really boost my credit to be an authorized user for his well-managed cards?

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More than likely if he has card s with decent limits and low balances, good payment, etc then it will help your scores.  How much is impossible to say

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with being an authorized user on someone else's account. My husband has a couple of different cards that we were debating making me an authorized user for and I've read some threads were people are talking about credit boosts from becoming one. Will it really boost my credit to be an authorized user for his well-managed cards?

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Yes, it will help -- if it's got decent age, low util %, payments made on time, etc.  I just got married in February, my wife and I added each other as AUs on all of our cards, and both of our scores went up quite a bit.  Two years ago were in the low to mid-600s on FICO scores, and I was having trouble getting approved for anything more than CreditOne bank or a $500 CapOne starter card.  After our scores went up, she got approved for a 2.9% auto loan in May, I got cards from AmEx, Citi, and Discover last month, and now her scores are in the 760s.

[Anonymous]

Six months ago, my husband applied for a Discover card and they denied him. He had burned Discover in the past, about 6 years ago, and had a mid-500 FICO. I added him as authorized user on several of my cards and a few weeks ago, Discover gave him his own card (via a preapproved mail offer) with a really good 0% offer, double cash back, and a bigger credit line than my Discover! His only other card (in his name) is a Capital One, which was a $300 limit (and now is up to $2500). His current FICO score is 695. So it will work. I didn't add him as an AU to improve his score or game the system. We were taking a road trip and I don't know how to drive so he needed to have a few cards with decent limits to rent the car. I didn't think the AU user trick worked anymore, but I was really surprised at how fast his credit score went up.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for the info. My husband and I were discussing adding me to a couple of his card since my score is pretty low and his credit is always the priority. I have quite a few collections account that are bringing my score down and he has none. He also has the income for the family so for things like leases, cars, etc. his credit has to be good enough to get the family by while I'm staying at home with the baby and then going to school. I have a CapOne with a $300 CL that will increase to $500 after I make the first 5 month payments on time and am going to work on applying for another card once that one reports but he has several decent cards that report religiously and have been well cared for. We were considering doing me as an authorized user anyways, just for convenience's sake, but were curious if it would help pull my score up while we work towards saving for a mortgage.

[Anonymous]

What about mom and pop? Get added and tell them to cut the cards up. In the old days that gave you ridiculous gains, but it still helps now

[Anonymous]

Haha...my parents are AWFUL with credit cards. They declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy a few years ago because of all their mismanaged credit cards and are still paying all that off so they don't have a single one. Somewhat ironic since they seem to think that WE are irresponsible with money and yet I'm the one paying all my old debt off when everyone told me I was better off to declare BK...

Moving away from that very obvious nerve, my parents aren't an option and neither are my husband's for a different set of reasons. We are on our own when it comes to establishing and building credit and we've been learning as quick as we can. Fortunately, we started researching before we made huge mistakes with his credit. We made some small ones on his and I completely neglected mine while with my ex but overall, we started working on it before it was a total irreparable mess.

[Anonymous]

Added my wife to 2 of my cards, both not even 6 months old, and she had gone from scores close to yours, to 620 avg. now.
That jump in 2 months.
Of course YMMV.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you!

[TiggerDat]

Yes, it can help.  I have two sister, both of which have declared bankruptcies.  The first sister did it about 3 years ago and the other did it about 1.5 years ago.  The first sister has done a few things wrong since then, missed a few student loan payments and had an account closed with a balance but not sent to collections.  That sister has gotten a few cards of her own.  The other sister has paid all her bills since then on time and gotten a few cards.  Both went to the CapOne prequal site to see their offers.  The first sister got offered the QS1 card with I think a 23% APR and the second sister got an offer for a QS card at 18%.  Interestingly, the first sister who does have more income got the same credit limit as the second sister.  Both have CK and now track their scores.  The second sisters score is much higher there than the first.  I will be curious to see what happens to their scores when I remove them as AUs.