@michaels88369 wrote:
Can someone please give me a detailed report on the authorized user info? My Grandpa has a 832 Fico score for TU and a 822 for EQ and he has 2 CC accounts with $25,000 CL and like 30 years of ontime payments and he will put me as an authorized user if i show him information that it wont affect his credit and that i dont have to have a card to get the info reported to my CR. Can someone please get me a link to a proven website that can help me out. Thanks Michael
michaels88369, your Grandpa probably got those high scores and credit lines through hard work and by being very careful with his finances over the years. He does not want to loan you his credit reputation if he does not fully understand all the possible ramifications of his decision, both good and bad. (He's a very smart man...that's what we all should be doing, every time, with every financial decision.)
The funny thing here is that he is not the one at risk. It's you who is taking a chance on his reputation! Here's why I say that.
Your Grandpa gets nothing out of it if he puts you on as an authorized user. There is absolutely no benefit to him at all, except for the satisfaction he'll get in knowing he's helped his grandson establish himself in the world of credit. The only reason he'd help you like this is because he loves you and wants to see you succeed in life.
That said, your Grandpa also has no risk if he puts you on as an authorized user, especially since you won't have a card. You can't charge anything to the account. You can't make any changes to the account (the issuer won't even speak to you about it...it's not your account). You can be removed as an authorized user by your Grandpa as quickly as you were added as an AU. And credit history does not flow both ways between your credit and his...it flows from his credit to yours only...so anything you do elsewhere that could affect your own credit does not impact his credit whatsoever.
In a nutshell, adding you as an AU is Grandpa's "letter of recommendation" for you to the credit card companies. That's it. It tells them that he trusts you, and that they should, too.
Now, you get the benefit of Grandpa's credit history on those accounts when he adds you as an AU. You'll find it much easier to establish credit on your own, and when you've done that, the AU status won't mean as much. But right now, it means everything to you to have some long-term accounts, even if they are not yours, as part of your credit history.
But what happens if Grandpa wakes up one morning and decides he's not going to pay his bills anymore? As soon as those accounts you're an AU on start reporting late payments (or no payments), his credit goes south...and so does yours! If that ever happened, you would have to dispute the bad AU accounts with the credit bureaus as "not my accounts" to have them removed from your reports.
To put it simply, Grandpa is upstream. You are downstream. He spits in the river, it flows down to you. You spit in the river, it doesn't affect him one bit.
I hope this helps your Grandpa choose what to do here. This info is pretty much posted in various places throughout these boards, and this website (run by the people who are essential to calculating that credit score your Grandpa is proud of) is certainly reputable and proven.
Please invite your Grandpa to ask some questions of his own right here. I'm thinking that specific questions asked and answered to his satisfaction may help him decide what to do.
P.S. The credit card company will not send you a card (or anything else). They will send it directly to your Grandpa.
P.P.S. Grandparents' Day this year is on September 12th (hint, hint). 
Thanks everyone. I will print this out and take it to him and see what he says now. I like the spit in the river line. that brought a smile to my face. lol. 
... To answer the ? before that post. Im looking forward to refinancing my car from 16.78% down to ^% and i want a quick jump in my scores before i go and apply with GTE. Then i will get taken off of his CC.
... To answer the ? before that post. Im looking forward to refinancing my car from 16.78% down to ^% and i want a quick jump in my scores before i go and apply with GTE. Then i will get taken off of his CC.
We got the car Aug. 2008 and our payments are $448.05 and we have paid $600 every month and still owe over 18500 and only bought the car for 20111. lol. How much more dumb could we have been.