@Anonymous wrote:
I have great credit. Currently, myself along with another relative are shared holders. I have the Chase Sapphire card. A few questions. 1. Can I sign up my 15 year old son as an authorized user? 2. Will he build credit? 3. Does Chase report authorized users to credit companies? Thanks.
Chase does report AU's; however the CRA's aren't *supposed* to keep datafiles on anyone under the age of 18 these days I think. That's not to say it doesn't happen, and it may make a difference for Chase later (like it does with Amex and their Membership date), but really, you can do the same thing at ANY point in the future and he'd get the same benefit FICO wise. AU's don't fall under the same category as one's own tradelines in terms of the wisdom of opening them up as soon as possible.
Whether Chase allows you to do that at 15 I don't know... they probably do.
As another poster suggested, if you're looking to help your son credit wise, get an Amex if you don't already have one (either one of their $0 AF revolvers or even a Zync charge card at $25/yr, whatever works) and get him added as an Additional Cardmember (Amex's term for AU) for pseudo building later regardless. Search on the term "backdating" on this forum, but long story short, when your son gets his own Amex at some point in the future, his account opening date will look like the year that you added him as an AC to your own card. Well worth the minimal effort and/or cost to set this feature up to benefit a child's future credit.
@Voodard wrote:
I thought you had to be 18 years of age of older to have a credit card, AU or not.
Your own absolutely (cannot be held legally responsible blah blah blah), but to be an AU I don't think so... you're not legally responsible for the debt in an AU's case. Amex's AC might be different. Not sure, I never really looked into it as I don't have kids yet.
In my opinion, the best course of action would be to get him an AU card, but not actually give him the card. If you want him to have something, apply for a secured card, have him save up money to fund the secured card, and allow him to learn about, and appreciate credit in that way. Best of luck.
Amex will let you add a 15 yo to the account as an ACM. You can set preferences on what the child's spending limit is. I was thinking of making my daughter an ACM on zync; as its a pain in the behind to go to the Atm for her to have cash to go to the movies with. And for those of you worried about ruining her appreciation of credit... I wouldn't let her keep the card. And she definately earns the privilege of going out with her friends. My husband and I both work so we are fairly strict when it comes to everyone pulling their own weight with the chores.
FICO 8: 
Goal: Gardening!
Goal: Gardening!