Authorized user

[Ck10182011]

I've even reading these forums for a few weeks now, this is my first post.

I added my son as a authorized user to my husbands credit card so when he turned 18 he would have established credit. The card is 2.5 years old. He turned 18 last month. He has a job and his own car so we thought we'd get him his own card. I thought it would be like a 300 - 500 credit limit. However imagine my shock when he was approved for a Capitol One student journey with a 3000 credit limit.

My question is this, I want to add myself as a authorized user. And If so, how bad will it hurt my AAoA with it being a new card?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for any typos it's still early.

[takeshi74]

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@Ck10182011 wrote:
My question is this, I want to add myself as a authorized user. And If so, how bad will it hurt my AAoA with it being a new card?

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You haven't given us enough info to answer your question.  You can do the math to determine your AAoA before and after adding the card.  We'd need to know how many accounts you have and the total age of the accounts.  If you have a long AAoA with many cards it will have less of an impact.  If your AAoA is short with few cards it will have more of an impact.

If you haven't signed your son up for AmEx membership now is a good time to consider it as all his future AmEx cards would be backdated to his original membership date.

[Ck10182011]

I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)

Quicksilver One - $500

Barclay's - $1500

Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)

Merrick - $1000

Walmart - $600

JCP - $400

Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

[Walt_K]

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@Ck10182011 wrote:

I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)

Quicksilver One - $500

Barclay's - $1500

Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)

Merrick - $1000

Walmart - $600

JCP - $400

Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year.

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AAoA also includes closed accounts including installment lines, so not sure if you have any of those.  Assuming all you have are the cards you have listed, if you add one additional card your AAoA would go to 8.9 months (8*10/9) . 

[BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest]

Congrats to your son! Thats a great CL and a nice card to begin his credit journey.

[Ck10182011]

Thanks, I just want him to start out good, We've been trying to enforce to him the importance of managing credit. I don't want him to make the same mistakes me and husband made when we were younger.

As far as Installment loans I have 16 total accounts on my credit report 8 credit cards and 8 installment accounts. Only 2 of those are currently open with balances. The others are paid off.

I really want to close the Credit One Bank card. But was worried it would hurt my utilization.without something to replace it, which was why I considering added myself to my son's card.

Thank you for all your help. This site has been so helpful in my journey and I've learned so much in the last month.

[BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest]

Its either lose the AAOA or UTL, If you add yourself to your sons card it will affect AAOA but if you only close Credit One Card then only your UTL will be affected.

[ezdoesit]

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@Ck10182011 wrote:

I currently have AAoA of 10 months oldest account is 3 years. My current cards are:

Captial One - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authroized user)

Quicksilver One - $500

Barclay's - $1500

Barclay's - $500 ( Husbands account i'm a authorized User)

Merrick - $1000

Walmart - $600

JCP - $400

Credit One bank - $450

I've slowly been re building my credit from a bankruptcy 8 years ago. No baddies on my report and no inquiries on my report since April when my husband and I bought 2 new auto's. I know my AAoA atm is low. I only started buidling my credit in the last year. 

Also during your BK did you burn any of the big banks?

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IMO Since you have been so patience in rebuilding since BK I would wait the two more years for it to fall off your reports and try to increase the limits on the cards you already have hopefully with SP increases.  I don't feel it going to be any great benefit to get added as another AU. 

[09Lexie]

I agree with ezdoesit . Barclays, Wal and GE can be very generous with CLI's. What is your current util? And are you planning to receive the card or just be added as an AU?

[Walt_K]

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@Ck10182011 wrote:

Thanks, I just want him to start out good, We've been trying to enforce to him the importance of managing credit. I don't want him to make the same mistakes me and husband made when we were younger.

As far as Installment loans I have 16 total accounts on my credit report 8 credit cards and 8 installment accounts. Only 2 of those are currently open with balances. The others are paid off.

I really want to close the Credit One Bank card. But was worried it would hurt my utilization.without something to replace it, which was why I considering added myself to my son's card.

Thank you for all your help. This site has been so helpful in my journey and I've learned so much in the last month.

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In that case, it will have less of an effect on your AAoA.  You'll go down to 9.4 months (16*10/17).