Does it matter how many cards an AU is on?

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2015

I have a niece and nephew who are trying to rebuild their credit post-BK. We have great credit (nothing bad, only drawn down by the ridiculous number of inquiries and young accounts because of the number of signup bonuses we keep chasing). We're offering to add them as AU on one or more of our credit cards to help them with their score. The question I have is does it help them more if they are added to more than one of our accounts, or is one enough? I mean, I could add them to all 37 card accounts, but that seems excessive. Should I add them to one account each from several lenders (BofA, Chase, Citi, CapOne, Barclay, Discover, AmEx, etc.)? Are some lenders better or worse to add them to?

Thanks.

Chris.

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a niece and nephew who are trying to rebuild their credit post-BK. We have great credit (nothing bad, only drawn down by the ridiculous number of inquiries and young accounts because of the number of signup bonuses we keep chasing). We're offering to add them as AU on one or more of our credit cards to help them with their score. The question I have is does it help them more if they are added to more than one of our accounts, or is one enough? I mean, I could add them to all 37 card accounts, but that seems excessive. Should I add them to one account each from several lenders (BofA, Chase, Citi, CapOne, Barclay, Discover, AmEx, etc.)? Are some lenders better or worse to add them to?

Thanks.

Chris.

I wouldn't add them to 37 of your accounts. I would add them to 3 or 4 and no more. Additionally I would look to set limits on what they can charge to prevent them from abusing the accounts. That is if you are actually going to give them cards. Look at AMEX, Chase and maybe one more. Don't go crazy because it won't help them any more than the few cards necessary

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I have a niece and nephew who are trying to rebuild their credit post-BK. We have great credit (nothing bad, only drawn down by the ridiculous number of inquiries and young accounts because of the number of signup bonuses we keep chasing). We're offering to add them as AU on one or more of our credit cards to help them with their score. The question I have is does it help them more if they are added to more than one of our accounts, or is one enough? I mean, I could add them to all 37 card accounts, but that seems excessive. Should I add them to one account each from several lenders (BofA, Chase, Citi, CapOne, Barclay, Discover, AmEx, etc.)? Are some lenders better or worse to add them to?

Thanks.

Chris.
I wouldn't add them to 37 of your accounts. I would add them to 3 or 4 and no more. Additionally I would look to set limits on what they can charge to prevent them from abusing the accounts. That is if you are actually going to give them cards. Look at AMEX, Chase and maybe one more. Don't go crazy because it won't help them any more than the few cards necessary

Great; that's the type of input I was looking for, and that was my instinct. They will absolutely not get the plastic (we learned a hard lesson with that) or the card number. I'm thinking BofA for sure, then if they come to visit us (which they do occasionally) on the first weekend of the month, we could take them to the downtown museums and all get in free (we'd let them hold the plastic with their name on it for that purpose, then get it back). Probably add an AmEx and a Chase as well.

Thanks.

Chris.