Adding kids as AU

[Rogue46]

Hello,

This might be a stupid question but...    I want to add my kids as AU on one of my cards, They are 10 and 12 yrs old. Question is without adding their SS # will it still apply? 

[Anonymous]

Is there any particular reason you want to add them at this age?

[Rogue46]

Not really to be honest. When I was young credit wasn't really a big deal to have but now you cannot do anything without it.

I just want to make sure they are as set up as possible by the time they are old enough to venture out.

[Anonymous]

Suppose you have a 10 year old card now.  If you add them now they will (instantly) have a 10 year old profile.  If you wait and add them six years from now they will (instantly) have a 16 year old profile.

So there's no advantage to adding them now.

[Rogue46]

I didn't think of it that way. I was more going by if I add them now the clock starts but it goes by how old the card is...   Makes sense now,  Thanks

[Gmood1]

That also depends on if those CCs back date. Not all CC's back-date. I added my then 2 year old to several cards. I wanted to make sure regardless, if they back date or not. She'll get years of credit history.
Amex and Discover don't back date. So if you have them and want to add your children. I suggest you do it now.

Capital One and Synchrony do back-date. Also, there is no guarantee some of those that back date now, will do it in the future.
Just asked the folks that were on their parent's Amex accounts years ago. But removed them as adults.
They lost all of that history when they decided to become an Amex member again and thought the history would show back up on their accounts.

Some have an age limit for adding AUs. Capital One doesn't. And neither does Chase or Citi.
I think the youngest age your child can be added to Amex is 15 yrs old.

[RobertEG]

New CRA policy, implemented as a part of their settlement agreement with the AGs of multiple states, is now that a CRA will not accept reporting of an AU without a DOB of the authorized user.

You will thus need to inform the creditor of the age of the requested user.

[Anonymous]

Just an FYI, I added my older two kids as AUs on my AmEx accounts, one on each card. They are 15 and 14. When I went through the process, AmEx states that AUs must be at least 13 years old, and that DOB and SSN must be supplied within 60 days or the cards would be deactivated.

[Anonymous]

Nice thoughts by everyone.

OP, I would do a bit of research on your own.  Look into all the cards you have that possess an AU option.  Then try to gather info on two things:

(1)  If I add someone as an AU, how does this issuer handle the reporting of the Date Opened field? 

For example, suppose I have a card that I opened on Jan 2008 and I add someone as an AU on March 2019.  Will the card appear on the AU's report with a Date Opened of Jan 2008 or March 2019?

The folks in the Credit Card forum here might well know.  A customer service rep might well be mistaken.  Contributor Gmood seems to know a lot and you may wish to invite his/her further advice.

(2)  If I add a child as an AU, what requirements are needed to make that happen? 

My feeling at this point is this might be a fun thing for you to research on your own and experiment with.  The nice thing is that you can always remove a kid as an AU if you discover the account is not appearing on your kid's report (not appearing at all, not appearing with the date you'd like best, etc.).

BTW, I notice that in your initial post you indicate that you'd like to add them without giving their SS number.  Is that because your kids don't have an SS number?  If they do have one, why would you not give the issuer the kid's SS number?  That seems like an unnecessary constraint.

Social Security Numbers for Children

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10023.pdf

Four more points:

(1)  As others have mentioned, it's hard to know how credit scoring models will work 8 years from now.  It's entirely possible that future models will be sophisticated enough to close the AU benefit.  (I.e. an 18-year old gets treated by FICO as if he had 30 years of perfect credit history.)  So treat this as a fun exercise, but one that conceivably may have no practical benefit to your kids down the road.

(2)  Assuming that you do get a couple AU accounts added to their reports, FICO 8 and 9 have a secret anti-abuse module that sometimes takes an AU account and removes it from scoring consideration.  Happily there is a technique for determining whether those models are doing that, once the account is on your kid's reports.  Let us know if you get that far and we can describe how you'd test that.

(3)  AU accounts should never be thought of as a permanent solution to the problem of a young adult having no credit age or an ultra low age.  Rather they should be leveraged early to enable the young person to acquire a few cards (and possibly an SS loan) early in his history, all in his or her own name.  The AU account becomes like a ladder that the young person uses and then can throw away once he's climbed to the level of getting a few accounts of his own.

Therefore, if you are going to go as far as adding them as AUs, you should include in your strategy finding a card that they can get in their own name (you may have to co-sign) when the kid is 16, 17, or 18.  You can delay the problem of finding the best cards for that until your kid turns 16.

(4)  Let's suppose you succeed in helping your kid have an awesome credit score by the age of 18.  That can itself harm the young person precisely because he is now able to open many cards at an early age, running up debt and creating a history of lates or even collections.  In other words a young person having a limited capacity for CC approval can actually protect him given the way that neurologists seem to have now shown that young brains are less likely to acquire impulse control until their mid-20s.  (A small minority of 20 year olds have great impulse control and some adults never acquire it -- the brain science refers to the general tendency of most people.)

[Anonymous]

Esspecially #4 ^

While I think it's a good idea to help them get a foot in the door with at least one card to show some experience with credit. I believe it can do more harm than good to start them too early with great credit. At some point we all have to start somewhere and make it on our own, otherwise people will not understand the importance of hard work. No one needs 850 right out of the gate. lol It's to easy to get in trouble/debt.

Essepcially with the aggressive targeting they do with students. 

On this note, there is also the danger of negatively affecting your child's credit if something were to happen with you. Adding them as an AU, then later having a job loss or major medical etc. So it should be a decision that comes after some serious thought, not because you read about it on a blog.