This one is not 
PIGGYBACKING: Despite its' virtually unlimited potential, piggybacking is not used by nearly as many consumers as it should be. It's easy, effective, and extremely fast. Unfortunately, it's mostly used among parents and siblings while those who can really benefit stay in the dark.
How it works. Almost every credit card or credit account will allow the primary account holder to add on (at a later date) what's known as an "Authorized User" or "Secondary Account Holder". In most cases, when this is done, the entire account history (retroactively) gets posted to the authorized users credit report regardless of their current age or credit history!
For example. If it's a credit card with a $10,000 limit which has been paid as agreed for the last 10 years, then that complete history will be posted to the authorized users' credit report. I once saw a clients' credit report who used this technique with his mother. He was only 24 at the time and he had a $15,000 Gold credit card on his report with history going back 11 years! I laughed as I thought to myself that this kid would have had to be approved when he was 13 years old for this account to be his!
As you can see, this strategy is usually only used by parents and their children and in most cases with no regard to the benefits the children are reaping credit wise! In fact, in recent years, due to its' effectiveness, this technique has led individuals with excellent credit scores to "rent out" authorized user accounts on one or even multiple credit cards in return for a fee! I once recall seeing an ad in USA TODAY for just such an opportunity. Like most good credit loopholes, I'm sure this methods' days are numbered much like what may be the case with...
Message Edited by MidnightVoice on 11-15-2007 08:46 PM
MV, I'm guessing that you didn't mean the example in the last paragraph to be an example of "ethical!" 
Anyway, I'm one of those who piggybacked as an AU on my husband's 18-year-old card to increase the length of my credit history. I got an 18-point jump. As it turns out, Discover doesn't pull the credit on someone going on as joint user, so I could have just been joint instead.
I think it's perfectly fair for spouses to AU, and I've done a lot of arguing on these forums about it, too! I think it's unnecessary for parents to AU their kids simply in order to help their scores. (I'm not talking about AU'ing them so that the kids can use the cards for purchases or emergencies.) Once a young person has 6 months' worth of clean credit history, their starting scores seem to be around 700 anyway.
This buying the history of perfect strangers is complete and utter crap, and that's why FICO is getting ready to stop counting it in scoring, sometime next year.
Anyway, I'm one of those who piggybacked as an AU on my husband's 18-year-old card to increase the length of my credit history. I got an 18-point jump. As it turns out, Discover doesn't pull the credit on someone going on as joint user, so I could have just been joint instead.
I think it's perfectly fair for spouses to AU, and I've done a lot of arguing on these forums about it, too! I think it's unnecessary for parents to AU their kids simply in order to help their scores. (I'm not talking about AU'ing them so that the kids can use the cards for purchases or emergencies.) Once a young person has 6 months' worth of clean credit history, their starting scores seem to be around 700 anyway.
This buying the history of perfect strangers is complete and utter crap, and that's why FICO is getting ready to stop counting it in scoring, sometime next year.
haulingthescoreup wrote:
MV, I'm guessing that you didn't mean the example in the last paragraph to be an example of "ethical!"
Correct. Thank you, I corrected my typo!