Yes it is absolutely possible and quite easy. All you need to do is have a friend, parent, relative add you as an authorized user. They do not even need to provide you with a card. A few things to keep in mind.
1) whatever account they add you to make sure it is not used much (preferably not at all) and in good standings (no derogatory remarks).
2) depending on your age make sure the account is not to much older than you are. If you are 20 and the account is 15 years old the banks will disregard it.
3) limit the number of accounts you open as this will lower the average age. You may need 2 AU accounts if you have opened several new accounts.
4) it doesn't take a long time if you can be patient. Banks typically only view accounts as new for 2 years. With good account management your score will be more than sufficient in that time period.
@Anonymous wrote:IMO, I wouldn't do it. Your rebuild is going well so far and I wouldn't rely on someone else's credit to build history. Just be patient, don't app for awhile and you'll develop history of your own. You're doing it already! I've seen several threads here where an individual was an AU on someone else's account and ended up paying for it down the line because the account holder began missing payments or having high utilization which is much worse on your CR than little rebuild history. Keep in mind, just as much as being an AU on an account can help your CR/scores is just as much as it can hurt given someone else's history or poor credit decisions in the future. Good luck!
As an authorized user you are and can not be held responsible for someone else's account. If the Primary party fails to pay, remove yourself from the Account and dispute the account with the credit agencies and it will be removed from your report within 31 days. It is not your account and they can not retain it on your account if you dispute it. With anything comes risk, but this is a risk in which you have an advantage of protection if needed.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello guys,
I started building my credit 2 years ago, so far it has been going great, my score was at 741 at one point but it has dropped recently because I opened a new account.
My payment history is exceptional and there is no negative things on my account but there is one drawback which seems to pull my whole credit report down with most lenders and that is - account length.
I have heard that it is possible to impact the lengt of credit history if somebody with long credit history adds you to their account.
Is there a way to do this and it would be greatly appreciathed because I will be looking into buying a house in the next year or two and I belive that this would have a great impact on the morgage interest rates lenders may offer me.
Thank you guys
Bear in mind that with the passage of time, without new credit applications, your scores will go up, up, up. So if you can just be patient the length of your credit history will keep on increasing, without complicating your life by getting into authorized user arrangements.
I agree with @Anonymous that you shouldn't do it.
@Anonymous wrote:
@NimbusIII wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:IMO, I wouldn't do it. Your rebuild is going well so far and I wouldn't rely on someone else's credit to build history. Just be patient, don't app for awhile and you'll develop history of your own. You're doing it already! I've seen several threads here where an individual was an AU on someone else's account and ended up paying for it down the line because the account holder began missing payments or having high utilization which is much worse on your CR than little rebuild history. Keep in mind, just as much as being an AU on an account can help your CR/scores is just as much as it can hurt given someone else's history or poor credit decisions in the future. Good luck!
As an authorized user you are and can not be held responsible for someone else's account. If the Primary party fails to pay, remove yourself from the Account and dispute the account with the credit agencies and it will be removed from your report within 31 days. It is not your account and they can not retain it on your account if you dispute it. With anything comes risk, but this is a risk in which you have an advantage of protection if needed.
A risk only to build history when OP can and has been building history for oneself. Personally, it's not worth it to me. Why go through all of that possibility? For what reason, lack of patience?
Op's post asked if and how it could be done. Everyone's advice and experience has value in the forum and for us to debate if it necessary for this user is counter productive. I addressed patients in bullet 4) of my original response. Hopefully the input provided by all will guide OP in their decision.
