Primary account holder liability

[Anonymous]

My sister is considering adding me as an authorized user on her credit card but the fact that I have outstanding debt has her wondering if they can come after her account because I'm an authorized user. Thanks for any help 

[Boss2Boss]

No they can not. 

[OmarGB9]

Nope. Only the account holder is responsible for repaying debt. Authorized users are simply allowed to make charges. She'd be fine. They can't go after her for your debt.

Also, being added as an AU to her account may or may not help you because the CRA's anti-abuse algorithms sometimes flag and discard AUs who don't share the same address.

[babygirl1256]

@OmarGB9 Thanks for posting the "CRA's anti-abuse algorithms sometimes flag and discard AUs who don't share the same address" information as I was going to add my daughter to a couple of my credit cards to help her credit score -but- we don't share the same address . . . I want to add her as an AU only if it would help her!!!

[OmarGB9]

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@babygirl1256 wrote:

@OmarGB9 Thanks for posting the "CRA's anti-abuse algorithms sometimes flag and discard AUs who don't share the same address" information as I was going to add my daughter to a couple of my credit cards to help her credit score -but- we don't share the same address . . . I want to add her as an AU only if it would help her!!!

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It's certainly still worth a try! Just pointing it out for future reference in case the AU account never shows up on the respective AU's credit reports.

[Kforce]

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@babygirl1256 wrote:

@OmarGB9 Thanks for posting the "CRA's anti-abuse algorithms sometimes flag and discard AUs who don't share the same address" information as I was going to add my daughter to a couple of my credit cards to help her credit score -but- we don't share the same address . . . I want to add her as an AU only if it would help her!!!

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You should login to each issuer you have cards with and see what info they want to add an AU.  You can always close it out without adding.

About 50% only want name, age and it is very hit and miss that they end up with credit for the account.   The other 50% ask for Name, address, age, (** social security number **), much better chance of them having the account added.

[805orbust]

In my experience Amex, Chase,  and Discover are the best with this. They report regardless of address, relationship,  etc.