I have a 21 year old son... no credit history or score.
I would like for him to have a small limit credit card that he could use for online purchases etc.
I have a thick dirty profile.
i have A UsBank card with a 300 dollar credit limit. That card has perfect payment history and has been open close to 2 years. The low credit limit means he can't get into much trouble and there are no fees associated with the card.
If I added him as authorized user to that card, would he just get the history associated with that single card... or inherit the history of my whole sordid past?
Will USBank even allow him as an authorized user with no credit history and only SSI income (flip side... no debt or financial obligations).
is there a better way to provide him with a small credit card without going the subprime route? I don't necessarily want to use a greenlight debit card because I would like the protection a credit card offers.
Thanks in advance for the information and wisdom.
@designated_knitter wrote:I have a 21 year old son... no credit history or score.
I would like for him to have a small limit credit card that he could use for online purchases etc.
I have a thick dirty profile.
i have A UsBank card with a 300 dollar credit limit. That card has perfect payment history and has been open close to 2 years. The low credit limit means he can't get into much trouble and there are no fees associated with the card.
If I added him as authorized user to that card, would he just get the history associated with that single card... or inherit the history of my whole sordid past?
Will USBank even allow him as an authorized user with no credit history and only SSI income (flip side... no debt or financial obligations).
is there a better way to provide him with a small credit card without going the subprime route? I don't necessarily want to use a greenlight debit card because I would like the protection a credit card offers.
Thanks in advance for the information and wisdom.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
No he won't inherit your 'sordid' past 
(We love you, we don't consider it sordid, we consider it having been bruised a little by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune).
@designated_knitter wrote:I have a 21 year old son... no credit history or score.
I would like for him to have a small limit credit card that he could use for online purchases etc.
I have a thick dirty profile.
i have A UsBank card with a 300 dollar credit limit. That card has perfect payment history and has been open close to 2 years. The low credit limit means he can't get into much trouble and there are no fees associated with the card.
If I added him as authorized user to that card, would he just get the history associated with that single card... or inherit the history of my whole sordid past?
Will USBank even allow him as an authorized user with no credit history and only SSI income (flip side... no debt or financial obligations).
is there a better way to provide him with a small credit card without going the subprime route? I don't necessarily want to use a greenlight debit card because I would like the protection a credit card offers.
Thanks in advance for the information and wisdom.
I did the same for my 21 year old son back in October 2020. I had a Capital One QS card with excellent payment history and made him an AU. His average FICO score is now 774 as of 4/25/21.
Thanks everyone for the feedback and data points.
I have 2 small limit usbank cards and added one son to one and the other to the other card.
It was easy peasy and could be done online.
My oldest son is 23 and in a PhD program so really needs to start building a credit score but just gets overwhelmed with having to think about money etc so this is an easy way for me to get him jump-started and let him use a CC for buying books etc without putting his debit card at risk... he typically has about 5k sitting in his checking account so there's a lot of exposure there (yes, dad and I have tried to get him to move that to at least savings or add but despite being a physics and math genius, he just doesn't want to deal with money stuff.
So happy to have the wisdom of everyone here so I can learn about these hacks and my kids can avoid the mistakes I made!