I'm thinking of adding someone I trust as an authorized user on one of my cards (if it's okay with them, of course). I'm trying to think through what all the downsides could be.
Here's what I can think of. Are these correct, and are there any others that I haven't considered?
- My authorized user's credit could get hurt if adding my card hurts their age/mix or if I miss payments.
- My authorized user could spend too much.
- My authorized user could mishandle the card and get it frozen or stolen or something.
- Unknown weird proprietary bank analytics
1. Use a lender they'll have no problem removing later.
2. Don't actually give them the card.
3. Don't actually give them the card.
4. What weird analytics would affect your card on your profile, especially if you don't actually give them the card?
Thanks @Brian_Earl_Spilner , great points. When I say weird analytics, I mean like maybe my card issuer offers some other product that I want like maybe some kind of bank account, and they have some impossible-to-understand algorithm where if I've recently added a prime number of authorized users and my IP address is west of the Mississippi I get send to the bad branch of the algorithm or some garbage. lol
But seriously, I think they have a lot of freedom as long as they steer clear of certain things, right?
@Anonymousahhh, good point about capping the spending potentially.
@TyrannicalDuncery wrote:I'm thinking of adding someone I trust as an authorized user on one of my cards (if it's okay with them, of course). I'm trying to think through what all the downsides could be.
Here's what I can think of. Are these correct, and are there any others that I haven't considered?
- My authorized user's credit could get hurt if adding my card hurts their age/mix or if I miss payments.
- My authorized user could spend too much.
- My authorized user could mishandle the card and get it frozen or stolen or something.
- Unknown weird proprietary bank analytics
Did you know there's a separate all zero penalty for authorized users? I can't even wrap my head around how it works, but I once tested it and found that it was a real thing, causing the AU to experience a significant point loss for no good reason. I think that counts as a weird analytic.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:1. Use a lender they'll have no problem removing later.
2. Don't actually give them the card.
3. Don't actually give them the card.
4. What weird analytics would affect your card on your profile, especially if you don't actually give them the card?
2 and 3: it depends on the goal! If, and OP trusts this person, the idea is to give them some credit they can use in an emergency etc, not giving the card defeats the purpose. In this situation, something like an Amex where you can put limits on an AU spend
True, except op doesn't trust them, because there shouldn't be questions about their spending patterns and possible mishandling of the account if they did.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@TyrannicalDuncery wrote:I'm thinking of adding someone I trust as an authorized user on one of my cards (if it's okay with them, of course). I'm trying to think through what all the downsides could be.
Here's what I can think of. Are these correct, and are there any others that I haven't considered?
- My authorized user's credit could get hurt if adding my card hurts their age/mix or if I miss payments.
- My authorized user could spend too much.
- My authorized user could mishandle the card and get it frozen or stolen or something.
- Unknown weird proprietary bank analytics
Did you know there's a separate all zero penalty for authorized users? I can't even wrap my head around how it works, but I once tested it and found that it was a real thing, causing the AU to experience a significant point loss for no good reason. I think that counts as a weird analytic.
Wooooow, that is indeed analytics and very weird, 2/2. Thanks!
Do you mean that like, there is a penalty to my AU if all of the cards for which they are an AU are paid off?
