adding child as AU to build credit

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At 18 I got my first job and checking account.  At 19 I went to buy a brand new Chevy Silverado.  At the time I knew nothing about credit nor particulars of negotiating financing, but I remember filling out the forms and the fleet manager coming back with about 2 feet of form feed paper and commenting how I had good credit for someone my age.  I did not really bother to look at the report nor really cared because all I saw is I was getting a brand new truck for my down payment and $328/mo.  I miss that truck...  Looking into my credit as a real adult later in life, it seems that at some point pops added me as an AU to a few of his accounts yet I never knew about it.

I'm thinking about adding my 19 yo son as an authorized user to start building his credit because some day he is going to want to buy a car, move out , etc. My sole Chase card has the lowest limit so I was going to start with that. The caveat is that I was just going to sock drawer it because I really do not want to give him access, he has his own Chase checking account for his spending needs. When Chase mails out the AU card is it addressed to him or me as I am not always the first one to retrieve the mail?

I also have a 17 yo daughter. How early is too early to add? Should I wait until she is 18?

[Anonymous]

People will say different things including that they only need a couple of years to give them a solid start. Different cards also have different age limits for when they will allow minors to be added. I personally will be adding mine as soon as I can figuring the longer the better. But I am also setting up minor roth's to, so take my approach with a grain of salt, lol

[dragontears]

Let me start off by saying that I am biased, I moved out when I was 17 and since that time have never had credit or financial help from any relative, so I am against trying to "help" kids get good credit scores in this way. They will not value them as much as if they actually worked for them.

Just a real example on what can go wrong by "helping" your kids.......
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Relationships-and-Money/Regret-I-Ever-Helped-DS-Get-Credit/td-p/540...

[Gmood1]

Add them to your oldest account. Also, if Chase. It will come to your residence with his or her name on it. You don't have to give them access to the CCs. Just have them on the account.

Some lenders give you the option to not have a CC mailed out at all. Capital one is one of them.

Navy Fed allows you the same options. 

I've added my children in the past. The youngest was 2 years old.

A few days ago I added a 19 yr old nephew to two of my CCs, in order to help jump start his credit.

It will be six months before all CBs report your kids with active profiles. 

I'd rather give them a headstart where I can. Life is tough enough going at it alone.

At some point, even the most successful people had help from someone to get them started.

[Anonymous]

As Gmood mentions, the card you should be looking at should be your oldest, not the card with the lowest credit limit.  Specifically, the card should be one that....

(1) has never had a late payment on it

(2) you can always keep at an extremely low balance

(3) was opened at least four years ago (ten years ago is better still, 20+ years best of all)

(4) is issued by a bank that will report the AU account as opened the same "long ago" date as when you opened the original account.  Amex, for example, will report the AU account as if it were opened this month, even if the original account were opened years ago.

If you do not have a card that meets all four conditions, there's no point in doing it.

I think you should also consider the perspective of DragonT.  Helping a 19 year old develop a high score makes that person that much more vulnerable to going into high amounts of debt.  The brains of people in their early 20s (and younger) are more likely to not have the ability to control implusive behavior or to cooly weigh future harm against immediate gratification.  Apparently there is some substantial neuroscience behind this idea.

Obviously you know your kids best, but DT's observation is worth considering.

[Anonymous]

While I do agree with that stance. It's not like it used to be, Credit is needed a lot earlier now then is was and for more things.

While I feel that People need to work/earn what they get, so that they appreciate it more.  I also feel that it doesn't hurt to help them with small things from time to time. Giving them a leg up with on AU is only a samll step, it's not like you're giving them an 850 at age 18. There will always be more steps for them to take.

[WD2005]

I added my 18 year old son to my Discover It and Navy Fed cards. I actually gave him the Discover card because its easier for him to have one when I need him to grab something for me while he's out. When he received his acceptance to college he applied for a Discover Student It card and was approved. Unfortunately my adding him to Discover hasn't shown up on his credit report. I think it's because we have the same first/last name. His middle name is different and he added it to his account to no avail. 

[Berk]

I did it for my nephew with my Amex. I'll do it for my SO's daughter when she graduates from high school. I know with Amex you can limit the amount of credit that they have available to them. For instance, my nephew only has access to $1,000 of my available credit. That way he can't get into trouble should he think that he has access to free money. I'll do the same for the other AU I add. 

I never had help establishing credit when I first started. But that was almost 40 years ago. A lot has changed since then. I'm all for giving kids a jump start on their way to good credit since we do need it for so much these days.