Authorized User question

[Msflores408]

I'm in the process of rebuilding. My boyfriend has no credit. He has no credit score.
My oldest cc is from 2/2016. CL is $500. Should I add him to that card as an AU?
I'm assuming his credit score will shoot up with on time payments and in a year he can add me to his cards?
I'm current shy of 600 on all my credit scores.
He was declined for fingerhut and we don't have the extra funds to tie up on a secured card at the moment.
Suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Others may be able to tell you more, but from my own experience, I believe the answer is "it depends." 

An ex GF added me as an AU on two of her credit cards several years back. We lived together, so we shared the addess but not a last name. They say sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't. 

Anyway, for me personally, those cards show as a positive on two of my credit reports, but not the other one. How much they help is a great question, and one that I have no answer to. 

[Dis0314]

I'm currently an AU on my wife's cards for barclay and Capital One (same last name and address) and they both report on my credit report.

I've also had my brother in law on my Capital One card and it reported to his report and we have different lastnames and addresses. So I would say if its a CapOne card it should work fine, if its not all you can do is try and see what happens. It won't hurt anything to try

[RonM21]

"It depends" is a good answer because each situation is different and it is a matter of what you are comfortable with. The key is it is risky because it can hurt your profile.

[Anonymous]

Cap1 reports AU users because they require a ssn to add an AU. So they match the ssn

[Msflores408]

In what way is it risky and can hurt my profile?

[Anonymous]

---

@Msflores408 wrote:
In what way is it risky and can hurt my profile?

---

If your relationship goes south and he runs up huge debt, you're the one responsible, not him. 

Not saying that will happen, but I was an AU on two of my EX- girlfriend's cards ... credit to her though, she was smart, added me as an AU but didn't give me access to her cards. Might consider something like that for yourself. 

On the other hand, if she tanked her credit, stopped making payments, that payment history would show on my credit report. 

[RobertEG]

You may, particularly if you apply for higher amounts of credit, have a creditor wish to see your credit score that is based only on your own history.

Upon doing a manual review and seeing an AU present in your file, that tells the creditor that the score they are seeing is not representative of only your personal history.

They cant accurately back-out the effect of a single account.

Building and rebuilding often involves creditors that dont do an extensive manual review, and rely primarily or exclusively on a score.

Thus, AUs can be a great way to build or rebuild.

That can change as you move up the credit ladder.

[Msflores408]

Thanks for all of your input!

[Anonymous]

Any card that's added with the AU SSN will report. I know of Barclay, chase, capital one and American Express (must be at least 15 for Amex). If no SSN is needed to be added it won't be reported