Credit Card Cosign Question

[Anonymous]

My mother is willling to cosign with me on a credit card.  When determining credit limits, whether they approve, etc - how do they base their decision?  The better of the two credit scores or a combo?  Both incomes or just one?  How do they figure all that out?

[Lemmus]

...hhhhmmm ...never heard of a "cosigner" on a CC but I guess it could be ...what usually happens is that the better credit applies for the card and adds the lesser credit as an authorized user (AU) ...the CRA will report the applicant's CL on the AU's report ...most lenders will consider the AU account in scoring but mortgage underwriters won't ...hth

[RobertEG]

You would be joint account holders, and both would be legally responsible for any debt.

That would theoretically give them two parties to pursue in the case of default.

They can determine their approval criteria in any legitimate manner, so only they can answer that question.

If only she had applied, they might consider the risk of default as being better than if one of a lower credit score was also involved in payment of the card.

However, they might view having two rather than one party to pursue should default occur would lessen the risk to them.

They would not know the extent to which she controlled ensuring monthly payments were made.............