Authorized user

[dmc-2008]

Can my friend add me as an authorized user on his credit card? Trustee allows 500.00 credit. Who gets the credit report for this?

[kornellred]

Your friend must contact the creditor and request that you be added as an authorized user. You are not responsible for any debts incurred, so the trustee has nothing to say about it. You are not breaking any rules. Make sure your friend knows this explicitly before signing anything.

[justbroke]

Unless it's an American Express (charge) card, everything that written by kronel is how you should approach this. Your credit report may include a tradeline showing you as an authorized user for that account. This should not bother the Trustee.

[dmc-2008]

I would only want to do this to help my credit. My friend knows about bk. what else should he know? Thanks you guys!

[LadyInTheRed]

My non-legal opinion is yes, he can add you. First of all, just having your name on a card is not incurring debt. Even if you applied for and got a credit card in your own name, you would not incurr debt until you actually use the card. Assuming you have no liabilty for the charges made on the card, I don't think you are incurring debt by using the card. Your friend is.

If you are an authorized user, it will show up on your credit report with designation that you are an authorized user. I don't know how much it affects your scores. For what it's worth, I am an AU on my husband's account and the utilization and credit limit are included on my CreditKarma fako report.

[magic13]

Unless it's an American Express (charge) card, everything that written by kronel is how you should approach this. Your credit report may include a tradeline showing you as an authorized user for that account. This should not bother the Trustee.

Whats different about American Express?

[AngelinaCat]

American Express has a reputation for not being BK friendly.

[Pjmax]

Not only that, I've heard they scrutinize AU's closely. Different last names, addresses, not related, could trigger an account review. There has been abuse with Amex AU's, largely due to backdating which affects AAOA and one's scores positively. Not worth risking account closure (for the AU and primary.) IMHO.

[dmc-2008]

I agree PJ! I sure hope being an AU is not some form of abuse! I just want a way to start rebuild credit now. Thanks

[dmc-2008]

My bff just opened a new card and put me on as auth user. This is probably the cheapest best way to rebuild my credit! I am so excited. I will purchase one small thing a month and pay it off. The first purchase will be a lunch for him.

[dmc-2008]

I will actually be the only one using the card so that there is no confusion. Trust me when I say probably no more than30.00 a month!

[justbroke]

Whats different about American Express?

American Express' (charge card) "Additional" Account Holder agreement specifically states that the cardholdder is responsible for his/her charges AND the card owner is responsible for those charges jointly. IN other words, you are responsible and held liable for any charges that you make on an AMEX card. American Express is the only credit card company that I know of that issues DIFFERENT credit card numbers for every cardholder! That is how they can tell what you specifically charged as an "authorized" user (additional cardholder).

I had an experience with them, as an additional cardholder, where I had to prove that I paid all my charges because the card owner was behind in payments! AMEX was coming after me for payment on my charges, but I clearly showed that I, fortunately, directly paid via their web site and I actually paid the entire balance several times for the entire card, even though my total charges were miniscule comparatively. AMEX actually stopped going after me! Had I paid the card owner directly, this would not have been an easy task!

[dmc-2008]

The card came and I used it to buy pet supplies, now I will pay that off and do that for a couple months and see if it move my score. No matter what it is awesome to have an emergency card. Zero percent!