piggy backing for a good credit score

yes, some cards even send "authorized users" to the credit bureau like discover

If I make someone who has poor credit an authorized user on one of my cards, will it negatively impact my personal credit score? Or will it only improve theirs?

Well I'm not an expert, I'm just going based on the Discover card and what they have done for me or the wife.

Story:
I have placed my wife as an authorized user on my discover card, she supplied nothing signed, I didn't supply any SSN or anything, but my complete history for this discover card showed up on her credit report.

Then my wife is an authorized user on her parents discover card. They have had the discover card for 20+ years and their complete history shows up on my wife's credit bureau, in fact the age of the account is older than she is.

From what I can tell from these experiences is that discover likely shouldn't be doing this because my wife can't possibly be contractually obligated to pay the bill on an account that she has never applied for. I could put anyone as an authorized user and destroy their credit if I didn't pay it, so this is likely a flaw in their system, but fine by me.


To answer your question:
So if you add someone that has a poor credit history to your account, their credit history won't affect your credit history, but your great history with the card should help them out greatly. But if they make any charges you are likely responsible for them and they might have no obligations so that is the only risk I could think of on your part.

The only risk in adding an authorized user falls on the side of the actual account holder. The account holder assumes all responsibility in paying whatever charges the authorized user makes. However, as far as credit scores go, the account holder cannot receive any negative impact on his/her credit score from the authorized user's own credit-related actions (unless they charge up an amount that you can't pay). For example, if the authorized user goes bankrupt or fails to pay one of his unrelated debts, this will not show up on the account holder's credit report and negatively impact it.

Whether or not the account shows up on the authorized user's credit report depends on who issues the card. Discover and Chase still do this. So does AMEX (but I believe the authorized user gets a different account/card number).

The manner in which having a positive history as an authorized user helps your credit score has supposedly diminished with the newer FICO scoring system. It does help, but not as much as it used to.

Question: SO does being added to someone else credit card as an authorized user show on your credit report as a higher overall credit amount?
What I mean is, if i have $10,000 worth of line of credit and then someone adds me to their $10,000 credit card as an authorized user, does my overall credit line read as $20,000 total line of credit on my report then?

Thanks

Quote from Slinger : Question: SO does being added to someone else credit card as an authorized user show on your credit report as a higher overall credit amount? What I mean is, if i have $10,000 worth of line of credit and then someone adds me to their $10,000 credit card as an authorized user, does my overall credit line read as $20,000 total line of credit on my report then? Thanks

Yes. Credit limits on authorized user accounts factor into your overall credit available, hence your overall utilization ratio. This can be an effective tool to keep your overall utilization ratio under 10% if your only personal revolving lines have toy limits.

Quote from Syrinx2112 : If I make someone who has poor credit an authorized user on one of my cards, will it negatively impact my personal credit score? Or will it only improve theirs?

The authorized user's history will not affect your credit score, nor will yours affect theirs. What will affect both of you is how that particular shared account is used and paid satisfactorily going forward.

Quote from heavylee : The authorized user's history will not affect your credit score, nor will yours affect theirs. What will affect both of you is how that particular shared account is used and paid satisfactorily going forward.

that's wrong......the history would affect if you ever late on your payment .......i got one of my accout remove as a author and my score jumb about 15 points because account had some late payment on it...........