@itsgettingreal17 we thought so too but both our credit card company and his bank denied him. This was a few years ago. It was a surprise to us since he had been an authorized user for over 5 years. Maybe he didn’t use my card enough.
Maybe banks think like I do.
Our Capital One card gives each signer a unique number and card. There is one bill with total account due sent to the account’s primary, but the bill is divided into purchases between the various users, ie Primary Holder Number - itemization and total, Authorized User 2 - itemization and total, Authorized 3 - itemization and total, etc. The purchases any single person made can be easily seen at a glance and would make tracking school and housing expenses for a student very easy.
I hope I’ve explained the format clearly. It’s a foggy morning for me so far.
Senior year of hs. It’s been super helpful for her freshman year for UBER and for CVS.
It also gave us a secret way to make sure she was getting out and having some fun (she was having some problems fitting in and making friends. So really happy to see the charges for ride shares on weekends and knowing she’s not sitting in room or library every fri and sat. and also getting and taking her medications.
High school.
Like @Momofadult , we prefer the cards that break it out by user. Also, for a lost or stolen card, only that user would be locked down until a new card is issued, not all users. Learned this the hard way.
We let our kids get an additional card on our credit card account when they started driving. They know what they can use it for, and it’s been handy a few times when they have been traveling and hit snafus. It’s also handy for buying textbooks at the beginning of each semester. When they started college, we had them each apply for a card from their bank in their own name. I think each were quickly approved with a small (@$500) limit. They know to pay it off each month.
My D1 also had to get a secured card as a recent college grad. She had been turned down for a student discover card because we didn’t realize that you can report more than just earned income when applying. She had been on my Amazon (Chase) account for a few years. Turns out that Chase didn’t report the card on her credit report. So she had a terrific score, but no history. I got a BofA travel credit card for D2 when she took a gap year in Germany. It’s on her credit report. Benefits of her being an additional card holder: 1) increased length of credit history helps her score; 2) having a higher credit limit than she can currently get on her own helps her score; 3) I know that if she has an emergency while traveling, she can access a good amount of funds, and 4) she can use it when doing errands for me.
She has had no trouble getting a college credit card and now has 2 of them. But I know that she knows better than to run up credit card debt— this is all about building a credit history.
I’m thinking the cases where authorized user status was not beneficial to securing a personal card are when the card issuer didn’t report the card on the students credit report???
We added each of our kids to one of my cards when they went away to college. It was to be used for emergencies and things they cleared with me first. S has a credit history older or nearly as old as he is. He has a thick stack of CCards now at age 31 and has never had trouble getting credit or cards. He has rarely ever paid a late fee or finance charge.
Our D also has great credit and was authorized a CCard while shopping at Costco that was higher than the employee soliciting the card. She has never held a full-time job! She pays all her balances in full each month.
Our S had his own checking account and debit card since Jr year in high school. We added money into his checking account as needed, but since college he has been able to keep his account funded without our help (summer internships). Last Christmas we went to get him a credit card assuming we would need to cosign only to find he qualified on his own. Nice. He pays card off each month, transfers some $$ each quarter to his brokerage account. So far - so good.
Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we had to get a cosignor for our first car loan. Guess what? The loan did zip for our credit and did not show up on our reports even when we did not miss a single payment, but would have dented our consigning friend’s credit history. This stuff works in mysterious ways. Kid lived with just a debit card for almost ten years, in 4 different countries and traveling to more than a dozen others. BofA did not have issues with issuing her one of their credit cards when she got a full time job - I guess her responsible banking and longevity of her account with them paid off.
Our S didn’t need us to co-sign for any apartments. He just had to present his letter that he had a job with fed govt and stating starting salary. The landlady was reassured that H, I and S flew in together from HI and CA to view the apartment and I paid the landlady vía check on the spot—security deposit & 1st, last month rent.
Oh, if only that were true. Costco didn’t accept Visa until about a year ago. I just read (about 15 minutes ago) that Kroger stores in 7 states will no longer accept Visa as of April 3.
Reasons to have more than one card? Say you are on vacation in Orlando and you get a notice that your card has had a fraudulent charge for dog food in Mass and your bank cancels the card. Say that while they’ll approve the hotel room because you already checked in, you also need gas to get home, would like to go out to lunch? That’s when it is nice to have a second credit card issued by another bank.
Uh Costco and Kroger take Visa right now right? So to be technical that’s everywhere right now except for those gas stations in Canada and CA that only take debit cards and cheat me out of my miles. I also have a debit card mainly to get cash but in case anything happens to my credit card it will come in just as handy as my credit card while not negatively impacting my credit. Just before I got my chipped card two years ago, I was out of town at lunch when the bank emailed me about some questionable charges. I called, verified that although I love Brazil my wife and I were not there and told them to hang on so I could pay my bill and then let them shut off my card. I had a new card the next day. I actually carry a duplicate credit card in case I leave it with the receipt. That’s more likely than issues with a chipped card.
We have 4 cards in total, all chipped. One card has had fraud on it 3 times in 18 months, another one once in the last year. Credit card companies seem to be catching fraud quickly, but it’s still happening… and more often for us with the chips than without (20+ years)
Curious. Were they card not present transactions? I wouldn’t think a chipped card would guard against that kind of fraud. My non-chipped card was swiped twice in Brazil.
^^^Yes, card not present on all (I think). So, either we put the card in some reader that was compromised, or more likely, the fraud perpetrators got the card number then tried a 3 digit code until it worked. When speaking with the customer service people they always mention how sophisticated the cc thieves are. One card is an AMEX and have never had fraud on that one.
Technically, and legally, CC companies are not supposed to report on an authorized users credit, but they still do it. In our case, our first daughter off to college was signed on as an authorized user on one of our CC accounts and by the end of school year, her credit score was high enough that the bank offered her a card of her own, unsecured with a $1,000 limit. Now, three years later she has another card of her own (Discover), a revolving account for furniture and a new car loan. So, it really helped her out. Now, if you were delinquent on your bills and they were affecting your child’s credit negatively, I am sure there would be an issue. We also did the same with our current freshman and since the card is paid off monthly, I’m hopeful that her credit score is building too.
We gave our kids credit card as soon as they began driving- we paid for gas and thought it was important in case of an emergency. They knew the limits and never charged without our prior agreement. Our cc usage showed up as good credit history which benefited them… we paid in full every month by auto draft.
Before heading to college, they each got a credit card in their name. I helped them set up auto draft to their bank account and encouraged them to charge $25 a month just to establish credit. As a junior in college and only working part time, youngest applied for a citi bank visa to earn advantage miles and to avoid international exchange fees. She was accepted, first year annual fee waived and earned 60K miles!
I personally never travel without 2 different types of credit cards and didn’t want my kids to travel abroad without this.
I have at least 2 or more CCards all the time. When traveling internationally, I always have a debit card as well.