Effects of Being an "Authorized User" on Card Sign-ups
 

Hi everyone,

I just recently did a credit check and noticed there were two Citi cards that weren't mine on the report. As it turns out, they were my wife's cards (the Citi Visa and Amex 75k offers). When I called Citi, I was informed that even though I am not the primary cardholder, or the person that signed up for the card, the card will remain on my report since I am an authorized user.

I didn't have the opportunity to sign up for the Citi 75k offers back then, but was interested in trying soon.

Anyone know the effect of having "authorized user" accounts on the credit report for signing up? Will Citi know they aren't actually my accounts or chances are I'll get dinged by Citi with having these accounts already.

Appreciate any past experiences or advice.

Thank you.

little effect
 

It helps to be an authorized user on someone else's account if you have never had much credit...this will lead to you getting offers. As far as signups go, it has little effect. You can get a card for yourself and they dont care if your an authorized user on another account. It doesnt count as a plus on your credit report, as it is technically not your account. Although I wouldnt want to be paying late or have a high balance on those cards. Citi will know these are not your accounts and as long as you are creditworthy they will give you your own cards. Then I would suggest you cancel the other cards.

Odd. How did they know it was you? When I added users to mine, I didn't supply any SSN's

I think the SPG Amex requires SSN's for additional users.

These companies are sitting on loads and loads of data. It's quite easy for them to match a given name to your SSN and report it to your credit report.

Citi does not ask for SSN and still finds the authorized users SSN and adds it to their credit report.

There are softwares whose sole purpose is to match data such as this.

Interesting. I hope nobody out there has the same name as our pets

Nope, added 3 users w/o SSN

Ditto on the nope.

Nope, they do not *Looks at his pile huge pile of SPG cards*

Same here with my wife i added her on couple of my accounts AMEX and CHASE and both are showing on her credit report as an authorized user.

Citi does need the SS# to add the card to the CR. The SS# was already on the report. Citi just now reports the card to the report.

Someone recently posted a link to an article that pertained to creditors and how they don't need your SSN. Between the reams of data including your name, DOB, current and previous addresses plus other random bits of info it's a simple task to find a person. The point was that you aren't off the hook from a bill collector just because they don't have your magic 9 digit number.

+1

with amex you can call credit department and have them remove reporting of primary account holder's accounts from secondard cardholder's credit report

I did'nt know you can do that with AMEX thanks for the info:)

Funny you mention that! The company I consulted for had the same issue and the software makers (third party) ended up having a "PET" flag in the database to prevent it from "linking".

Dude thats hilarious..........

This seems hard to believe. A primary cardholder, then, could just list anybody's name and address w/o even the other person aware of being added as an "authorized" user.

I suppose the could, but could then get in trouble. I believe the terms say the authorized user needs to agree to have a card.

yes

And still the full responsibilty for the card goes to the primary card holder not the authorized user so if authorized user run up the card then primary user is responsible for paying that card not the authorized user. I dont see any benefit in adding the user without their consent.

Really? I've signed up for additional cards for my parents. I know I have full responsibility for the account, but they've never really "consented" to the account as they never game me their ssn.