Would Adding Someone Else to My Credit Card Account Help Build Their Credit?
Adding a person to your credit card account won't by itself harm or help the other person's credit score. As with all loans and credit transactions, it is your credit activity that affects both account holders' scores both positively and negatively.
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Credit Scores
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Credit scores are based on the information contained in a credit report, a compilation of each person's history as a credit user. Credit reports are individually based, meaning the report only contains one individual's information and not someone else's. However, if you hold a joint account, that information is listed on both account holders' credit report and can affect both credit scores.
Joint Accounts
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The only way to influence another person's credit score with your own credit activity is by opening a joint credit card account or adding that person to a current account as a joint account holder. If you already have a credit card, you must check your card policy or contact the card issuer to determine whether adding a person is permissible.
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Effect on Score
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Simply including a person on your credit card as a joint account holder won't affect either person's score much, it at all. What does influence a score is each person's subsequent credit-related behavior. For example, if you open a joint account with a person who has bad credit and you continue to make debt payments on time and maintain a low credit utilization (amount of debt being carried relative to the credit limit), the other person's score likely will improve.
Authorized Users
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Being an authorized user of a credit card does not mean that person is part of a joint account. Although people used to be able to increase their credit scores by becoming an authorized user, that is no longer the case. While holding a joint account with another person can impact that person's credit score positively or negatively, adding that person as an authorized user generally does not. Experian, a credit reporting company, reports that a credit account held in a single person's name cannot impact another's credit score, even if that person is an authorized user.
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