You can be added and never spend on the card and the family member can keep the card so you don't. I'm on one of my parents' cards still and I don't know if they even get a physical card for me anymore.

It won't hurt their score unless you spend more than they can afford and you don't give them money for it.

What's your score now? If you're already in the top tier it doesn't really matter enough to do that. They always have to say some negative things, so when you're in the top tier they just select the worst of the great. If you're lower down, then increasing your aaoa would help some.

Being added as an authorized user gives you all the benefits and none of the risks.

When you are taken off though that history also drops off.

Adding someone on it's own doesn't harm their credit but allowing someone to make purchases could if paying the bills becomes an issue for them.

I have no intention of using their credit or the card itself, I just was looking for the benefits of having the history if that makes sense

I’m in the mid-600s, they’re in the high 700s. I wouldn’t use the card at all, I just wanted the history benefits since my credit history is so young.

So if you have a lot of low age accounts it'll help, but it's only 15% of your score so it will only help so much. Paying on time and not using up most of your available credit will improve your score more.

Yes, you could get the 20 years of history as an authorized user on anything but an AMEX, as long as the account was that old. It’s not how old their credit is, it’s how old that account is. Wouldn’t hurt them in any way.

If you close the authorized user card, the history is no longer part of your credit, so this only works if you just leave it open.

If you don't do anything then it won't hurt them

Thanks!