How long does it take for authorized user to show on credit report

Becoming an authorized user on a credit card gives you many of the privileges of using the card without the obligations. For example, you can make purchases using the card, but you're not required to make payments. In many cases, your usage will affect your credit score just as if you were the primary user.

Once you're made an authorized user on a credit card, the full account history will only be added to your credit report if your lender chooses to report it. If your card issuer does report your history as an authorized user, you can receive a credit score boost as long as you have a long and positive account history. Being added as an authorized user is a good way to jumpstart your credit history if you're new to credit or you have a troubled credit history. The positive account history from being an authorized user can help you qualify for credit on your own.

If you later decide to remove yourself as an authorized user, you may be afraid that your credit score will be negatively impacted. Your credit score could be affected if you’re removed as an authorized user, but the impact depends on that account's history, whether it was reported in the first place, the other information in your credit report, and whether the authorized user account continues to be reported after you're removed.

If You're No Longer an Authorized User

When you're removed as an authorized user, you no longer have the privilege of using the account, and the credit card issuer will stop updating the account on your credit report. Depending on how the credit card company reports authorized user accounts, the account history for the credit card may automatically drop off your credit report after you're removed. The credit card issuer can tell you specifically whether the account will fall off your credit report after you're removed as an authorized user.

If the authorized user account doesn't automatically drop off your credit report after you're removed, you can send a credit report dispute to have the account removed from your credit report. You may want to do this if you believe the account is hurting your credit score. If the account holder made late payments or has a high credit card balance, for instance, the account could hurt you more than it helps. On the other hand, you may want to leave the authorized user account if it's helping your credit score—at least until you've established credit in your name.

You can ask the credit card issuer how the account will show up on your credit report after you're removed as an authorized user, if it will show up at all. Or, you can verify by checking your credit report 30–45 days after you're removed from the account.

The Impact of Being Removed

Being removed as an authorized user can hurt your credit score if the account is removed from your credit report. For example, if the authorized user account was the only positive account on your credit report, you could see your credit score drop after removing yourself as an authorized user. Or, if the account was the oldest account on your credit report, you could also see a drop in your credit score.

On the other hand, if the account history for that credit card was negative, e.g. late payments or high balances, your credit score might improve when your authorized user status is removed. You can typically get points back over time by building your credit score with your own credit accounts.

Note

If you're the primary account holder, removing an authorized user won't affect your credit score. The account will continue to be reported on your credit report as normal.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How does adding an authorized user affect my credit?

If you're an authorized user on someone else's card, it may or may not affect your credit. Whether it does will depend on whether the card issuer reports your activity to the credit bureaus and whether any of the credit bureaus count your activity as an authorized user toward your credit score. If it is counted, then your account activity, as well as the primary user's activity, will have an impact depending on whether it's positive or negative activity.

How do I remove an authorized user from my credit card?

To remove an authorized user from your card, call the number on the back of your card and request that your issuer remove the user from the account. Some credit card companies make this easy to do through your online account, as well.

Having a good credit score is essential to passing many of the financial milestones of life: it can help secure a low interest rate on a mortgage for your dream house or allow you to sign up for a travel credit card that gives you enough rewards to cover a a flight for the vacation you've been meaning to take. 

Attaining a good credit score is hard work and if you're a young person with little or no credit history or someone who's been delinquent on their debt payments in the past, getting a good credit score to achieve those financial milestones can be even harder. Becoming an authorized user on a credit card is one way to improve your credit history without having to be on the hook for monthly payments. 

First off, an authorized user is able to make purchases on a primary cardholder's account but is not responsible for paying off the card balance. Authorized users don't have the same abilities as a primary cardholder, so they won't be able to increase the credit line, add more authorized users or redeem rewards. 

How being an authorized user can influence your credit score

An authorized user can piggyback off the good credit history of the primary cardholder. If the primary cardholder has a long history of making their payments on time and in full, the authorized user should see that positive history reflected on their own credit report. According to a 2018 study done by Credit Sesame, people who had a fair credit score saw their credit score improve nearly 11% just three months after becoming an authorized user on someone's credit card. 

However, not all credit card issuers report authorized user accounts to the credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion or Equifax — so you should check with your card issuer.

The different credit scoring models, FICO and VantageScore, differ in how they weigh an authorized user's information, explains Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education and Advocacy for Experian.

The authorized user status on cards is often used by parents for their children. By making your child an authorized user on your credit card, you can jumpstart their credit history. Furthermore, extending your line of credit for an authorized user can decrease your credit utilization ratio which can boost your credit score. 

The amount of influence a primary cardholder's credit history has on the authorized user's credit history depends on a variety of factors, says Matt Schulz, Chief Credit Analyst at the Lending Tree.

Schulz notes that if you're young and have little or no credit history, being an authorized user can have a big effect on your credit score because it will be the foundation of your credit history. However, if you have poor credit history, being an authorized user on someone's credit card will have less of an effect because you already have a lengthy credit history.

Mackenzie Stewart, a personal finance blogger at Life@23k, was an authorized user on both her parent's credit cards. She saw her mother's credit history appear on her credit report when she was a teenager, noticing that her credit score was around a 550 despite having no credit history of her own. 

"My mom had decided to put me on one of her cards to start building my credit history," Stewart said. "That was still skin in the game that [allowed me to] have access to things that I didn't have [access to] before."

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The risks of being an authorized user

However, if you become an authorized user on someone else's credit card or plan on adding someone as an authorized user, you should be aware that some credit bureaus include the primary cardholder's negative payment history and credit utilization ratio on the authorized user's credit report. 

"Experian does not include negative payment history in an authorized user's credit report, but a high utilization rate on the account could potentially hurt scores," Griffin said.

Stewart saw both the negative and positive effects of being an authorized user on her parents' credit card accounts. When she was an authorized user on her father's CareCredit card, a card used to pay off medical treatments and procedures, she saw frequent fluctuations in her credit score. When her father increased or decreased the line of credit on his card, his credit utilization ratio would fluctuate and so would hers.

While parents may be acting with good intentions when making their children authorized users on their card, both the parent and child's spending behavior could have negative effects on both of their credit scores.

According to Schulz, making someone an authorized user on a credit card does not mean that you have to give the user the credit card.

"If you make somebody an authorized user on a credit card account. You don't actually have to give them access to the card. A lot of parents will add their kids to the account and never give their kids the card and never tell them that they've been added," Schulz said. "So that's kind of the way of giving your kid a boost without the added pressure of seeing all that extra credit and wanting to go on a spending spree."

Schulz also notes that when primary cardholders remove an authorized user on their card, the primary cardholder's credit history will no longer influence the authorized user's credit history. This means you can erase both poor credit history and positive credit history on an authorized user's credit report by removing them.

Before adding someone as an authorized user on a credit card, you should consider whether your payment history will reflect positively or negatively on an authorized user's credit report. Being aware of your own debt repayment habits and your authorized user's spending habits will go a long way in ensuring that you are helping (and at the very least, not harming) each other's credit scores.

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Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.

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