Assuming you have paid your account on time and you are not using too many available credit cards, adding someone to your credit card as an authorized user is an easy way to increase their credit score. But for this strategy to work, you need to make sure that the information about the account is included in their credit report. Otherwise, adding someone on your card - whether it's a child, a partner or a parent - will not affect their score.

There are two main factors that make the same account appear as a "tradeline" in the credit report of an authorized user:

Issuer's policy. All of the major issuers we surveyed reported some of the authorized user activities to Equifax, Experian and Transunion in some form. However, it has also been pointed out that if the primary account contains negative information or the authorized user is under a certain age, they will not report the information.

Credit bureau policy. Even if the issuer reports an authorized user account, if the account contains negative information or the authorized user is under a certain age, the credit bureau may not include it in the credit report of the authorized user, depending on its policies.

Finally, if you want to help others build a credit history, by adding to your account, you can save time and effort by knowing the issuer and the bureau in advance to process this information. After all, you don't want to add someone to your account to help someone else's score, and it turns out that it doesn't work in a few months.

Why is the account not appearing?

The Publisher and Credit Bureau policies give you a basic understanding of why the transaction line may or may not include credit reports from your authorized users.

The required information was missing when creating the account. According to the National Consumer Assistance Program initiated by the three major credit bureaus, lenders reporting to the credit bureau must report certain information about authorized users, including their date of birth. Although you can add someone to your account without providing this information, unless you include this information, you will not report it to the credit bureau. For example, AMEX notes that you can add a cardholder without providing their date of birth or social security number, but if you do not add this information within 60 days, the extra card will be closed.

The authorized user account is closed by the issuer. The issuer usually reserves the right to close the authorized user account if they determine that any information is fraudulent or that the authorized user has not agreed to add to the account. In some cases, the account may have been closed incorrectly. If the account is not displayed in the credit report of your authorized user and you are unsure of the reason, please call the card-issuing customer service hotline and ask.