US Update: Your Adult Child Wants to Be Added to Your Credit Card — 5 Risks to Understand

Adding an adult child as an authorized user may help establish credit history, but the primary cardholder generally remains responsible for purchases and payments.Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels Quick Read Adding an adult child as an authorized user can help them establish credit, but the primary cardholder generally remains responsible for purchases and payments.

Large purchases, missed payments, and rising credit utilization can damage your credit score and create unexpected debt.

Removing an authorized user doesn’t eliminate existing charges, and some issuers don’t allow individual spending limits.

Secured credit cards and credit-builder loans may help adult children establish credit independently without putting a parent’s retirement savings at risk.

Your adult child is trying to qualify for an apartment, rebuild a damaged credit score, or establish enough credit history to purchase a car.

Then comes a seemingly reasonable request: Could you add them to your credit card as an authorized user?

If you’ve spent decades maintaining excellent credit, helping your child get a financial head start may feel like an easy decision.

After all, you’re not necessarily lending them money, and they might not even need to use the card to benefit from your account history.

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