Post: #1

I have not done this (on either side). It seems like an interesting way to generate extra cash or to improve your credit. However, I can also see risks. I know there is an extra cash thread by booshala I believe, but thought this was distinct enough to warrant its own post. If I am wrong, my apologies, and please merge.

https://www.reddit.com/r/passive_income/...ve_income/

Quote:I would open a few select credit card accounts and let them age for 2 years. Charge some purchases regularly, but keep a very minimal balance. There are companies that will pay you to add Authorized Users on the cards once the accounts have 2-3 years of good payment history. The higher you can increase the credit limit, the better. I'm currently being paid $150 per user on my $30k Citibank account, averaging $400 a month since December 2014.

This is called Credit Piggybacking. When a credit report is pulled, the users appear to have more credit available to them, so they can get better interest rates to buy a car, home, business, etc. This is perfectly legal and doesn't violate any of the terms and conditions of my cardholder agreement. There is no risk to me, as the actual cards are mailed to my address, and I never disclose the account info to anyone, ever. My contract explicitly states that I will be reimbursed if unauthorized charges were somehow made, but as I said, no one else receives actual cards or account numbers.

Piggybacking has been a widespread practice for decades. People add their children and spouses to their accounts all the time, to help them establish or improve their credit. There's no law that requires the users to be relatives though.

More info on the subject...
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-n...r-1265.php
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/S...959&page=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoned_trade_line

Post: #2

Hmm, I read a bit about it and this really sounds like a decent way to make passive income for members with good credit standings and high credit limits. I've read about multiple users making up to $1k/month simply by "sharing" their credit with multiple people.

I have a credit card with a 25k limit that I was willing to use, however some of the more reputable companies don't seem to accept banks from Canada, where I currently reside.

Post: #3

I love legal grey areas like these. Seems like a clever business plan. Hopefully the credit card companies don't get wise to it.

Post: #4

I know nothing about "Credit Piggybacking" for profit, but do know that it legitly works and would advise anyone with kids to definitely take advantage of it!

When I started college my mom added me as an Authorised User to her Discover Card. Completely unknowingly giving me Instant-Stellar-credit!! She opened that card 16 years previous and paid every bill on time. Everytime my credit gets run, I always get a comment that I have an impressive score for someone my age. (Lol Ive been building credit since i was 2) My mom did the same for my brother who is 3 years younger than I am, so his credit started building before he was born!

Definitely going to look into this! I'm guessing your Credit Score takes a small hit everytime someone pulls your credit? Or after about 5 or so pulls does the negative impact "cap out"??

Post: #5

I read this post a few days ago and found it interesting and meant to look into it. Today just out of the blue happenned to be doing some research on improve your credit hacks and someone had suggested this concept. The guy who was doing the video apparently spoke to the credit reporting agencies as well as some author friend of his who writes books about improving credit.

Anyhow, everyone he seemed to check with seemed to say the reporting only gets done on the primary holders credit, not the people added to the account. If this is true this is great for the main account holder, however those "piggybacking" not only are not improving their credit and not getting their credit reported from the card, they are also now responsible for the main credit holders purchases.

Maybe diff cards have different ways of reporting but this guy seemed to say this concept does not work.

Post: #6

(09-20-2015 11:31 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  I love legal grey areas like these. Seems like a clever business plan. Hopefully the credit card companies don't get wise to it.

Credit piggybacking is not gaming credit card companies; it's an exploit on FICO. And they're already wise to it.

Post: #7

I know a lot about how the credit system works. This will NOT work, as authorized users available credit lines do not count towards credit utilization ratios, hence this scheme will only give a marginal bump at best. A better low-cost hustle would be to charge people to clean up their credit for them, then partner with a local attorney to feed him leads for a percentage for anyone whose credit was beyond repair, and need to file for bankruptcy.