Getting kids credit established

Adding your children as authorized users on your credit cards can potentially help them build a credit history, assuming you manage the account well (making payments on time and keeping the balance low). When they become authorized users, the card’s history might appear on their credit reports, which can include the age of the account. This practice, known as "piggybacking," can indeed give them a head start in building their credit scores.

However, the impact on their future credit profiles can vary. Some credit scoring models and lenders may give less weight to authorized user accounts than to accounts where the individual is the primary owner. Furthermore, not all credit card companies report authorized user accounts to the credit bureaus, and policies can differ between issuers regarding how much of the account history is reported.

It's a good idea to check with your credit card issuer to see if they report authorized user accounts to the credit bureaus and how they report them. This will give you a clearer understanding of how adding your children as authorized users could impact their credit histories.

Obviously you need to have good credit, but if so it definitely helps them out.

I added my daughter and son to mine when they were old enough(depends on the card) to just about every card I have starting when my daughter was 13 and son was 8.

Daughter had a 790 credit score as soon as she turned 18 and was able to go get some good cash back cards like Citi double cash, custom cash, Amazon Chase, etc with decent limits in her own name. Son stil has a few more years to see what he'll end up with score wise.

Some cards I've added them too.

Citi Double Cash - Any age
Citi Custom Cash - Any age
Captial One Quicksilver - I think 13
Capital One Walmart - I think 13
Discover - Pretty sure 15
Amazon Chase or any chase - 13

I can't remember which all of those showed up on her reports, most of them did, but not all.

Also, if you do this and even if you don't you should really freeze your kids credit reports. You can still add them as authorized users with it frozen, but will keep fraud openings in their name. Kind of a pain to do with kids as you have to send a letter to each credit bureau with documents like SS, BC, etc. Much easier to do it as an adult which you should do for yourself if you haven't.

There is a thread just below this one on 1st page with some info on same topic..

I also read it doesn’t matter what age you add them… you can wait til they are 17-18, they will still get entire credit history of that card, to where it might say their oldest account is older than them. So adding them at 12 vs 17 doesn’t make much of a difference since a lot of them wait til 18 anyway to report to credit bureau. Chase does not report minors per their website

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And yes, it is a terrible idea.

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Being sarcastic? If not, explain why.

My oldest active credit account is the one my dad set up for me when I was in college. I’d just use it for essentials and he made the payments every month. Worked pretty well for me.

My parents did this for me back in the day. But to play devils advocate, Im not sure I actually understand the benefit of piggybacking your child into an 800 credit score and a higher ability to over leverage themselves at 18 versus just letting them establish their credit score on their own?