A tradeline records a consumer’s account status and activity. Tradeline data includes the names of companies where the applicant has accounts, the dates accounts were opened, credit limits, account types, outstanding balances, and payment histories.

An “authorized user” is a person who has access to an account as a user but is not responsible for the balance. The term “authorized user tradelines” is now synonymous with a credit improvement approach in which individuals, such as yourself, can pay to be added as an authorized user only for the purpose of having the account’s history displayed on their own account.

You won’t be able to access the card, but your report will show the account’s history.

Keep in mind that adding an authorized user to a credit account does not always result in a score boost. Why? If you’re added as an authorized user and the account has a late payment or high utilization, the account will show on your credit report, which will most likely lower your credit score.

However, if the credit account is in good standing and contains a 100% payment history with low credit card usage, it could significantly improve the authorized user’s credit score.

Here are 2 case studies of before and after comparisons to understand how authorized user’s tradeline credit secrets work.