What Is The Difference Between Co-Signing And Adding An Authorized User?
Many consumers consider it a priority to improve their credit scores, since this enables them to qualify for loans and increase the credit limit on their credit cards. Credit repair companies offer to use a variety of tactics to boost your credit score quickly. If they are only using legitimate means, then all of their strategies are things that you can do by yourself if you are willing to invest the time. The other tactics they use range from questionable to downright illegal. There are no truly quick fixes when it comes to improving your credit score. Therefore, people who need to borrow money quickly often ask family members to co-sign with them on loans. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission warned consumers of a credit card scam that preyed on consumers’ lack of understanding of how cosigning works. If your credit score has suffered because of a credit repair scam or other financial setback, contact a Jupiter credit repair lawyer.
Co-Signers Are Responsible for the Debt, but Authorized Users Just Run Up Bills
It is nothing out of the ordinary for multiple people, usually members of the same family, to have credit cards that all charge to the same credit card account, but the details of how this account was set up affect the finances of all the individuals who swipe the card. Specifically, if your father co-signs a credit card account with you, it means that the credit card company can seek payment from either of you, and the balance and payment history on the card affect both your credit score and his. An authorized user is very different from a co-signer. If you add your son as an authorized user on your credit card account, he gets a card that enables him to make purchases, but he is not an account holder. Therefore, no matter how much or how little any family member pays toward the card, this neither helps nor hurts your son’s credit score.
The Credit Game Scam
Earlier this year, a company called the Credit Game scammed numerous consumers out of money. It told victims it could improve their credit scores if they added The Credit Game as an authorized user to their credit card account. When the victims did this, it enabled The Credit Game to charge purchases on their credit cards. The victims mistakenly thought that adding The Credit Game as an authorized user would improve their credit scores, but it ended up having the opposite effect. The victims apparently thought that adding an authorized user would give them access to the authorized user’s creditworthiness, but it does not; this only happens when you add a cosigner.
Contact a South Florida Debt Lawyer About Recovering From Credit Repair Scams
A South Florida debt lawyer can help you repair your credit score more quickly and more effectively than credit repair companies can, including the credit repair companies that are not outright scams. Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Jupiter, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
fernandinaobserver.com/2022/05/07/ftc-says-credit-repair-operation-was-a-scam/
