raising credit score

I read on here at one time that if I had someone willing to put me on their credit card as an authorized user it could rais my credit score. Does this work or does it lower my score for having too much debt???

It works, as long as the person has a great payment history and low utilization on that card. I know somebody who had her Mom add her onto her store cards (Macys and Target I think) and since sha had the cards for a long time and never missed a payment, her scores went way up. Just make sure you choose somebody who is responsible enough to pay their bills on time.

~Mary

I think this way available credit increases, hence debt to available credit ratio decreases and score goes up. Nice technique to achieve a good score

Actually, being an authorized user should not affect your credit score. Unless you give your personal info and actually apply for the card as a co-applicant (giving ss#, date of birth, etc.), then being an authorized user is not supposed to appear on your credit report. I am not saying that this does not ever happen, but it is not supposed to. In my experience, an authorized user generally has nothing show up on your credit report. If you guys have had a different experience, please share it with me.

I think it might depend, if the credit card company reports an authorized user to the bureaus. I was an authorized user on an MBNA card, and it definitely helped me tremendously. Also, I was an authorized user on another card (cant remember which, I think it was JC Penney or something) and they didn't report authorized users, so I gained no benefit. Just my experience.

~Mary

I have had alott of problems with my credit when I was younger, now I am trying to fix it. I have 2 judgements against me, and about 4 collections accounts. I tried to raise my score by getting 7 credit cards and just financed my car. my score is about 580 now. The dealer told me I have too much credit??? should i close some of my credit cards???

An authorized user works in certain circumstances:
1.Card reports you to bureau as a au.
2.Account holder is responsible with good credit.
3.Card has a low utilization rate(limit vs balance)
4.The higher the credit line,the better.
If you can find someone to add you,that is great.
I recently applied for some cards so I can give you some starting ideas:
1. Discover-Reports Au
2. American Express-Reports Au
3. Chase-Reports Au
4. Citi- Reports Au

what about target visa ????

target reports if you can get it.

I have a Target dept store card and they do report to the bureaus monthly.

back in 1996 my mother put me on a credit card as a co-applicant (or maybe an authorized user, i'm not sure). she never paid off her debt, left the country, and the debt collectors came after me. i never signed a single thing, never asked to be a co-applicant. but since 1998 they've had a judgement against me (in california) and put a lien on my bank account. i closed my bank account, left the US to go to grad school abroad. Want to move back to the US now, open a bank account, buy house/car, but afraid that the debt collectors will try to collect their money. last time i checked my credit report, everything was cleared, had no bad history, but i noticed that the collection agency had made a recent 'inquiry' into my account.
please help what can i do to solve this mess?
i just feel that if I never signed any credit card application back when my mom put me as a co-applicant, how come i'm the one being sued?