Rewards cards in the U.S. can be extremely lucrative, particularly in the travel sector. But what are your options if you’re still building your credit, or otherwise don’t have those Very Good to Excellent credit scores that you need to be approved for the most rewarding credit cards?
Continue reading: How To Build, Repair, And Diversify Your Credit
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Thanks, Tiffany. I had no idea AU helped build credit history/creditworthiness. Been giving my kids gas cards and AmEx cards for several years (and like Ben's above, the "Member Since" predates their births as well! LOL).
I also suggested to my kids to sign up for a credit report site (Credit Karma, in this case), to see their actual situations.
As you stressed, open easily managed, smalller accounts, and pay your bills on time. My wife came into our marriage with damaged credit and lousy scores, but today, after several years of 100% on-time paid-in-full accounts, her credit scores usually top my mid-810's.
Hi Tiffany, how young can aurhorized users be on different credit cards (for the purposes of helping kids build good credit scores)? What is the best and earliest option? Seems like it is not Amex.
@ TC -- Amex is actually a great option, given how they handle authorized users and social security numbers (and thus link activity to a credit file), and you can add your kids starting at age 13. Citi and Chase don't require a SSN, and don't seem to have an age limit, but I believe you can call and add the SSN of your authorized user.
@ Lawrence Brohman -- If you have their SSNs linked to the cards (which, if they're Amex, you do), then yep, they should be benefitting!
This is great information that everyone needs to know. Thanks for sharing.
Great job this weekend at the Chicago Seminars. Safe return travels.
I like this article coz it has titles. Basically I read the title and I know I can click off the page.
You can also create synthetic identities to dramatically improve credit scores if you know the right person.
- the right person
I was told by chase that since AU's have the same card number, and they don't take SSN's that it won't report on your credit score. Anyone know if this is correct?
I am currently happy with my credit score, but aside from my credit cards (and I have many), my only other debt consists of student loans. Is it bad to pay these loans off because of the impact on my credit score? Should I do anything to mitigate this or be concerned?
@ Dan -- Not necessarily. If you can pay off your student loans, that's obviously great from a long-term financial perspective. You can always add a future and smaller installment loan if you need the score bump. Some credit unions will offer installment loans as low as $500, so there are options that would have you paying minimal interest.
I would venture, to the contrary, that paying off your student loans early should depend on the loan's interest rate. If you have a higher interest rate and cannot consolidate to get a lower rate, then it will make sense to pay it off as quickly as possible.
In my instance, the exact opposite is true - I was able to consolidate my loans about a decade ago at a rate of 2.25 percent (which ended up dropping to 2 percent after three years of on-time payments). With the rate that low, I have absolutely no incentive to pay the loans off any faster than I have to, especially now that interest rates on even the simplest online savings accounts mean that I would make more money in interest than I would save by paying off the loan early.
There will be a temporary dip but it'll bounce back with due time in a few months. In my opinion, it's good to pay them off faster if you financially can because of long term financials and the money you save on paying interest in the long term.