Authorized user versus join cardholder?
Answers:
You are an 'authorized' user if someone has an existing credit card that only they have applied for. They then request a supplementary card for you to use, which gives you authorized usage. This does not affect your credit rating as the card is essentially under the primary card holder.
ie. Your wife applied for a visa card. All of her information is used, credit bureau is taken under her name. Since you cannot use someone else's card, you can apply to get another card for your family member to use. She then gets a supplementary card with your name on it, but every charge you make shows up on her bill.
You are a joint cardholder when you provide your income information along with the other applicant. Therefore they take the credit bureau of both you and the co-applicant. You both own the card and the limits are based on both your credit bureaus.
The only benefit you gain as an authorized user is that you are spending someone elses money, which is not really a benefit because they know what you are using the card for.
If you both have good credit, the benefit to being a joint applicant is that your limits could potentially be higher than if you were to apply by yourself.
I hope this helps.
I dont' think there is much of a difference. Case in point. I have a Sears card. I put my boyfriend on my account as an authorized user. It shows up on his credit report that he is an authorized user which helps him because he has bad credit and is trying to improve his score. Only thing is is that it's MY account and I'm responsible for it. If you have a joint account with someone, both people call the shots and BOTH parties are held responsible for the debt. It can benefit both of your credit reports if you pay on time, or hurt you if you default, the other person will have a negative too even it they are just an authorized person.
The basic difference is a authorized user is not responsible for paying the debt if the primary signer defaults, where a joint signer is responsible.
As far as credit both joint and authorized users get the pay history reported on their credit bureaus and this will help raise your score if the history is good. Conversely, if the pay history is bad, it will hurt the authorized users score
At the risk of being contradictory to all the people that have answered you thus far, I am going to do it anyway and tell you the truth. Being an authorized user DOES NOT affect your credit either negatively or positively. It DOES show on your credit bureau as debt that you are able to use, but doesn't make your score go up or down.
Being a joint means you share responsibility with the primary account holder, and that you are equally liable for the debt. This can affect your credit score either positively or negatively because you are responsible for whether it has a high balance, or whether or not the payments are made on time.
As far as how you'll benefit, it depends on what you want. If you just want access to the line to use it, then authorized user is for you--no responsibility for paying it back, that falls on the primary. If you want this to affect your score, you'll need to be joint.
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