Start here: five steps before anyone adds you

An authorized user is someone added to another person's existing credit card account. If the issuer reports it, information about that one account can appear on your credit reports — not the cardholder's whole credit history, and not their score. Whether that helps depends on the account, the reporting and your own file.

These five steps come from our first episode. Each links to the deeper explanation.

1. Record your baseline

Request your credit reports from all three nationwide bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — through AnnualCreditReport.com. Write down what's already there. If you have a score, write down its bureau, model, version and date. If you don't, write "not available," not zero. → How to pull all three reports free

2. Evaluate one account, not one person

A willing family member and a suitable account are separate requirements. Look at this card's payment history, its usual reported balance compared with its limit, and its age. → How authorized user accounts work

3. Confirm the issuer's reporting policy

Ask whether this specific card reports authorized users, to which bureaus, at what age, and what history it includes. → Issuer policies we've verified · How to ask your issuer

4. Agree on access and removal

Before the cardholder submits anything, agree on who can spend, who monitors the account, and how either of you can end the arrangement. → How to ask a family member

5. Monitor the reports, not just a score

Check each bureau separately. Record when the account first appears, the balance, the limit, the opening date and your authorized user designation. Compare the same score version over time. → What changes on your report · Free tracker