There's no denying that our day-to-day lives rely heavily on credit and lending. Almost every consumer good imaginable is available to be financed in one way or another. From large items like our vehicles and homes down to smaller personal details such as a haircut, clothes and even a bottle of water can be purchased with credit. Since credit plays such a pivotal role in our lives, you'll have a great advantage to be truly educated on how it works. Being responsible with the credit that's available to you today will have a big impact on your ability to use and expand upon it in the future.

Authorized user tradelines can be an immensely helpful and extremely powerful tool for managing and increasing your availability of credit, but only if you know how they function and use them to your advantage. The problem is most people have no idea how authorized user tradelines work. This causes them to be shy, insecure, or even scared of the idea.

So let's get educated. We'll use ourselves as an example. GFS Group is a tradeline company. We've been in business for nearly a decade. We sell authorized user tradelines to the public, which helps them improve their credit scores and meet their financial goals. We operate on our own custom platform, where we basically act as a mediator for connecting cardholders (these are the sellers who have contracted with us) and buyers. Our job is to ensure that the transaction between these two parties is legitimate, smooth, secure, legal, and beneficial - all while ensuring that the buyer has an excellent inventory of cards to chose from and that the seller receives their payment for adding the authorized user to their account.

There are a lot - and we mean a LOT - of fine details that go into this process. For those of you with a genuine interest in learning everything about it, you can read our "Ultimate Guide On Authorized User Tradelines" at anytime. But knowing all the fine details isn't exactly what this article is about. Instead, we're here to cover the 5 most common misconceptions about authorized user tradelines so that you can buy or sell with confidence.

After all, if you're not informed, you can't make a good decision. Since the average person probably sees authorized user tradelines as risky, unsafe, or even shady practice at best, it's our job to turn that mentality around. Let's get started explaining some of the biggest and most common misconceptions that we repeatedly see or are asked about.

Misconception #1: Authorized User Tradelines Only Work For Family

This is not true. Not even in the slightest. As we've already mentioned, we've been in business for several years. If buying authorized user tradelines wasn't beneficial to the customer or if the act of buying them rather than being added by a family member was bogus, we'd be out of business. Truth be told, we'd never have started this business to begin with. However, being an authorized user on anyone's card (assuming their card has the beneficial traits required to improve your credit score) can help send your credit score flying high.

From our experience, the main reason people assume the idea of buying authorized user tradelines is bogus or won't work is mainly related to the risk. When they hear the words "authorized user" they automatically assume that this person is granted immediate access to your line of credit, has all of your personal information, holds the ability to spend money on that account, and ultimately leaves the primary cardholder open to a huge risk of being left with a debt which would be their responsibility to pay for. This idea couldn't be further from the truth.

First and foremost, when a cardholder adds a user to their card, that card is sent directly to the primary cardholder's address by default. They are then responsible for what they decide to do with that card, i.e., giving (or not giving) it to someone else to use. While that may be he idea for adding a trusted person who you intend to extend credit to with the purpose of spending, you may decide to give them the physical card. On the other hand, when you're adding an authorized user who is paying to be added for no other reason than to see the benefit of your credit card on their credit report through a credit score increase, that's not a part of the playbook.

Secondly, as far as credit responsibility or the ability to spend, the authorized without the card has no way to spend anything. While a lot of people will question or mistakenly argue that this allows the authorized user the ability to contact the bank and request a replacement card, that's simply not true. They don't have any of your personal information available, and they don't have the identification or verification which is required for the bank to even consider sending them a card. Remember, this is an authorized user - it's not a joint account. We wrote a neat article called "Tradelines from Family Vs. Tradelines For Sale", and it will help clear up any uncertainty.

Misconception #2: There Is No Way This Is Legal

The subject of legality is one that we've covered so many times we have nothing left to say about it other than "Yes, it's perfectly legal". There are situations where people buy tradelines with the intent to create or enhance fake identities. There are also people who use fake or stolen credit cards to try and make money selling tradelines. However, when working with an expert company like GFS, all of these worries go right out the window.

We manually identify the buyers of our tradelines using high-level background checks to ensure that cardholders are not unknowingly participating in fraud. Likewise, we implement provisions to prevent fraudulent cardholders. The latter is virtually non-existent however, as adding an authorized user to a card you don't own is nearly impossible, and even if someone accomplishes it, asking for a commission for doing so requires the ability to receive a payment. They'd basically be begging to get busted for their crimes. If a cardholder wanted to make money, they'd make purchases.

Needless to say, if you'd like more information regarding the legality surrounding tradelines, you can read our articles about the subject below:

...and afterwards, you may ask yourself about the morality of the practice, or if it's ethical. Well, are authorized user tradelines are ethical? You can be the judge. We have a lot of great material, but nobody is forcing you to do something you don't want. All we can do is inform you in an attempt to understand - regardless of what your final position is on the subject.

Misconception #3: You're Essentially Tricking The Credit System

This is a big one that comes up, and while it somewhat ties into the morality and ethics idea of the subject, this statement usually comes after someone is informed that tradelines are valid when bought or sold, and are legal to use. In other words, it's the 3rd most popular misconception we seem to see and therefor it's appropriately placed as number three on our list.

Let's get something straight here. Logic tells us something important - if it's not illegal, and if the credit bureaus allow authorized users to be reported to credit reports, and if the tradelines themselves are solely included as a metric that is valuable and considered in the overall credit score including the ability to boost the score by such a significant amount, then there is no trickery involved.

The banks are not dumb, and the credit bureaus are not dumb. They both know very well that this industry and practice exists, and if there was an immense problem with it, it would have been legislated upon decades ago and we wouldn't be here writing this article today. If you believe that being the authorized user on someone else's card is tricking these large institutions, well, you might believe anything.

When a potential lender sees a credit report, they can clearly read the status of any given account. The status of authorized user is exactly what appears, and lenders nor creditors are not allowed to discriminate against this. There is no trickery involved. It's credit mathematics; widely accepted and well-known among credit card companies, banks, lenders, and credit bureaus.

Misconception #4: Using Tradelines Will Eventually Hurt Your Credit Score

There are two possibilities here when considering any and all negative affects to your credit score that may be caused as a direct result of authorized user tradelines.

First, after being removed as an authorized user, especially if the card you were added to had a heavily positive affect on your credit - you will see your credit score decrease in the manner of it returning to the pre-tradeline score.

Secondly, if you're a cardholder who is selling tradelines, your bank may decide to close your credit card account if they feel like your use of the credit line they've extended to you is abusive. There are many things to take into consideration to prevent this from happening to you as a seller, and your tradeline company should be able to provide you with those details at any time. We, for one, have specific sets of rules that we employ for each type of credit card to ensure that card account closure is minimal, as losing an account would mean that card would be reported as closed, and would generally mean your credit score would drop.

All of our sellers are very aware of the risk, and see the upside to the opportunity. Also, with so many years of experience under our belts and the knowledge of what tends to trigger premature closures of cards for adding or removing authorized users, we inform our users very clearly of the risk involved and also of the steps we take to mitigate any issues.

Yes, using tradelines holds the potential to have a negative outcome on your credit, but not enough to ruin it or damage it permanently. If you are in a position where selling your credit card tradelines can cause you great harm from a single account closure, the we definitely recommend that you don't start selling them in the first place. While not a complete misconception, this specific situation is more of a misinterpretation and requires an important understanding to be properly evaluated. No two credit scores, profiles, or tradeline sellers are exactly alike.

Misconception #5: If It Worked So Well, Everyone Would Be Doing It

Not exactly. Tradelines work extremely well for both the buyer and the seller. Each gets what they desire, and the agreement is mutual. The buyer is more than willing to pay, and the cardholder is willing to add the user to their card in return for a payment. Not everyone is willing to do that, and the biggest reason why they're not willing is because they're not informed enough, or they simply don't feel comfortable. Either of which is fine. We do feel, however, that an informed person is a comfortable person and this is why we are more than happy to explain how and why authorized user tradelines work so well.

After all, this is not a charity act. It is a business, and we too are paid for our time and effort in verifying identities, preventing fraudulent transactions, managing a database of cardholders, assuring that the cards post to the buyers credit report, and ensuring that the seller is paid - all while writing articles like this and providing direction, instruction, and our expert advice to both parties.

Secondly, not everyone CAN do it. While this little fact could be it's own misconception, it doesn't quite qualify for it's own spot... but here it is: Becoming the authorized user on a a powerful credit card will do nothing for someone who has neglected their credit. This isn't a tool that is beneficial to everyone. This is not a thing where anyone with bad credit can just walk up and buy tradelines and suddenly be approved for an auto loan, a card, or their own high-limit credit cards. This is merely a tool to aid those who already have been responsible with their credit but need an increase to accompany their credit score up to the next level.

If you're in collections, have late payments, or are delinquent on any type of credit line that's been extended to you, tradelines will not help you. So no, not everyone would be doing it. In fact, the people who do buy and sell credit card tradelines actually are required to be responsible with their credit, otherwise they're not going to be eligible and have nothing to gain.

We're Here For Your Questions, And We Always Have Answers

GFS Group was built from the ground up and have grown from not much more than the simple fact that we have a great reputation. We take care of each client as if they were our only client, and we operate with the same level of professionalism and enthusiasm day after day.

We've been here for a long time, and we have a long way to go. We are transparent, customer-oriented, involved, responsive, knowledgeable, up-to-date, and always seeking ways to improve. If you are seeking a place to buy or sell tradelines, or simply have a question or concern, try us. You'll have a nice surprise and we'll be more than pleased to help you.