Every once in a while we come across someone who tell us that their friend, family member, or an acquaintance warned them against purchasing tradelines. More specifically, the misinformed party claims they've been told/heard that lenders and financing companies "don't count" authorized user tradelines. As unfortunate as it is that people hear these things and believe them with zero facts or information to back it up, it's even worse that they pass this information on to others would are then convinced that it's a bad, useless, or dangerous idea.

If you have a solid credit history and add a powerful tradeline or two, there's absolutely no bank or financing company that's going to discount those lines of credit from your overall score. On the other hand if you have 1 personal credit card with 2 years age and low-limit, no history of revolving credit, and then 3 or 4 powerful lines on your account, it doesn't matter what your credit score is. You're going to be judged on the fact that 90% of the credit on your report are not your own primary lines, and although your score may be high due to these accounts, your personal credit history is still "young", "thin", or "insufficient" and your loan can not be approved.

Getting a home mortgage is a big deal, as is buying an expensive vehicle. Especially the former, during which all aspects of your finances are examined very closely. However, lowering your current utilization rate, boosting your overall credit score and increasing your credit age are never bad things - but it needs to be done with balance and strategy.

Credit bureaus offer many types of products to lending institutions. There are various ways to examine an individuals credit. Yet it's with no doubt that being an authorized user of the best card(s) possible is beneficial to any financing situation as long as the primary personal credit history is the base upon which the good credit is built upon.

Buying tradelines acts as a supplement, not a replacement. This is also why we don't recommend them for anyone who has bad credit; they simply don't perform well. And if you have bad credit, you're not going to be getting financed for practically anything anyway.

Another common misconception is that applying for a vehicle or a mortgage while having authorized user tradelines on your credit report can be taken as a gross misrepresentation of your genuine credit score, perceived as attempted bank or financial fraud, and land you in prison. This is one of the most absurd things we've heard and it's been repeated over the years by various "experts", many of who just so happen to operate in the realm of credit repair, or work as self-proclaimed credit specialists. They don't really understand how authorized user statuses actually work, nor are they employed by the big banks who are looking at these credit profiles and making decisions. Additionally, it's easy to guarantee that none of their clients or anyone they've ever known went to prison for applying for a loan with a credit report that features an authorized user tradeline on it unless they were intentionally committing fraud by using various malicious methods with ill intent.

As we've mentioned before, it's estimated that over a third of Americans have either used, or are currently using authorized user tradelines. With that being said, if these "experts" were correct, almost every person you know would know at least one or two people in prison or who had federal charges placed against them for fraud. Clearly, this is not the case.

Lenders and mortgage underwriters know when something looks scammy or synthetic, and seeing as how authorized user statuses appear clearly visible (along with their account age and credit limit) on a credit report, no lender is being fooled or tricked into somehow thinking these credit lines don't aid in the applicant's overall score. As long as the applicant for the loan is who they say they are, and as long as they have the income to presumably make the monthly payments their loan would entail, there's no problem with having a boosted credit score. And yes, it really helps. If authorized user tradelines didn't help and if they didn't work, we'd be out of business and there wouldn't be anyone selling them. It's really that simple.

I recently read an article from a man claiming that tradelines do not work, are fraud, hurt your credit score, and are considered criminal activity when used to apply for any type of financing or credit. With such strong words, I must ask the general public to open their minds and ask themselves why business is booming? Why aren't these people all in prison? Where is the law claiming it's illegal? Why did congress and the Federal reserve board meet with FICO in 2008 only to swiftly shut down FICO's plan to eradicate the use of authorized users and attempt to discount them from future credit models?

For the last 15 years (and probably much longer) people have fear-mongered the general public against becoming an authorized user on someone else's credit card to increase their credit score. Do they have any idea how many teenagers and recent college grads have 750+ credit scores for no other reason then their parents adding them to a well-aged, high limit credit card? Surely the youngsters will still have to work hard on building up their primary credit accounts, but the high score surely helps them do that quicker and easier than if they were without the tradeline on their report. And why are these younger people not charged with fraud when they open their own credit card accounts while being authorized users on someone else's card? Why do those very same banks provide these individuals with higher-than average credit limits? Surely it's not because they lack credit or have an extremely low score.

I'd even like to openly propose the idea that with a little help from tradelines, the ease of credit growth creates an optimal financial situation for the responsible individual, which at the end of the day results in more lending, more debts being created, and more interest being collected from banks than they are losing via people boosting their scores with tradelines. If you're bound to default on your home mortgage or auto-loan, there are many warning signs. Packing a powerful tradeline during the application process is the least of a lender's concerns in my honest and experienced opinion.

And to close this out, there is another final thought regarding the "diminishing power" of having authorized user accounts on your credit profile. Many people claim "they don't work like they used to!", or "they barely even make a difference anymore!"... Well, I'd like to ask these people how a credit score of 690 can change to a 775 with just one or two authorized user cards being added to their report of an already responsible individual with nice credit? Because I've seen this situation happen continually... But when you ask these questions to the "experts", all you will hear are crickets chirping. Never answers.

When in doubt, check things out. In fact, you should ask questions, do your own research, and ask people who've used these tools in real-life situations. Before being scared away from meeting your financial goals or dreams thanks to someone repeating a bunch of garbage on their youtube channel and the followers supporting their phony rhetoric, ask people with first-hand experience who have used tradelines properly.

Don't just take our word for it, check it out for yourself. Always research before you buy, because your own due diligence will pay off in the end. There is only one truth. Yes, once again, we're here to inform your that authorized user tradelines are alive, well, and functioning just as they always have.