Selling Tradelines / Piggybacking Part II: $1000+/hr, 20-40k/yr. Side Gig

[erutio]

I have a question about the address situation.

Do you add the AU using your address or the AU's address? AU's address, to increase chances of the tradeline reporting correctly to the bureaus.

If you use yours, does it end up on the AU's credit report, for the AU to see?  If you use your address, yes, it will show up on the AU's credit report.

If you use their address, how does the AU card not go to their address?  Policy of all CC companies to send the card to the original owner's address.  I agree though, there is a very small but non-zero chance a card can be sent to the wrong address.

I read through a good 15-20 pages in this thread and didn't see the answer. Maybe I'm just slow on the pick up here...

[arebelspy]

Agree with all of the above.

Put the AU's address. They'll only ship it to your address, that's just to help it report. You can confirm with the representative on the phone, but that's standard policy for all of them.

I don't even think there's a small risk of it being sent to them, from what I understand with all the CC companies I've worked with--there's literally no way in the system to get the card sent to that other (AU) address, it's automatically sent to your address on file with the computer, with no way for the representative to sent it to the AU (so no way for them to misclick or accidentally send it to the AU, it's just not even an option for them).

[Milkshake]

Cool, thanks.

I'll give this a shot with a 2 year old Cap1 card, and see how it goes.

[arebelspy]

The "new company" is dropping their rates on quite a few categories, and raising it on a couple (the highest/oldest limits, which are in the most demand).



The drop is only $25, so not drastic at all, especially for the ones that are going like $200->$175 (a fairly typical card, one that is 20k+ and > 2 yrs old), but obviously on the lowest one (that is going from $50 to $25) it's a big cut percentage-wise. However, so few companies will even take cards in that range (only a year old, only $5k in credit limit), so to sell authorized user lines at all there is pretty good. If your cards are in that range though, it may be worth just letting them age a bit and working on getting the credit limit increased. Or enrolling them, and then working on that in the meantime (and emailing for the corresponding pay increase as you increase the age/limits).

The reason for the drop is to reduce prices for authorized users in order to stay competitive with other tradeline companies. Thus they have to decrease the payouts to cardholders. Hopefully this reduced pricing for the AUs will see an increase in sales to offset the slightly lower payout.

Always sucks to get a pay cut, but it makes sense--they were already paying the most of pretty much any tradeline company, and are one of a very few who actually do what they can to protect cardholders via proper AU verification and data security/preservation. This price decrease puts them in line, or still higher, than pretty much anyone else, just not quite as high as before.

The change will automatically go into effect for all adds starting October 1. If you want to unenroll your cards, email them (PM me if you need the info). They're going to be sending out an email with this information shortly (in the next day or two), so look for that, just a heads up here. :)

[Car Jack]

Getting a sale at a reduced rate is better than getting nothing at double the rate.

Play on!

[SilverAg47]

It looks like a few cards, such as Barclay and Bank of America, require a Hard Pull in order to obtain a CL increase.  Are you guys finding a way to increase it without a pull, or do you just figure it is worth the pull in order to possibly increase your tradelines income?

[tj]

It looks like a few cards, such as Barclay and Bank of America, require a Hard Pull in order to obtain a CL increase.  Are you guys finding a way to increase it without a pull, or do you just figure it is worth the pull in order to possibly increase your tradelines income?

It is the pretty typical for a credit limit increase to be a hard pull. I think Discover does some soft pulls.

[arebelspy]

It looks like a few cards, such as Barclay and Bank of America, require a Hard Pull in order to obtain a CL increase.  Are you guys finding a way to increase it without a pull, or do you just figure it is worth the pull in order to possibly increase your tradelines income?

I personally don't care much about inquiries.. I pretty much always have 10+, and still have an 800+ score. Sometimes they'll do it without a pull, but if they say they need to do a pull, I'm fine with it.

[SilverAg47]

It is the pretty typical for a credit limit increase to be a hard pull. I think Discover does some soft pulls.

Discover, Citi, and Elan have been soft for me so far.

[greengeek]

So I'm new to this Selling Tradelines and just getting setup at the moment and would love for the combined wisdom of this group on a few questions I have:

1) From your anecdotal experience, what credit cards (of the available options) have provided the highest credit limits, or greatest credit limit increases every 6 months? (For instance, I found that Citi and AMEX limits started and increased significantly higher for me than Capital One.)
2) Is Barclays the only credit card that lets you fully setup and cancel AU's online, or does Capital One and other provides also now allow this?
3) Is Barclays the only credit card with hard caps (something >35 it sounds like) or is this typical of all credit cards?
4) How often are people adding new credit cards and what seems to be a sustainable rate of adding new cards without causing a plummeting credit score? (Mine's about 800 right now and I'm hoping it wouldn't drop much below mid 700s.)
5) Any other wisdom?

[secondcor521]

1.  No idea.  Seems to me mostly to be a percentage of your reported income and credit score, so I'd keep those two numbers high and get as many cards from as many different issuers as possible.  You mentioned AMEX; they aren't used for piggybacking.

2.  I don't recall.  I know Chase can do adds fully online; I forget about removals.  But calling in isn't hard and usually takes only a few minutes.

3.  I don't think anyone knows yet.  I can report that it seems to me that USAA has a hard cap of 2 AUs at any given moment, but that's not a lifetime cap like you're asking about.

4.  I added 8 new cards this year and my CreditKarma scores are 821/818 at the moment.

5.  Read the thread from beginning to end if you haven't yet.  Many questions have been asked and answered, some several times.

[arebelspy]

Chase seems to be the only one to shut them all down, yes.

[Encinoman45]

I don’t know what all this concern is about closed cards. Yes it is good to know which ones are touchy at what time.

I have 16 cards. 7 of them I am using for personal use. 9 of them I am using for tradelines. I made 3k in three months. All my nine cards have ~3 AU lines sold. Let’s say I continue to run ten hard and do ~3 lines every two months. Let’s say five cards get closed down in six months (that would be more than expected) then I would have made 12k by then. Let’s say I keep running my five remaining cards hard for six more months and make another 4.5 k and all those then get closed down. Ok so I walk away a year from now with 16.5k. Maybe I some of those banks I can’t reopen a card with and others I can. There are plenty of banks out there. I still have my other 7 I never sold tradelines with. Maybe I just apply for some new cards and move my business over to them and start using my previous 7 cards for tradelines and make another 14k in the next year.

I am working with a different company that is aggrsssively marketing to the people who want tradelines.It is a booming area in demand and anyone who tells you otherwise is not tracking with the benefits a regular person gets from increased credit score in the idiotic buy things now on credit world we live in.

I'd be interested in what Tradeline company you are using. It looks like you can't accept any PM. Please PM me if you can.

[arebelspy]

The reason you can't PM him is that Orion is not a member of this site anymore. He failed to disclose he worked for said company, was posting messages such as the above to try and seem like a satisfied customer to get people to contact him (as you tried to do), and when he didn't get a lot of responses there, he started PMing people to spam to get them to sign up for his company, at which point his account was banned due to the forum rules on spamming.

There's a reason why try to fly under the radar and not mention company names, etc.--because it leads to junk like this.  Who knows how much, if any, of his post was even accurate.

The company he worked for has been discussed in this thread, as well as reasons why they are not recommended. Shady marketing tactics was not one of them, but you can add it to the list. You can dig back in the thread to find it, and why, if you care to. :)


EDIT: The company in question has informed me that he was not an official employee of the company. Nevertheless, this is the reason why he was banned; failure to disclose his relationship with them and PM spamming people to try and get them to sign up with that company. They have not explained why he would do this, or his incentive or relationship with them, but merely said that he did not work for them.

[CanuckExpat]

Heads up data point regarding Fidelity/Elan:
I have been selling Tradelines with a Fidelity (Elan) CC pretty successfully for several months. The adds have to be done by phone. My latest add was going straightforward, then part way through the call the CSR said "Oh, I have to transfer you to a different department". I was transferred to someone who did the usual security verification (but much less friendly than normal CSR) who then proceeded to ask very pointed questions about my pattern of AU adding and removal. I must have satisfied him, because he went ahead to add the AU. Next time I went to make a purchase on this card, it was declined, I also noticed I couldn't log into my account online anymore. When I called in to check, I was told my account was under review, and someone would contact me. Nobody ever contacted me, but I can log back into my account now. I have temporarily frozen the card for AU sales, I imagine some time in the future I am going to get this card shut down.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

[powskier]

Discover just terminated my card. I had been having the majority of my AUs on this card. 11 year old account, 25k limit, 850 FICO score according to Discover and  820 according to credit karma. They reason they stated was "not able to meet my business needs". I tried to add an AU and passed on to multiple security folks until I was informed my card had been terminated.
The risk is real. I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

[sol]

I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

Why?  What's the utility of keeping your "best" card to yourself?

From my perspective a six month old card with a $10k limit and a 10 year old card with a $30k limit both meet my personal spending needs identically well.  Why not make money off of the old card while you still can?  Is there some other benefit to keeping it around, besides tradelines?

Even if all of my current credit cards were to get shut down in the next few months I'm pretty confident I could still find a new new credit card, somewhere, that would work just fine for my grocery shopping and cell phone bill.  I guess I don't understand the desire to protect your oldest card from closure.

[katsiki]

Agree with sol.  Even if you lose an older card it will not have much affect on credit score if you have a reasonable stock of accounts (like most of here do, I bet).

[jtraggie99]

Discover just terminated my card. I had been having the majority of my AUs on this card. 11 year old account, 25k limit, 850 FICO score according to Discover and  820 according to credit karma. They reason they stated was "not able to meet my business needs". I tried to add an AU and passed on to multiple security folks until I was informed my card had been terminated.
The risk is real. I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

I've been selling tradelines with a couple of different companies for a couple of years now.  The most activity was often with 3 cards I had with Citi.  Citi shut all three of them down this past summer, due to "security risks".  I tried to call and talk to them, but there was no discussing it.  Capital One also put one of mine in a "restricted state" after I tried to add an AU.  They wanted a copy of the persons DL and SS cards in order to remove the restriction (meaning I could no longer use it until then).  Of course that was not going to happen.  I eventually just closed it myself.

If you do this often and long enough, your cards will get shut down.  I do not say that to discourage anyone, as its easy money while it lasts, but it will eventually come to and end. 

[JohnGalt79]

Discover just terminated my card. I had been having the majority of my AUs on this card. 11 year old account, 25k limit, 850 FICO score according to Discover and  820 according to credit karma. They reason they stated was "not able to meet my business needs". I tried to add an AU and passed on to multiple security folks until I was informed my card had been terminated.
The risk is real. I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

I've been selling tradelines with a couple of different companies for a couple of years now.  The most activity was often with 3 cards I had with Citi.  Citi shut all three of them down this past summer, due to "security risks".  I tried to call and talk to them, but there was no discussing it.  Capital One also put one of mine in a "restricted state" after I tried to add an AU.  They wanted a copy of the persons DL and SS cards in order to remove the restriction (meaning I could no longer use it until then).  Of course that was not going to happen.  I eventually just closed it myself.

If you do this often and long enough, your cards will get shut down.  I do not say that to discourage anyone, as its easy money while it lasts, but it will eventually come to and end.

Why "of course that was not going to happen?"  Don't the tradeline companies have those documents, and won't they provide them if your credit card company is demanding them?

[jtraggie99]

Discover just terminated my card. I had been having the majority of my AUs on this card. 11 year old account, 25k limit, 850 FICO score according to Discover and  820 according to credit karma. They reason they stated was "not able to meet my business needs". I tried to add an AU and passed on to multiple security folks until I was informed my card had been terminated.
The risk is real. I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

I've been selling tradelines with a couple of different companies for a couple of years now.  The most activity was often with 3 cards I had with Citi.  Citi shut all three of them down this past summer, due to "security risks".  I tried to call and talk to them, but there was no discussing it.  Capital One also put one of mine in a "restricted state" after I tried to add an AU.  They wanted a copy of the persons DL and SS cards in order to remove the restriction (meaning I could no longer use it until then).  Of course that was not going to happen.  I eventually just closed it myself.

If you do this often and long enough, your cards will get shut down.  I do not say that to discourage anyone, as its easy money while it lasts, but it will eventually come to and end.

Why "of course that was not going to happen?"  Don't the tradeline companies have those documents, and won't they provide them if your credit card company is demanding them?

I have no idea if they actually request copies of the actual DL and SS cards of the tradeline clients.  Bottom line is that they will not provide copies to a seller at the request of the credit card company.  At least that is what I was told when this happened.  And if I was a customer using a tradeline company, I would not be too keen on using one that provided that information to someone like myself.  I said obviously, because it seemed obvious to me at the time that they were not going to provide me those documents to give to my credit card company, and that is exactly what happened.

[erutio]

Discover just terminated my card. I had been having the majority of my AUs on this card. 11 year old account, 25k limit, 850 FICO score according to Discover and  820 according to credit karma. They reason they stated was "not able to meet my business needs". I tried to add an AU and passed on to multiple security folks until I was informed my card had been terminated.
The risk is real. I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

I've been selling tradelines with a couple of different companies for a couple of years now.  The most activity was often with 3 cards I had with Citi.  Citi shut all three of them down this past summer, due to "security risks".  I tried to call and talk to them, but there was no discussing it.  Capital One also put one of mine in a "restricted state" after I tried to add an AU.  They wanted a copy of the persons DL and SS cards in order to remove the restriction (meaning I could no longer use it until then).  Of course that was not going to happen.  I eventually just closed it myself.

If you do this often and long enough, your cards will get shut down.  I do not say that to discourage anyone, as its easy money while it lasts, but it will eventually come to and end.

Why "of course that was not going to happen?"  Don't the tradeline companies have those documents, and won't they provide them if your credit card company is demanding them?

I have no idea if they actually request copies of the actual DL and SS cards of the tradeline clients.  Bottom line is that they will not provide copies to a seller at the request of the credit card company.  At least that is what I was told when this happened.  And if I was a customer using a tradeline company, I would not be too keen on using one that provided that information to someone like myself.  I said obviously, because it seemed obvious to me at the time that they were not going to provide me those documents to give to my credit card company, and that is exactly what happened.

Depends on the TL companies.  You must not be using the ones recommended here.
Last summer, CapOne asked me the same thing. If fact, they asked for the DLs and SS cards of all the AUs I've ever added, which was 11 at the time.  I asked the "old" tradeline company for them, they emailed them back to me, I uploaded the docs to a special website that CapOne sent me.  My card was taken off restricted status in a few weeks, and I've gone back to selling TLs on it, no problem.

[merula]

They're asking for the DL and SS cards to confirm that the person is a real, US citizen/permanent resident and it's not a synthetic identify fraud issue.

[jtraggie99]

They're asking for the DL and SS cards to confirm that the person is a real, US citizen/permanent resident and it's not a synthetic identify fraud issue.

Yes, I know why they asked for it.  And it's the same reason they will ultimately close your cards down.  They are protecting themselves from what they see as risky practices.  I think for most credit card companies, from their perspective, constantly adding and removing AU's creates a growing number of cards with access to your account and increases the risk of fraudulent activity.  And that's basically what I was told by Citi.  I don't think they see it from the perspective of "gaming the system" to artificially inflate credit scores.  I wonder if that even enters their line of thinking.

And to answer the other guys question, I have worked with 3 different tradeline companies.  Two I found about here, one of which I have never had a single sale with, and the other, at most sporadic.  Honestly, the one I found on my own, I made way more money from.  Well, until things start getting shut down.  And that's not a knock on anyone here and the companies they recommended.  My only point in making these posts was to say, that in my experience, it's not if cards get shut down but when.  I suppose my issue with Capital One might have been avoidable with a different company, but I think the end result would have eventually happened, regardless.  I still have a few cards I use for this and will continue to do so, as long as they remain open. 

It definitely can be a lucrative gig, while it lasts.

[merula]

They're asking for the DL and SS cards to confirm that the person is a real, US citizen/permanent resident and it's not a synthetic identify fraud issue.

Yes, I know why they asked for it.  And it's the same reason they will ultimately close your cards down.  They are protecting themselves from what they see as risky practices.  I think for most credit card companies, from their perspective, constantly adding and removing AU's creates a growing number of cards with access to your account and increases the risk of fraudulent activity.  And that's basically what I was told by Citi.  I don't think they see it from the perspective of "gaming the system" to artificially inflate credit scores.  I wonder if that even enters their line of thinking.

And to answer the other guys question, I have worked with 3 different tradeline companies.  Two I found about here, one of which I have never had a single sale with, and the other, at most sporadic.  Honestly, the one I found on my own, I made way more money from.  Well, until things start getting shut down.  And that's not a knock on anyone here and the companies they recommended.  My only point in making these posts was to say, that in my experience, it's not if cards get shut down but when.  I suppose my issue with Capital One might have been avoidable with a different company, but I think the end result would have eventually happened, regardless.  I still have a few cards I use for this and will continue to do so, as long as they remain open. 

It definitely can be a lucrative gig, while it lasts.

Thank you for sharing this story. It reaffirms what ARS stresses about ensuring that the tradeline companies properly vet buyers to avoid identity fraud.

And if we are looking for a competing piece of anecdata, we need only look to the post above, where @erutio posted about being able to avoid a card closing by complying with requests for information that would disprove the statement that the CC cos "will ultimately close your cards down".

[JohnGalt79]

They're asking for the DL and SS cards to confirm that the person is a real, US citizen/permanent resident and it's not a synthetic identify fraud issue.

Yes, I know why they asked for it.  And it's the same reason they will ultimately close your cards down.  They are protecting themselves from what they see as risky practices.  I think for most credit card companies, from their perspective, constantly adding and removing AU's creates a growing number of cards with access to your account and increases the risk of fraudulent activity.  And that's basically what I was told by Citi.  I don't think they see it from the perspective of "gaming the system" to artificially inflate credit scores.  I wonder if that even enters their line of thinking.

And to answer the other guys question, I have worked with 3 different tradeline companies.  Two I found about here, one of which I have never had a single sale with, and the other, at most sporadic.  Honestly, the one I found on my own, I made way more money from.  Well, until things start getting shut down.  And that's not a knock on anyone here and the companies they recommended.  My only point in making these posts was to say, that in my experience, it's not if cards get shut down but when.  I suppose my issue with Capital One might have been avoidable with a different company, but I think the end result would have eventually happened, regardless.  I still have a few cards I use for this and will continue to do so, as long as they remain open. 

It definitely can be a lucrative gig, while it lasts.

So, which of the two TL companies here ("old" or "new"?)wouldn't provide you with the DL & SS card when you told them the cc company was requesting them?

[powskier]

I'm going to pull my most valuable card and only use the "throwaway accounts" that I never use.

Why?  What's the utility of keeping your "best" card to yourself?

From my perspective a six month old card with a $10k limit and a 10 year old card with a $30k limit both meet my personal spending needs identically well.  Why not make money off of the old card while you still can?  Is there some other benefit to keeping it around, besides tradelines?

Even if all of my current credit cards were to get shut down in the next few months I'm pretty confident I could still find a new new credit card, somewhere, that would work just fine for my grocery shopping and cell phone bill.  I guess I don't understand the desire to protect your oldest card from closure.

It's a mileage card that is 20 years old that gives us a $99 companion fare every year and that we put almost every expense that we can on. We travel by plane a minimum of twice a year and it rewards us very, very well for the $75 fee.
I don't use any cards for obtaining credit so to speak, although over the years I have used them for 18 month 0% offers while keeping other money better invested.
Yes a card is a card is a card but this one feels as if we are taking advantage of the bank, I mean we put 50k of my wife's grad school on it and thankfully were able to pay it off on every cycle. Used that subsequent 50 k miles for  obtaining plane tickets that would have been worth over $4000.

[daveed]

Joe,

I sent you a PM (I think) on here. Have read a bunch of this thread already and very interested in digging into this more after you mentioned it Sunday at Camp Mustache Toronto.

Thanks!

[DavidAnnArbor]

Joe,

I sent you a PM (I think) on here. Have read a bunch of this thread already and very interested in digging into this more after you mentioned it Sunday at Camp Mustache Toronto.

Thanks!

Hello fellow Ann Arborite

[solon]

TWO Davids from Ann Arbor? Hmmm...

[daveed]

That's right, there's TWO of us. Haha. Actually heard about Camp Mustache and the forum primarily from the other David, David #1. :)

[katsiki]

Not buying it.  Clearly, David #2 is a bot.  :>

[DavidAnnArbor]

That's right, there's TWO of us. Haha. Actually heard about Camp Mustache and the forum primarily from the other David, David #1. :)

Did I meet you at a MMM meeting at the Grizzly Peak ?

[arebelspy]

TWO Davids from Ann Arbor? Hmmm...

Right? I was pretty skeptical when I met another "Joe" from Seattle at an MMM meetup in Seattle.

You're named Joe too? Sureee...

[daveed]

That's right, there's TWO of us. Haha. Actually heard about Camp Mustache and the forum primarily from the other David, David #1. :)

Did I meet you at a MMM meeting at the Grizzly Peak ?

I think we met briefly at Grizzly Peak but haven't chatted much. That will change soon I hope!

[medinaj2160]

for Barclays AU's since they don't ask for a SS online, Do you guys call them Barclays to add the SS over the phone so it reports correctly?

[arebelspy]

for Barclays AU's since they don't ask for a SS online, Do you guys call them Barclays to add the SS over the phone so it reports correctly?

This is what the company says to do, yes.

I never do--I just don't give the SSN info. I do always put in their address, which is an optional add on Barclay's site.

I've never had one not report with their name, dob, address.

[monarda]

Data point-  an AMEX AU was added for a family member in early August and hasn't posted yet. Not sure how long it'll take, or if it'll post at all.

[PhrugalPhan]

A quick thanks to Arebelspy for starting this.  I just signed up today (and let them know you referred me).  We'll see how this works - starting with 4 cards.

[robartsd]

Data point-  an AMEX AU was added for a family member in early August and hasn't posted yet. Not sure how long it'll take, or if it'll post at all.

Date of add as authorized user doesn't matter. Date of first statement with a balance due should determine when the line gets reported to credit agencies.

[ducky19]

for Barclays AU's since they don't ask for a SS online, Do you guys call them Barclays to add the SS over the phone so it reports correctly?

This is what the company says to do, yes.

I never do--I just don't give the SSN info. I do always put in their address, which is an optional add on Barclay's site.

I've never had one not report with their name, dob, address.

Just had my first Barclay add not post. I've also never called in the SSN and have never had any issues, but I think it may be the address that caused it. I noticed with Barclay that if there is an apartment number, it adds that in front of the street number for some reason. That may or may not be it, but as this is the first failed add and I've had a couple dozen successful without calling in the SSN, I will probably continue to just include the address.

[katsiki]

@ducky19 Sorry to hear that...  I have always noticed the weirdness with the apt #.  Never had any problems yet.  Still fighting with Elan on the other hand to post.

[Shade00]

Discover closed my account with the message "we are no longer able to meet your servicing needs." No clue about why - I haven't had an add since late last year. Pretty normal usage on it.

[secondcor521]

Discover closed my account with the message "we are no longer able to meet your servicing needs." No clue about why - I haven't had an add since late last year. Pretty normal usage on it.

I continue to suspect that companies do periodic audits where they query their databases for what they consider to be risky behavior.  They then either human review or (less likely) do mass closings.

If this is accurate, then there could be a long while between when one does what they consider risky and the account closure.  It also means that "normal usage" may not inoculate one against account closure.

I continue to think that the total number of AU's added to a line, perhaps limited to those that don't reside at the same address or share the same last name, would be the search criteria that they use.

I also don't think they expend much energy or effort on this kind of thing overall, since the direct cost to them is pretty low.  Their main business risk would be loss due to fraud or punitive damages by not complying with federal restrictions on foreign nationals subject to sanction or something like that.

@Shade00, there also is the possibility that the reason for closure may not be related to AUs.  It's possible that some other behavior is what triggered the closure.  I don't know about you, but I typically do multiple things on each credit line that the CC companies don't like.

[topshot]

Two updates from my world.

1. Wrapped up first batch of piggybacking-closure cases favorably!

Sounds like you may have some more business from Discover customers, @PointsLawyer  ;)

[Shade00]

I continue to suspect that companies do periodic audits where they query their databases for what they consider to be risky behavior.  They then either human review or (less likely) do mass closings.

If this is accurate, then there could be a long while between when one does what they consider risky and the account closure.  It also means that "normal usage" may not inoculate one against account closure.

I continue to think that the total number of AU's added to a line, perhaps limited to those that don't reside at the same address or share the same last name, would be the search criteria that they use.

I also don't think they expend much energy or effort on this kind of thing overall, since the direct cost to them is pretty low.  Their main business risk would be loss due to fraud or punitive damages by not complying with federal restrictions on foreign nationals subject to sanction or something like that.

@Shade00, there also is the possibility that the reason for closure may not be related to AUs.  It's possible that some other behavior is what triggered the closure.  I don't know about you, but I typically do multiple things on each credit line that the CC companies don't like.

I'm not sure what that behavior could have been, but I guess there's no way to know. I had 4 adds last year, if I'm remembering correctly, and kept my utilization at no more than 5% until I used the card to buy some furniture at the beginning of the year. We paid that purchase off within a couple of months. I really have no clue. It's disappointing because I had that account since 2009 and had 23k in credit available. :(

[SuperChamp]

Thanks for the great post.  I am probably on the other side, looking to purchase the trade-lines as most from what I have read are selling them.

Question, as I dont know too much about how this works, except for the fact that the history of the credit gets piggy backed onto the new authorized user and this is what helps increase the score.

My question is that after a month or two of adding and removing the said user, does the credit stop reporting?

I emailed the OP regarding the recommended companies, and have yet to get a response.

thanks guys.

[Padonak]

Thanks for the great post.  I am probably on the other side, looking to purchase the trade-lines as most from what I have read are selling them.

Question, as I dont know too much about how this works, except for the fact that the history of the credit gets piggy backed onto the new authorized user and this is what helps increase the score.

My question is that after a month or two of adding and removing the said user, does the credit stop reporting?

I emailed the OP regarding the recommended companies, and have yet to get a response.

thanks guys.

I haven't seen a credit report of a person who was added and then removed as an Authorized User. My understanding is that you get a new record (tradeline) in your credit report which boosts your credit score because you "piggyback" on the main cardholder's age of the tradeline and credit line, meaning they are accounted for when your score is calculated. I believe that tradeline is reported as "closed" when you are removed as an AU, but it still remains in your report and increases you credit score.

[arebelspy]

My question is that after a month or two of adding and removing the said user, does the credit stop reporting?

When you are removed, the line may be removed from your report, yes. At that point, it wouldn't boost your score anymore. It's a temporary boost designed to help you get credit to improve it long term.

Sometimes it sticks on your credit report for a long time after you are removed, but I don't think there's any guarantees around that. Probably best to speak with the TL companies as a potential AU to find out details (and if any particular providers are more likely than others to stick on, or whatever).

[merula]

A family member added me as an authorized user to one of their cards so that I could make some purchases on their behalf. They also thought this would help me out with credit.

Well, turns out their credit utilization for that card was way above my average so my score was dropping despite the addition of a relatively high limit, moderate age account. So I had them remove me. That card is still listed on my credit report, though my score increased, so I don't think it's factoring in anymore.