To add an authorized user to a credit card, log in to your card issuer’s website or mobile app, find the account management section, and enter the person’s full legal name, date of birth, and Social Security number. You can also call the customer service number on the back of your card and have a representative do it over the phone. A card in the authorized user’s name is then mailed to your billing address, usually within 7 to 10 business days.1Capital One. How Long Does It Take to Get a Credit Card? Before you submit the request, understand the trade-off: you remain the only person legally responsible for paying the balance, and the account’s payment history flows onto the authorized user’s credit report in both directions.
Information You’ll Need
Issuers verify the person’s identity and set up credit bureau reporting using three pieces of information: full legal name, date of birth, and Social Security number. Confirm each detail with the person before you submit. A typo in the name or a wrong digit in the SSN can delay the request or cause the issuer to deny it outright.
No federal law sets a minimum age for authorized users, but each issuer has its own rule. American Express allows authorized users as young as 13, Discover sets its minimum at 15, and some issuers have no age floor at all.2Discover. How Old Do You Have to Be to Get a Credit Card?3American Express. How to Help Your Child Build Credit If your goal is to help a minor build credit, ask whether the issuer actually reports authorized user activity for people under 18. American Express and Chase, for example, don’t begin reporting until the authorized user turns 18.
Submitting the Request
Most major issuers put the option in your online banking dashboard under a link labeled something like “add a card member.” The mobile app usually has the same feature. If you don’t see it, call customer service.
Once the request is approved, the new physical card is generated in the authorized user’s name and mailed to your verified billing address, not to the authorized user’s home. That gives you control over physical access from the moment the card arrives. The authorized user then activates it through the phone number or website printed on the card sticker.
Who Is Responsible for the Balance
An authorized user can make purchases with the card, but has no legal obligation to pay the bill. Every charge is your responsibility as the primary cardholder, including anything the authorized user spends. This is the single most important thing to understand before adding someone: their spending is your debt.
A joint account holder is a different arrangement, where two people apply together and share equal liability for the full balance. Most major issuers no longer offer joint consumer credit cards, so the authorized user setup is what’s actually available when you want to share credit access with a spouse, partner, or family member. One boundary worth noting: in the nine community property states, a spouse can be held responsible for credit card debt incurred during the marriage regardless of whether they were named on the account.
What an Authorized User Can and Cannot Do
An authorized user can make purchases anywhere the card’s payment network is accepted and can see the account balance and their own transactions in the issuer’s app. That’s the extent of it.
They cannot request a credit limit increase, add other authorized users, change the billing address, or close the account.4Equifax. What Is an Authorized User on a Credit Card? Administrative control stays entirely with you.
One thing they can do without your involvement: contact the issuer and remove themselves from the account.5Experian. Removing Yourself as an Authorized User Could Help Your Credit This exists so someone whose credit is being hurt by the primary account can protect themselves.
Can You Limit What They Spend?
On most consumer credit cards, no. The authorized user has access to your full credit line with no way to set a sub-limit. American Express is the notable exception, offering per-billing-cycle caps that start as low as $200.6American Express. Additional Card Membership Small-business cards are different — spending controls for employee cards are widely available across issuers, so if you have a business card and want tighter control, that’s the account to use.
Rewards earned on the authorized user’s purchases belong to you. They accumulate in your account, and only you can redeem or transfer them.
How This Affects Their Credit
Card issuers report authorized user accounts to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion as part of the same monthly reporting that covers your account.7Experian. Are Authorized-User Accounts Reported to All Three Bureaus? The authorized user’s credit report will show the account’s payment history, credit limit, balance, and age. New activity usually appears on their report within one billing cycle, though it can take a few months.8Credit One Bank. What Is an Authorized User on a Credit Card?
Keep the balance low relative to the credit limit and pay on time, and the authorized user’s credit profile improves. Miss payments or carry high balances, and the same reporting pipeline damages their credit. The relationship is symmetric.
There’s a limit to how much authorized user status alone can accomplish. Newer FICO models, starting with FICO 8 and refined further in FICO Score 10T used in mortgage lending, include logic designed to reduce the weight of authorized user tradelines that look like score manipulation.9FICO. FICO Score 10T for Mortgage Originations Manual underwriters, especially for mortgages, often discount authorized user accounts, and some card issuers strip them from applications entirely. If the person you’re adding is serious about building credit, they should also open at least one account in their own name, such as a secured card.
Removing an Authorized User
You remove someone through the same channels used to add them: online portal, app, or a phone call. The authorized user can also remove themselves by contacting the issuer.4Equifax. What Is an Authorized User on a Credit Card? Destroy the physical card immediately after removal.
The account should drop off the former authorized user’s credit report within one to two billing cycles. If it lingers past that, the former authorized user should call the issuer to confirm the removal went through, and if the account still appears, file a dispute directly with each bureau still showing it.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681s-2 – Responsibilities of Furnishers of Information to Consumer Reporting Agencies Federal law prohibits furnishers from reporting information they know to be inaccurate and requires them to investigate reported errors.
Situations You Might Not Have Considered
If You Die
When the primary cardholder dies, the account is closed and the authorized user’s card becomes inactive. The outstanding balance becomes a debt of the estate. The authorized user is not personally responsible for it, even for charges they made. They should destroy the card and stop using it as soon as they learn of the death.
If You File Bankruptcy
An authorized user is not liable for account debt in a primary cardholder’s bankruptcy, because they never signed the credit agreement. The account disruption can still cause reporting glitches on the authorized user’s credit file, so if you’re planning to file, remove authorized users at least a month before filing to give the bureaus time to separate the records cleanly.
Gift Tax on Large Spending
If you’re paying the bill for someone else’s purchases, the IRS can treat that spending as a gift. The 2026 annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, and married couples who elect to split gifts can cover $38,000 per recipient.11Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax12Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes Everyday family spending stays well below that, but if you’re covering large expenses for an adult child, parent, or non-spouse partner, track the total. Amounts over the exclusion require Form 709, though no tax is owed until your cumulative lifetime gifts exceed $15,000,000.