How to Piggyback to Increase Credit Score

Your credit score is a big deal in the United States. Its affects your ability to get employed, obtain a credit card, purchase a car, rent an apartment or own a house. Consumers who have low credit scores may find themselves ineligible for several opportunities. As a result, some will piggyback to increase a credit score. Piggybacking is where a person with a high credit score and a credit card adds the person with the low credit score as an authorized user on a credit card. As a result, the credit score of the individual with bad credit increases.

Instructions

1

Know your credit score. Purchasing a FICO credit score report or learning about your credit score from another credit reporting agency will let you know how low your score is. You can use a credit report in the future to see how much it has improved by piggybacking.

2

Ask a person with a good credit score to add you as an authorized user on one of her credit cards. A good person to ask is someone close to you, like a spouse, sibling or parent. Ideally, this individual should have a long credit history.

3

Do not use the credit card that comes with the other individual's credit card account. If you cannot pay your own bills or do not have the immediate funds to pay back the other individual right away, you could end up hurting their credit score by making frivolous purchases. This, in turn, will not help your poor credit situation.

4

Order a copy of your free credit report one month after being added as an authorized user on the credit card account. You should see the new credit account on this report. If not, call the credit card company to find out when they will update their reports with the credit bureaus.

5

Check your credit score three months after being added as an authorized user on the credit card account to see if it has increased. Continue to check your credit score periodically.