Is it true that I can boost my credit score by having loved ones add me as an authorized user on their CCs?

Please explain your answer. Why or why not. Thanks!

Public Comments

1. Nope - basically what they're doing is standing as an insurer for your purchases so your payments go to their credit score and not your own.
2. I never heard of that. I don't know that this is the case, but my GUESS would be that it would LOWER your credit score, as each credit card you hold lowers your score, meaning if you apply for and get several credit cards, your score takes a hit. It may not effect your score at all though since you aren't the primary cardholder. I seriously doubt that it would increase your credit score at all, but I don't have any first-hand knowledge to back that up.
3. Not any more. That was true, but Fair Isaac (the main company that provides credit scores) has stopped allowing that. I believe that the reason is that scores calculated in this manner were unreliable. Someone with a great credit score can add an authorized user with poor credit and the person with poor credit will look like a safer risk than they really are.
4. If you are listed as an authorized user, it might show up on your credit report. However, it is no longer used in calculating your credit score. It really doesn't help at all anymore.
5. This used to be true...being added as an authorized user on a credit card would boost your score because all the positive history associated with that card would transfer to your credit report. This is called "credit piggybacking." What people were doing was paying people (or getting a loved one with a card with a good history) to add them as an authorized user to bump their credit score so they could finance a home or a car at a lower interest rate. After the housing market went belly up Fair Isaacs Corp (FICO) decided they needed to take a better look at "credit piggybacking." They changed their formula so that on September 1, 2007 authorized user status on a card was no longer taken into account when calculating a person's credit score.