Does Being a Secondary Person on a Credit Card Lower My Credit Score?

How It Works

A primary credit card holder is the individual who originally applied for the card and whose credit and income were considered when the credit card company awarded him the account. The primary user can then authorize other individuals to make purchases using his account. Any individual authorized to have access to the primary user's account is a secondary or "authorized" user.

While only the primary card holder is legally responsible for paying debts she and her authorized users incurred, the credit card company reports the card's debt level and payment history to the credit bureaus, and this information appears on all users' credit reports -- impacting their credit scores.

Credit Impact

Becoming an authorized user of an established credit card account serves as a viable method of building new credit or repairing damaged credit. Provided the primary user does not carry a high balance and makes each credit card payment on time, secondary users' credit scores benefit rather than suffer from having the credit card company's trade line on their credit reports. This process is known as "piggybacking."

Potential Damage

If the primary user misses a scheduled payment, defaults on the credit card balance or carries a high balance from month to month, both his credit score and the credit scores of his secondary users suffer. This is because the credit scoring formula places a high importance on timely payments and rewards consumers for low revolving debts.

Because the authorized user is not responsible for paying the debt, the credit card company is not obligated to contact her in the event the primary user fails to make payments as agreed. Thus, not only could the secondary user potentially suffer credit damage, she would not receive notification that the damage was occurring -- leaving her unable to make payments and mitigate the damage on her own.

Removing Secondary Users

An authorized user has the right to request that the primary card holder's credit card company remove her from his account -- but the credit card company does not have to oblige the request. Because authorized users have no power over the account details, only the primary card holder can force a credit card company to remove an authorized user from a credit card account. Each credit card company employs differing regulations regarding removing secondary users. Once removed, however, the account will cease to update on the authorized user's credit report -- preventing further credit damage.