“Add your child as an authorized user so you can help them establish a good credit history.” It’s common advice — and it’s not wrong. Assuming you have an excellent credit history yourself, as well as flawless credit habits, you can give your child a credit boost by adding them to your credit card account.
As they say, though, the devil is in the details.
Sure, you can add Junior to your cards when he’s a toddler, but is that helping him? Or are you potentially opening the door to fraud without giving him any real benefit? Are you seeding an enviable credit history that will aid him in securing credit when he’s an adult? Or are you prematurely introducing complex money concepts before he’s old enough to understand and participate?
Let’s clear up the murkiness around the right time to add your children as authorized users and address how your decision impacts them both right away and well into the future.
When does a child start building credit history?
Something triggers the start of your credit history — it doesn’t magically materialize on your 18th birthday. In fact, about 28 million Americans lack a traditional credit history, meaning they are credit invisible, according to a 2022 Experian report.
“Credit cards are typically one of the more common forms of accounts we see [to start credit histories],” says Margaret Poe, head of consumer credit education for TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus. “Student loans are [also] often an early account on people’s credit report.”
While these are typical accounts for adults, there are also a handful of reasons a child may have a credit file.
Being added as an authorized user on their parents’ credit card is a regular — and even helpful — activity that initiates a child’s credit history. “Typically a child won’t have credit. They won’t have any kind of credit account, so they won’t have any kind of credit history,” explains Poe.
However, it’s not the only way children find themselves with credit histories long before they need them.
One of the big reasons a child might have a credit history is because they’re a victim of fraud.
— Margaret Poe
Head of consumer credit education, TransUnion
One in 19 children has been a victim of identity fraud in the past six years, and 1 in 116 has been victimized within the past year, according to a 2024 report from Javelin Strategy & Research.
You can help prevent fraud against your child by freezing their credit. This brings us to another common initial report in a child’s credit history: Freezing their credit will start their credit file, albeit a frozen one.
“[The consumer freeze] is a great tool that’s out there,” Poe says. “It is a good resource for families.”
Poe explained that once frozen, a child’s credit will remain frozen until someone provides the necessary documentation to remove it. Parents can make those decisions for their children, or a child can request to have their credit unfrozen or frozen when they turn 16.
When does a child get a credit score?
The simple answer is, they don’t. Just because a child has a credit history doesn’t mean they have a credit score. They simply aren’t old enough.
“The child will not have a credit score until they turn 18,” says Andrada Pacheco, executive vice president and chief data scientist at VantageScore. She explains that even children with credit histories, either because they’re authorized users on their parents’ cards or for other reasons, will not have scores until they reach 18.
Once they’re adults, it could still take some time for a credit score to generate. Getting a score requires a certain volume of information in your credit file. VantageScore can often generate a score within a month of an eligible account being added to your file, but it could take six months of activity to generate a FICO score.
In the case of young adults who have been added as authorized users, they can benefit from their parents’ lengthy credit histories that help pad their files, but that assumes the issuing bank reports the activity of authorized users, and not all of them do. Most major banks do report authorized user activity, including Capital One, Bank of America and Discover. A few, such as American Express and Chase, only report activity for authorized users who are 18 or older. If it’s important to your plans, verify directly with your issuer whether they report authorized user activity or not.
Why you may want to add your young child as an authorized user
Junior won’t have a credit score until he’s 18, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add him as an authorized user on your credit card right now.
We have recommended adding your child as an authorized user as long as your credit is strong and you have the conversation with them. It’s a relatively low-risk way to begin building credit.
— Margaret Poe, head of consumer education, TransUnion
Assuming your bank allows younger authorized users — some have no age restrictions while others require the authorized user to be 13 or older — there’s nothing wrong with adding your child when they head off to kindergarten. Perhaps you see it as an item to check off the list so it’s done when the time comes for your child to begin using a card. Or maybe your child is old enough to begin to understand credit cards and budgeting, and this is a financial literacy lesson for them.
In either case, just know that adding them at six years old and adding them at 16 years old won’t ultimately affect the credit history boost you’re giving them.
For example, I have a 20-year-old credit account. If I add my 10-year-old son as an authorized user today, his credit file will show a 20-year credit history. If I wait and add my son to the account when he turns 16, he’ll have a 26-year credit history. Either way, when he turns 18, assuming my credit history is enough to make his file scorable, his credit score should benefit from my 28-year-old credit card in his credit history. And, yes, that means his credit history will be older than he is, but that won’t negatively affect him.
There is no information on the credit report showing the number of years since the child has been added as an authorized user, just that the child IS an authorized user on the parent’s credit card.
— Andrada Pacheco, Executive vice president and chief data scientist, VantageScore
“I did it myself for my daughter when she turned 16 — just two years ahead of the time,” Pacheco says.
According to Pacheco, the average VantageScore 4.0 for 18-year-olds was 652, considered “near prime,” as of February 2025. On average, 18-year-olds who are authorized users on a credit card account have a one-point advantage over those who do not. That one point may not sound like much, but VantageScore considers scores of 661-780 to be “prime,” and moving into that bracket could make a significant difference in credit terms and approvals. In other words, at this stage of a person’s credit journey, every point can make a difference.
For Pacheco, though, adding a child as an authorized user is as much about educational opportunities as it is about boosting their scores down the road.
“The advice would be to wait until the child is actually responsible enough to handle it himself or herself,” Pacheco says. “It’s a great teaching tool. It’s important for them to understand what credit is and that it’s important to use credit responsibly.
“Show them the statement,” she advises. “’These are my charges. These are your charges. If you had a budget for the month, what do you need to do to manage this and what do you need to think about?’”
Reasons you might want to wait to add children as authorized users
Your child won’t realize any additional credit score benefits from being added as an authorized user well before they turn 18, so you have the freedom to wait to make the decision. And there are good reasons to wait.
Perhaps most importantly, adding your child as an authorized user creates a credit file for them. Sure, that’s ultimately what you want, but when they’re very young, you may just be creating an opportunity for fraud.
The 2024 Javelin survey found that 1 in 8 children has had their identity exposed in a data breach in the past six years, and 1 in 43 has had personally identifiable information exposed in a data breach within the past year.
“If there’s a breach, [your child’s] information is out there,” Pacheco says, adding that she doesn’t see any benefit in adding your children before they’re old enough to use the card or understand the responsibility.
In fact, Pacheco and Poe agree there’s an educational aspect to adding your child as an authorized user, and waiting until they’re old enough to participate in the decision could be helpful.
“Once you’re in the couple of years’ window of 16 to 18 [years old], it’s time to start thinking about it,” Poe advises. “I would first consider where I’m at right now, then I would think about what is the need for them, in terms of credit for the child. And then you have to make a judgment call about when to start the process.”
Lastly, an authorized user on your credit card is a financial liability. You, as the primary cardholder, are on the hook for any purchases your authorized users, including your children, make. You, of course, don’t have to give your child a card the day you make them an authorized user, but when the day comes that you do hand over the plastic, be ready to manage the charges they may decide to make.
The child has to be old enough to understand what’s going on — the credit, the responsibility.”
— Andrada Pacheco
Executive vice president and chief data scientist, VantageScore
The bottom line
Assuming your bank allows it, there’s nothing stopping you from adding your child as an authorized user on your card when they’re quite young. That lengthy credit history will be waiting for them when they turn 18 and should lend a boost to their score. Plus, you can use this as a teaching activity to help them learn how to manage credit.
But there are some downsides to adding young children to your credit cards, namely that it potentially opens them up to the risk of data breaches and fraud by creating a not-yet-needed credit file. Further, add them too early, and you could miss out on a natural opportunity to talk to them about what you’ve done and the responsibility it entails.
Ultimately, the when is up to each parent to decide. Experts agree, however, that adding them by their mid-to-late-teens is a recommended time for maximum credit score benefit and age-appropriate personal finance educational opportunities.
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