The Wong Ohana

Another sure fire easy way to increase your Credit Score is to ask a close family member that does have good credit (and make SURE they have good credit, you don’t want to make a mistake here!) to add you to their card. Odds are that perhaps your parents, or a favorite Aunt or Uncle may be able to help you out here.

Once you have ascertained that THEIR Credit Rating is sufficiently better than yours, ask them if they would call their Credit Card Company and request that YOUR NAME be added to their credit card. This takes just the amount of time to make the phone call.

You can assure them that they don’t have to give you a card, or access to their card, and you certainly don’t want to ruin your relationship by actually trying to use their card, but just by adding your name to it, you will begin to get the benefit of any activity including past history on that card.

This is another fairly easy way to increase your Credit Score. Of course, you have to have incredible trust in this person, and vice versa because you are doing what is called riding “piggy back” on their credit. And believe me that if you blow this opportunity, you will burn bridges that you may never be able to rebuild, so be sure that not only are they trustworthy enough to maintain their credit rating, but YOU MUST also be trustworthy enough not to do anything both you and they will ever regret!

And if you yourself have a good Credit Score, this is also a fantastic way to help out your children when they are just starting out. You can add them to your own card (and not necessarily tell them, you don’t want your teenagers out spending on your Credit Card without your knowledge). This will start building up their own credit so that when they are ready to make their first purchases as an adult, they will already have a good credit score.

And don’t forget, its a whole lot easier to ADD someone’s name to your card than to REMOVE someone’s name from your card. If you want to remove someone, you actually have to close down the account completely and get a new card! So don’t do this frivolously, or without a lot of thought behind it!

Filed under: Credit Card DOs and DON'Ts, FIX / REPAIR Your Credit, Personal Finances on January 11th, 2008