A story I missed

The week before last I was on vacation and missed this story. (Thanks to BizzyBlog for pointing it out.)

The original story Techdirt is linking to has been removed, but I do recall seeing something like this. You can improve your credit by becoming an authorized user on another person's credit card (someone with a very good credit history). I didn't realize there was a service in place to facilitate this, though. Apparently you can become an authorized user on a perfect stranger's account if you pay a service to match you up. I don't know what they pay the cardholder with the good credit to do this, though.

I can tell you this; whatever they're paying, it's not enough. You'd have to have rocks in your head to take this kind of risk. In my seminars, my standard advice is this; if you can get someone to co-sign for you, great. But under no circumstances should you co-sign for someone else.

I'm even reluctant to recommend people co-sign with their children. I've seen way to many people brought to the brink of bankruptcy by their kids, and the dirty non-secret of identity theft is that it's frequently a family member who's racking up unauthorized charges in your name.

As for the people with bad credit histories who are benefiting from this obviously fraudulent tactic to qualify for mortgages, what will be said of them when they ultimately lose their homes to foreclosure? Probably something like "Those evil, irresponsible predatory lenders have done it again."

Comments

[Kricket]

Speaking of repsonsibility for other folks debt- child or parent- could you please continue your discussion about inheriting credit card debt from your parents or other relatives? What are the rules here?