Authorized user on Capital One?

[superdave]

I just found someone who is willing to add me to their Capital One account to help me boost my credit rating. Their score is 738 so this should be good.

The only problem is that I've read that Capital One is not good for reporting available balances thus possibly not being too positive.

The available balance is 600 and they owe 150. They may ask for an increase when they add me. The other option is a Chase card with an available balance of 1500 but they owe 800. No late payments on either one, as per freecreditreport.

Which do I choose, or do I do both?

[hailey]

I remember reading something saying that Capital One isn't the best card to start with. I really can't give you any professional advice, only what I've read here.

If the person adding you is willing to do both, you may want to try that. Their score is very good so this sounds right.

Good luck.

[chane]

Unfortunately, Capital One does not report correctly to the credit bureaus and can damage your credit more than they help it. That's why myself and many, many others refuse to own a Capital One credit card.

It's a shame because everything else about them is great, I got my car finance through them.

Also, I just found this out...

FICO is pulling the plug on authorized users because there are dozens of websites that "rent" their cards out to people with poor credit for up to 90 days. Fair Isaac's public affairs manager, Craig Watts, said that beginning in September, the updated FICO scoring model no longer will consider credit card "authorized user" accounts in computing scores.

That pretty much makes Authorized Users useless now. A huge blow to people trying to repair their credit by piggybacking.