To be one of the approved users of other person's credit card, the usual way is to partner with seasoned trade line companies or the matchmakers. The process is simple: those with bad ratings or "deadbeats" can ask those with good reputation or "donors" to include them as one of the authorized users of their card. The matchmakers act as the middleman in the entire process.

Those with bad credit will have to pay about $700 to $2,000 for "borrowing" the credit card account while the matchmakers and donors split the earnings. Since these deadbeats are piggybacking from the good reputation of donors, their scores will also shoot up after 30 to 90 days. After the agreement, the donors can ask their lending company to remove these approved users. This window is enough time for the deadbeats to ask for loans, mortgage, or even use it as support for their job application.

A low-cost alternative is to ask relatives or friends to name them as extension or approved users. No need to pay expensive fees to seasoned trade line companies. This is typical among students who use their parent's account to improve their scores.

From this standpoint, it would appear that the deadbeats have nothing to lose except the fee they have to pay. However, there is always a catch or weakness in every product. Most donors have outstanding credit reputation for many years but there are inevitable situations that can change them to be delinquent donors. If a donor fails to settle his or her obligation or fails to pay on time then his score will drop significantly. As approved users, the deadbeats will also get the same rating of the donor. After all, they are just extensions of the principal or primary users.

Fortunately, approved users are not liable to settle up the obligations because they did not sign any contract with the card issuer. However, rating agencies can still reflect these obligations to the account of approved users since there is also no law that inhibits them. Worst case scenario is when a donor files for bankruptcy it will put more damage to the already poor ratings of the deadbeats. It will take years to rebuild the ratings in situations like this.

If this situation crops up, the solution is to contact the card issuer and request to remove the name from the account. It can be done by phone but a visit to the company will help speed up the process. Keep all communications in black and white as protection for any misunderstanding or fraud. It is important to monitor the ratings to verify if the account is already deleted. Ratings vary every 30 days so do not expect this will take effect overnight.

The bottom line is that authorized user credit is not really the perfect alternative to boost ratings. It always is better to carefully assess the situation and fully evaluate the donor.