 TITLE: What Rights Do You Have As an Authorized User on a Credit Card? CONTENT: A person who opens a credit card account is the primary account holder, and is fully responsible for managing the account and making payments. As an authorized user, you are considered a secondary account holder. You have access to the account, but no ownership. Low credit scores or financial difficulties shouldn't prevent you from being added to the account, and having your name on the account can actually help lift your scores if it's reported to the credit bureaus.\nAlmost anyone can be an authorized user, and depending on the issuer, you may not even need to be an adult. All the primary account holder has to do is contact the credit card issuer and request that you be added to the account. You should then receive a copy of the credit card imprinted with your name.\nWhen you make a purchase as an authorized user, the primary account holder will receive the bill. All of your charges will show up on the card's statements, so the account holder will be able to view your activity, where the transactions were made and the amount of your purchases.\nTo keep spending in check, some credit card issuers allow the primary account holder to set lower limits on the amount that authorized users can spend. So if the card's limit is $10,000, you may only have access to $1,000, for instance. END