What is Piggybacking and is it safe?

stack of credit cards, and a keyboard

​If you have a low credit score, or no score and a family member or friend with good credit piggy backing may be an option.  In the simplest form it means you "piggyback" on their credit, by becoming an authorized user of their credit, for example a credit card.  

This is often seen as a traditional way to build credit, but there are some things to know.  For example if the credit isn't being reported, it's not helping you.  

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The article also goes into some of the dangers like opening yourself up to identity theft, and the misuse of "credit companies" connecting strangers.  
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If you have a trusted family member or friend, and they trust you too, this can be a great option to help get you started on the right track.  It can take some time for it to show up, and is not an immediate fix.  Also there are things to consider like keeping the debt under that 30% mark of use.  

For a full article looking at how Credit Card Piggybacking works read the following article on TIME, 
Credit Card Piggybacking Can Help You Build Your Credit, But You Need to Be Careful, from their NextAdvisor Partnership.  It's about a 7 minute read and has a lot of details, pros and cons.  

Link to the article: 
https://time.com/nextadvisor/credit-cards/what-is-piggybacking/