Piggybacking Credit Repair

Repairing your credit is often a long, drawn-out process that takes a considerable amount of dedication on your part. On the other hand, some people have taken an approach known as "piggybacking," which is a shortcut to higher credit scores. With this approach, you utilize the good credit scores of someone else to help your own.

How Piggybacking Works

The basic idea behind piggybacking is that you use someone who has good credit to improve your own score. You are added onto someone else's credit card as an authorized user. Once you are on the account, the good credit record and payment history of the credit card also go on your credit report. When the credit bureaus calculate your credit score, this will immediately improve it and help you obtain additional credit in the future.

PIggyback Companies

To facilitate a piggybacking arrangement, many companies provide this service. If you have poor credit, you can pay a certain amount of money to piggyback off of someone else's credit. The service that sets up the transaction gets a commission, and the person with the good credit score gets the rest of the money. The piggybacking company simply acts as the middle man and sets up the rules of the transaction between the two parties.

Authorized User

Credit card companies allow credit card holders to add people to their accounts, known as authorized users. Authorized users are individuals who technically have the right to use the credit card account. When you use a piggybacking strategy, the company that sets up the arrangement does not provide any information about the credit card to the authorized user. This prevents the authorized user from actually using the credit card account to make any purchases without the permission of the card holder.

Selling Bad Debt

In recent years the strategy of piggybacking off of other people's good credit has aroused the ire of credit bureaus. This has lead credit repair companies to become more creative. In some cases they can sell bad debt for those who have accounts that are charged off. The credit repair bureaus can buy these accounts and then sell them off to consumers who need cash quickly. The credit bureaus are always trying to adapt and put a stop to these practices, when possible.