I had somebody ask me about their credit card issue. Rather it's their son's credit card.

A while back this Ontario couple declared bankruptcy. Because of the bankruptcy, they lost all of their credit cards. As they ran a business, they needed some form of credit.

They got their son to be the primary signers on a credit card, on which they cosigned. This means that the son owns the credit card account, and the parents were coat tailing.

The interesting part is that the parents received the credit card statement each month and fully paid for the credit card. They've got a nice credit limit etc.

THE PROBLEM IS:
The parents thought that they were building up their credit worthiness by doing this. They have faithfully paid this credit card every month. They've been diligent in all respects. When they looked at their credit report, there was no showing of this credit card at all. This means that all of these years of diligent payments haven't done anything for their credit. Their son is the only one to benefit from their good credit behaviour.

They asked me if there was some way that they could transfer that credit card to their name and thus get the benefit of the credit rating. The answer is NO. They would have to get their own credit cards to rebuild their own credit score.

Only the original signer gives the creditor the permission to report to the credit bureaus Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada.

Have you had a similar experience... we would like to hear about it on Canadian Money Advisor.

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