I subscribe to Kiplingers and an article in the last edition was called “Give You Child Some Credit” and it was all about how you could help your kid by adding them as an authorized user to your credit card.

If you, or your parents, have excellent credit, this is true.

Or if you, like teenage me, don’t really know what a credit score is, much less what your parents are, you probably won’t ask any questions.

When I turned 17 and got my driver’s license, my mom added me as an authorized user to her credit card for emergencies.

I didn’t ask any questions. I just said thanks and put the credit card in my wallet.

Over the years, I used that card plenty of times. There were things I knew was just allowed to put on it and the occasional actual emergency.

In college, at freshman orientation, I was able to apply for my own credit card which had a whopping limit of $500.

For the most part going forward, I used that, but I was and still am very lucky and very middle class with parents who paid for an awful lot in college. Things like books, supplies, etc. that were cleared with them in advance went on my mom’s card.

Life continued like this for years with no questions on my end, until I was around 24 and wondered how you get your credit card company to raise your limit higher than $500. I’d made all my payments on time and this seemed like a no brainer.

I called and asked them to increase my limit. They said no.

Well, alright then? What did I know back then.

I’ll just get another credit and one of those fancy reward ones, I thought. So I applied.

And was promptly rejected.

This was the first time I came across the phrase credit score, so I did some digging to find out what mine was and what was contributing to it.

Guys, it was dismal. Low 600s. After years of steadily putting a little on my credit card and paying it off every month.

And that’s when I saw that my mother’s account was listed as part of my account. Which was also when I first really learned how not good with credit cards she was.

That account had a $30,000 limit and it was fully maxed out.

I appeared to be utilizing 99% of my available credit even though, and here’s the kicker, I had given her the card back a year or two earlier.

When I handed her back the physical card, I figured that was that. In reality, she had never removed me from the account.

Neither of us had any idea that by being an authorized user, her account would reflect on my credit score. We actually thought that didn’t apply specifically because I was only an authorized user.

I think it’s really fortunate I wanted a rewards card so badly because if I hadn’t looked into it, it might have been that way for years and not shown up until I was applying for student loans or trying to buy a house – assuming my credit was probably just fine only to learn it was garbage.

On the plus side, we had me removed as her authorized user and in a few months, my credit score shot right up. CapitalOne upped my limit on that initial credit card to $5,000 without me even asking, and I was able to apply for and get the rewards card I wanted.

So just a warning to those high school/college aged folks out there who are authorized users on your parents’ cards, be aware it could really be messing up your credit score. It might not matter while you’re in school, but you might want to get taken off that card as soon as you graduate.

If you have no idea what your parents’ relationship with credit is, checking your own credit report after being an authorized user for a few months will probably give you a snapshot of whether that authorized user card will help or hurt you in the long run.

You can check out your credit score really easily are Credit Karma or request a full credit report at FreeCreditReport.com.