While comparing credit card offers you’ve no doubt noticed that many credit cards offer free cards for additional cardholders. These are other people you authorise to make charges against your credit card account. You’re still ultimately responsible for charges if the other person doesn’t pay them though, so it’s important to be cautious about whom you grant additional cardholder status to.

Despite that risk, there are still some good reasons why you might want to consider adding an additional cardholder to your account. Let’s look at some individuals who might be worth consideration, and others you should probably avoid.

It Might be a Good Idea to Add These Authorised Cardholders

Here are three examples of people who you might want to add to your credit card account.

1. Your spouse — If you plan to combine finances to any degree, but you don’t want to change your credit card accounts, you might just want to add your spouse as an additional cardholder. That’s especially true if you’ll both need to use that card to make routine purchases.
2. Your (responsible) child / student – If you have a grown child in school and you can trust them to be responsible with money (or you plan to cover certain expenses for them and want better tracking), you might want to add them to your account. It’s also a way to help them build their own financial history and greater responsibility.
3. Your business partner or employee – Business credit cards also might require additional authorised users. Maybe you and a business partner need to share a single account, or you want high level management to be able to use a company credit card you’ve taken out in order to make their own simple purchasing decisions.

It Might be a Bad Idea to Add These Authorised Cardholders

Now let’s look at who you probably shouldn’t have as an additional cardholder: basically “everyone else.”

1. Friends
2. Siblings
3. Neighbours
4. Acquaintances
5. Low-level employees
6. More distant family members
7. More casual romantic partners

Why is it not such a great idea to give them access to your credit card account? You don’t have as much contact with or influence over these people in many cases. There’s very little ensuring they’ll actually pay for the charges they incur, and it’s easier for them to simply disappear than those mentioned previously. In most situations, it just isn’t worth the risk. Keep additional cardholder status for those you can trust completely, and those who are least likely to take advantage of you in the process.