Amex Supplementary Card and its CIBIL Complications

By | July 6, 2019

If you’re an American Express Credit Card holder, chances are you would have got all possible supplementary cards on your A/c so as to enjoy the reward points (or) Amazon vouchers that came with the Amex Supplementary card offer, which recently got renewed with a similar offer.

Now this article deals with after effects of getting those supplementary credit cards. Here’s everything you need to know,

Amex Supplementary Card and its CIBIL Complications

Authorized User

The concept of Authorised user is quite popular in western countries like USA, where-in when someone is new to the credit system, he/she can improve the score quickly just by being an authorised user to the primary cardholder who has good track record.

I was expecting this to happen in India for a long time. I’ve even asked Amex rep. reg. this few years back but they said no such thing exists in Amex India.

But I was surprised to see the Supp. card a/c issued from my primary Amex card A/c show up on my family member’s CIBIL report that was marked as “Authorized User“. WOW!

Yes, Amex now reports Supp. Card usage to CIBIL. But Its tough to figure out if CIBIL really considers this into Ac while computing the Score. Most likely YES, but could have given very low weightage.

So this is an awesome thing to happen for Indian Credit Cards. But a sad news comes with it as well.

Your Contacts are shared

While some of you might have given the respective Supp. Cardholder’s mobile/email while activating the card, chances are most of you would have given your own details to make things easier, just like me.

But that was a bad decision. Because your details gets shared with your Supp. Cardholder’s Credit Report. Yes!! If you open your Supp. Cardholder’s CIBIL report, you can see your Contact Number/Address being displayed there, along with their info, sometimes it gets REPLACED too.

For Ex, in my case, as I got the Amex supplementary card recently from my friend, all his details like Address/mobile number got updated on my records and know what, my own mobile number was missing on my report. But I can see my mobile # on one of my Family a/c’s profile. 😛

The real problem is, when you want to authenticate your credit report, CIBIL uses that number to send OTP. For ex, when I was attempting to authenticate one of my Family’s CIBIL a/c, I got the SMS on my Mobile.

Ideally, it looks like I messed up everything!

So, How to Fix?

Ofcourse, you may raise a dispute with CIBIL but the simple way is to update the info with AMEX by calling them, hoping that Amex will share the Updated contact details next time when the bill generates & reported to CIBIL.

I assume this is how it would work and the Amex Rep. too assured the same.

But I still doubt. Need to wait for a month to re-confirm if it really works this way. If not, the other option is to raise a dispute with CIBIL.

Limit Period Offer: Get Amex MRCC or Amex Plat Tarvel Credit Card as First year FREE

Bottomline

So going forward, whenever you get an American Express Supp. Card for someone, its safe to update their own details on A/c, else you may mess up not only his ac, but also your’s.

Have you spotted this issue? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Author: Siddharth

Helping Indians to choose right credit cards, pick right offers and enjoy luxury vacations for less. Day & night exploring the spiritual reality of our human existence.

29 thoughts on “Amex Supplementary Card and its CIBIL Complications

  1. KK

    Just checked that even ICICI marked the supplementary card beneficiary as an “Authorised User”. I noted that my dad has been classified as one since way back in 2005, when I applied for his supplementary card. So I guess it’s not new.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      I’ve also seen one of my own ICICI card marked as Authorized (one of Sapphiro Visa/Amex) but seeing it from Amex is pretty new you see 😀

      P.S. How many days do they take to issue ICICI Supp. Card? Mine still in process for 15+ days.

      Reply
      1. KK

        Don’t know how long it takes ICICI to issue supp cards man. The last I applied was in 2005 only 🙂

        Reply
  2. SH

    I have spotted the authorized user business a few months back, but since I always give the correct phone numbers, I haven’t suffered the problem. But good you discovered it. Holmes would have been proud😀

    Reply
  3. Abhishek Roy

    I saw this myself too. My brother address is coming in my CIBIL report. Plus, I now have two amex cards, one as individual (My own MRCC) The other as Authorised User from my brother MRCC. I’ll cancel the Supplementary Card once we both get our respective bonus RPs.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      But I don’t think cancelling would remove the address. Did you explore how to get rid of that address?

      Reply
      1. Abhishek Roy

        No, I guess you cannot remove it once it’s on the CIBIL. However, I guess, if you cancel the Supplementary card, the card with “Authorised User” should be shown as “Closed”. I am aiming for that at least.

        Reply
        1. Siddharth Post author

          Yes it does show as Closed as I see on my closed Jet Supp. Cards. But how does that help?

          Reply
  4. Jigar

    Authorized user concept was initiated by ICICI since a long time.
    I have it on my profile as i have an addon of my dads card.
    This card was deactivated in 2017 and it showed even then.

    Reply
  5. Akash Agrawal

    Hi Sid
    I am being offered for ICICI Sapphiro Credit Card from the bank,as an upgrade.I currently own Free ICICI HPCL Coral Credit Card.If I choose to upgrade,I have to pay 6500 Plus GST as joining fee and 3500 plus GST as Annual fee.Do you think it’s worth it?Also,does bank offers the same for free to select customers?

    Reply
  6. Arjun S D

    Thanks for all the info Siddharth. One question that’s been bugging me, just curious to know what kind of wallet you use to store your 9+ cards. Do you use a separate card wallet?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      I use the Passport cum Credit Card holder that I redeemed using payback points around 7yrs ago 🙂

      Reply
  7. Rakesh deepak kalunge

    I have a Sibil issue, can I get the card?

    Reply
  8. Chintan

    I don’t know does this apply here or not, I have a diners clubmiles card and I gave an add on of the same to my dad, and Dad has Business Regalia and Has given me an add-on, when I installed cred, it suggested me to add dad’s card in my cred account and same happened when I installed cred in dad’s phone.

    Reply
  9. amexguy / Other

    sid,
    I want to apply for amex card,
    my itr is 6.5lac but
    i touch in amex application guy they said they need 8lac itr for applying,
    I want to apply for amex platinum travel or mrcc,
    may I know which amex is east to get approved.
    😊

    Reply
      1. Siddharth Post author

        Looks like you’ve to apply for a copyright 😀

        Reply
  10. Adapala Gopi

    Andhra Pradesh Guntur Old Guntur Balaji Nagar Island door number16-8-334

    Reply
  11. Amit Bisht

    I had a LIC credit card which was offered by Axis Bank in 2014. When I cancelled my lic policies, in 2016 I stopped using that card however the axis Bank reported that I haven’t cleared the dues ( basically the premiums, which used to get auto paid through this card). I ignored the messages and calls but recently realised that they have reported that matter to cibil which I realised when my credit card application was rejected.
    I have tried hard to convince the bank but to no avail..Even raising a dispute has not helped my cause. Please.advice is there a time Limit to the written off status to affect the cibil score and any help or advice for me.
    Thanks and regards

    Reply
    1. Amit Bisht

      Dear Prateek,
      Thanks a lot for your astute advice. As I take it, I’m maintaining an excellent record in my payments and haven’t defaulted even once all these years, barring the above mentioned.
      I’m really not able to get axis Bank to help me and additionally tried to get credit score mediatory help but didn’t make any way ahead as that all wanted the ful payment to be made for clearing my cibil score.
      So I need to know if settlement is fine or shall I wait for 7 yrs to elapse.
      Thanks and regards,
      Amit

      Reply
  12. Pratik

    Yes, Amex now reports Supp. Card usage to CIBIL. But Its tough to figure out if CIBIL really considers this into Ac while computing the Score. Most likely YES, but could have given very low weightage.

    Authorized users are skipped when computing cibil score. It is taken for granted that the user of the card is a supplementary user.

    Reply
  13. Bala

    Hi Siddharth,
    I am working ESI Corporation with Salary of 4.5 Lakhs,
    I Have 9 Credit Cards,
    SBI Simply Click – 90K
    HDFC Reg First – 1.29 L
    CITI Cashback – 1.08 L
    ICICI Coral Amex – 1.08L
    Kotak Essentia – 75 K
    ICICI Amazon -40K
    Axis Buzz – 40K
    SCB Manhattan – 48K
    RBL MoneyTap – 73K

    I always stay within 30 % Credit Utilization. I Have PL of Rs 3.8 L. Pre-Closed Recently (July 2019).
    I am a regular follower your website. You can notice all the credit cards are recommended by you. (Except Kotak Essentia, (My Old Card)(Got it with Kotak JIFI).

    I want to apply for AMEX MRCC. Tried 4 Times. They rejected due to CIBIL.
    I have good credit score 835 until July. Now it is 765 after AMex Rejection
    I am eager to get AMEX MRCC. Help me. Suggest Some Ideas.

    Reply
  14. Ankur

    Hi Bala,

    What was the reason of rejection did you ask ? Only thing I can think of is your current count of cards that may have allowed amex to reject your application. Try to reduce cards if not using them as many are low limit. Keep the oldest card always alive.

    Reply
  15. Mickey

    I’m not sure this 30% credit utilisation really works. I have regularly crossed 80/85% credit usage but always paid before time. No effect on CIBIL score.

    I think the key is to pay on time, Always.

    Reply
  16. Sree

    How long does it take for the bonus points for applying and getting a supplementary card to be credited into the balance?

    Reply
  17. vainbhav

    i finally found this, i have reada almost all the article and finally found the one i need the most help, i do have amex supplementary card thinking to close it and cause idk how long amex ban will be there. i thought may be i can get my own card by closing supplementary card but idk if that happen cause the chatbox on amex website said they can’t do it either so i better closed this supp a/c

    Reply

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