Museum of unintended consequences/Buying a good credit rating

From CSWiki

If credit rating companies determine credit ratings at least partially on whether one has a credit card that has a good history, then it makes sense to sell places on good credit cards to people with bad credit. An LA Times story reports on this.

Instantcreditbuilders.com, or ICB, [helps someone with a poor credit rating] boost his score by arranging for him to be added as an authorized user on several credit cards of people with stellar credit who were paid to allow someone to ride on their coattails. Parents also use this practice when they add their children to their credit cards to help them build solid credit.

The pitch to those who are essentially renting out their credit history for pay is seductive: You don't need to worry about users of this service receiving duplicate copies of your credit cards, account numbers or any of your personal information. It's essentially free money, they are told.

Brian Kinney, 44, a retired Army officer in Glendale, pulls in more than $2,500 a month by lending out 19 credit card spots on two old Citibank cards with strong payment histories. Kinney, whose FICO score is above 800 on the scale of 300 to 850, quit his Farmers Insurance Group job and uses the ICB income to tide him over until he starts his own insurance company.

 This is also a nice example of a multi-sided platform.