Consumers who used piggybacking to help improve their credit scores may soon be thwarted. “Piggybacking” involves a consumer with a non-existent or poor credit history being added to a credit account of someone with a good credit history. Being added to a credit card of someone with the “good” history immediately helps improve the credit score of the one with the poor history.

The credit industry says this practice is unfair. Proponents of piggybacking say the practice should be allowed to continue. And Fair Isaac, the maker of the FICO credit scores, says that its new scoring system (to be revealed in September) will not allow those with bad credit to benefit from piggybacking anymore.

Lenders say that piggybacking is fraud, which is why it shouldn’t be allowed. They say it’s gaming the system to the benefit of someone with poor credit. It is true that those with higher credit scores are generally offered more favorable lending terms. So to the extent that the piggybacking allows someone to enhance a credit score, the person may not really be entitled to those favorable lending terms.

There is also an industry devoted to using the piggybacking system to make money. Online brokers pay money to people with good credit who add others with poor credit as authorized users. The broker collects a fee from the person with bad credit for arranging this transaction. This seems to be one abuse of piggybacking.

On the other hand, is it always fraud or an attempt to game the system? When I was in college and without a credit history, I got a credit card in my name and my father’s name. I couldn’t get one on my own, and needed one for emergencies. I used the card sparingly to help build my own credit history. We weren’t trying to game the system and never even considered what this did to credit scores. I simply made the best of the situation, getting a credit card the only way I could.

One alternative to piggybacking is the use of secured credit cards. I don’t even know if that option was widely available when I was in college, or if I even knew about it. This is one option for developing a credit history. Also, department stories are notoriously much more lax in their credit granting than major credit cards, so getting a couple of department store credit cards and using them judiciously could help build a legitimate credit history.