How Can I Report My Rent Payments to Credit Bureaus?

In the United States, there are over 43 million people renting apartments, condos, or single-family homes. But, did you know that most of their rent payments are not counted towards their credit history? Every month you pay your rent on time it could be raising your credit score as on-time payments are 35% of your credit score. You should be reporting your monthly on-time payments to the credit bureaus. We will show you how you can use your rent costs and report them to the credit bureaus. 

First, you need to know what your credit score is. You can check your credit score at My Free Credit Score. 

This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products however our opinions are our own. 

What Is A Good Rental Score?

A good rental score is anything above 620. If you have a credit score under 620 then you may not get approved for the apartment you want as most landlords are looking for potential tenants that have a good credit history. 

If you have bad credit or low credit, you can increase your credit score by yourself or apply for credit cards that can help you improve your credit score. 

The best way to improve your rental score and credit score is to find a rent payment service that will report your monthly rent payments to the credit bureaus.

Credit Saint Can Also Help You Out To Solve Your Credit Issues.

How Do Rent Payment Reporting Services Work?

Your rental expenditures can’t be reported to the rent bureau personally. While on the contrary, all major three credit bureaus receive your rent cost data from an independent mediator. Just like Experian, who gets your rent expense records via Experian RentBureau. After every 24 hours, it updates its database across the country from property controlling corporations and automated rent fee systems.

The independent mediator gets your rental payment records from your property owners for reporting to the credit bureau. Mainly these third-party services will submit your rental records to credit bureaus free of cost. But some also implement charges. The minimum per month charges are $6.95, and annual expenses are higher than $95. These facilitators are usually open platforms for reporting your payments to your credit report.

Related: All You Need To Know About Rental Credit Check For Landlords and Tenants

What Are The best Rent Payment Services For Reporting Your Rent Payments?

There are several rent payment service providers that you can choose from. Below is a list of some of the best rent payment providers. Read about each one and see which provider fits your needs. 

Rent Reporters 

Rent Reporters reports your rent payments to Equifax and TransUnion credit bureaus. A new tradeline will appear on your credit report. The startup fee is $94.95, which will provide you with rent history reporting for up to the past two years. The monthly charge is $9.95. 

Related: What Are Tradelines

Cozy 

You can make payments through Cozy online, which means no more writing checks. Cozy will also report your payments to Experian Rentbureau. Cozy is free for tenants and landlords only pay $9 a month to get autopay. As a renter, you can only apply for cozy if your landlord has an account. 

RentTrack

You can pay your rent online with RentTrack. You can choose your payment method when you pay and they will report your payments to all three credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. 

ClearNow

ClearNow has automatic rent payments so there is nothing to schedule on your side. Set it up and forget it. This is free for renters and will report your rental payments to Experian Credit bureau. 

PayYourRent

They will report your rent payments to all three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. They have an easy-to-use app and the charges are based on how you select to pay your rental fee. 

Rental Kharma

Rental Kharma reports your rent payments to TransUnion credit bureau. They will add your rental payments up to the past six months to your payment record. The setup is $50 than it’s $8.95 per month. No credit check is required to setup. 

How Do I Enroll in a Rent Payment Service? 

The best way you can enroll in a rent payment service is to talk with your Landlord or Property Management Company to see what they have to offer for options. If they don’t currently have a rent payment service that will report your rental history ask them what they can do to make this an option. 

Moreover, you can also choose a platform based on your desire to enroll in online service in less than a day. The forum will ask you for general information, including your address, date of birth, copy of your lease for verification, and other documents. Some services offer the option to share your past rental reports with the credit bureau and allow you to utilize this option. So, it’s a plus point to specify it during the enrolment process if you have an attractive past rent history. Before choosing a service provider, consider that it will report your payments to which credit bureaus.

Related: How To Get Personal Loans

Who Can Get Maximum Benefits From this System?

People who pay their rental payments on-time without delay and add them to their credit report find it a great idea. But in actual, people with a too low credit score will benefit by reporting their payment history to credit bureaus. Don’t take the risk of adding this reporting to your credit score if you’re not punctual in paying your rents on time.

TransUnion states negative rental payment data is shared with the rent bureau immediately while other insufficient payment data takes at least 30-90 days for reporting. Long story short, get the enormous benefit of reporting rental payments to credit bureaus if your credit score is lower.

Related: How To Deal With Credit Report Issues

What Factors must I Consider Before Signing Up With any Rent-Reporting Service

It’s an excellent idea to sign up for rapid rent reporting of your credit because of several factors, including

 Every on-time payment boosts your score.

 Digging deep in its system helps explore multiple benefits

However, it’s challenging to get the exemplary service for reporting rent payments to the credit bureaus because of the same multiple businesses. Here we discussed a few FAQs that help you to make the right decision.

Related: What Happens When You Don’t Pay Your Credit Card Bill

Q: How quickly can my landlord sign up, and will he provide all the required information?

Different services come with unique requirements; in some cases, a phone call or an email is enough, while some demand a copy of the lease or driver’s license. Further, the landlord must sign up and maintain the account with the service. Individual landlords don’t sign up for a new service to potentially support your credit score.

Q: What does the Cost of this Service Per Year?

Payment options also vary for the services as some require initial deposits while others are based on monthly charges or contracts. Excitingly, sign up for a service like MoCaFi is the best method to report rent payments to the rent bureau for free as it favors free reporting to Equifax if you have installed its phone application.

Q: Is Rent History Included in the Service?
It depends on the tracking method of the service and may check past payment history.

Moreover, others ignore history and start tracking after your sign up for the service.

Q: The Service Report to Which Credit Bureaus?

The services currently working are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. So, some services report to multiple credit bureaus while others stick to a single rent bureau.

Q: How Long Does It Take to Show Your Rent on the Credit Report?

It could take days, weeks, or sometimes also months to add rent to your credit report.

Q: Is it Possible to Cancel the Service?

Some services are contract based while others end when you leave that particular address. However, you mostly need service cancellation when moving from one place and shifting to a more comfortable location. You should check if you can update your account for service cancellation or changing area.

Q: Why Does A Drop in My Score Appear?

Keep in mind before selecting any service consumer that credit score fluctuates regularly. The initial drop in its value is recoverable in weeks, and it depends on your responsibility towards on-time rent payment. In short, it’s not possible to achieve a perfect credit score as its value goes up and down routinely.

Do you have bad credit, no credit or want to learn how to become a credit expert?

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• What your actual credit score is
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Final Thoughts:

If you have a credit score higher than 720, then you already have great credit.

However, if you’re reading this article, you’re probably like many of us who have suffered some impact to our credit scores at some point in time.

If so, there are many things you can do to improve your credit, so make sure to check out our other blogs and view our training course to build a more solid credit history, and start improving your score.