Solid Rental History Could Boost Your Credit Score
Going forward, credit bureau Experian will include positive rental history on credit reports.
The company previously only used negative rental history as a credit scoring parameter, meaning if you were late on the rent, your credit score may have been impacted.
But if you were on time, you'd get nothing more than a pat on the back.
In a press release, Experian noted that a third of the country currently rents, and on-time payments, whether mortgages or otherwise, should be reflected in the creditworthiness of consumers.
It's good news for those of us who rent, but there's a bit of a caveat.
Experian is the first and only major credit reporting bureau to include rental payment history in credit reports, and they're only applying it to their proprietary VantageScore.
There are two other major credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion, which aren't on-board yet.
And most consumer credit reports rely on VantageScore's arch nemesis, the Fico score, so it's unclear if this will make any meaningful impact anytime soon.
However, it's certainly a positive to know things like rent won't be overlooked, given many consumers in the United States have thin credit files as it is, making it difficult to establish solid credit history.
(photo: thetruthabout, CC)
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