Rent Could Improve Your Credit Score

If you live in an apartment building, chances are you are paying a monthly rent if you do not own the apartment you live in. Trying to scrounge up money every month can be difficult and can someone feel like their rent payments are going nowhere; you don’t own an apartment you rent.

It’s not like you can sell your apartment for a higher price in the future and make a profit off of it. However, renting out an apartment can have its benefits even if you didn’t think so before. It may actually improve your credit score!

How can it improve your credit score you may ask? In the past, if you missed or didn’t pay your monthly rent payments this would show up on a credit report and cause harm to your credit score.

Nowadays, on-time payments also can count for something. You can report on-time payments to agencies like Experian and TransUnion. They will put a record of payments you have made on time on your annual credit report. However, they may charge you a small fee for their services.

Even though having on-time rental payments on your credit score can help you, it varies depending on what type of credit score you use. For instance, the FICO credit score won’t emphasize rental payments in the way it scores. VantageScore is an example of a type of credit score system that includes rental payments. Find a credit score that does so before you go to your lender about buying a house.

Experian credit reports also include rental payments, like VantageScore. However, the homeowner of the building you live in has to be able to report those payments to the company. Some of them don’t. There is a new way now also to have rental payments included in an Experian credit report: you can pay your rent bills through WilliamPaid.

TransUnion also has a method through which you can pay your rent bills – RentalKharma.com or RentReporters.com.