Adding Rent to a FICO 9 Score

Anonymous · ‎08-13-2017

The FICO 9 score can include my history of paying rent, which has been flawless for more than 20 years. In addition to being flawless, it would increase the average age of my credit experience.

Is it possible for my landlord to report 20 years of rent payments?

Anonymous · ‎08-14-2017

Getting someone to report 20 years of rent history does not seem doable. This link will describe what your options are:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-report-rent-payments-incorporated/

You'll see that 24 months is the best you can hope for. And of course you'll have to get the landlord to agree to do it. And it typically costs you money, possibly on an ongoing monthly basis.

Remember too that this would only affect your FICO 9 score (no earlier model) which no lender uses for mortgages and almost no lender uses for credit card, auto loan, or personal loan decisions.

While you are weighing what the best thing to do is regarding rent, you may want to describe to the folks here whether you have any open credit cards or installment loans, and if so what they are. Also what the age is of your oldest conventional credit account (open or closed). You will likely discover that there are conventional strategies that are virtually cost free and which will be far more effective than using rent.

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2017

Thanks for that link.

Why does it cost money to report rent? That's just opportunistic, in my view.

I agree that it wouldn't be worthwhile for me to report my rent payments.

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for that link.

Why does it cost money to report rent? That's just opportunistic, in my view.

I agree that it wouldn't be worthwhile for me to report my rent payments.

Would you do work for me for free? Because if that's the case, I have a lawn that needs mowing!

Reporting anything to the CRAs costs time and money and overhead and headaches. Remember, if you report to the CRAs as a business, you also have to deal with disputes and legal liability. It isn't free.

I'm a landlord. The third party I use to collect rent offers to report rent to the credit report companies but I don't offer it because it costs me more money to use them as a service if they do. None of my tenants have ever asked me to report to the CRAs, ever. I see no reason to pay for something that doesn't benefit me.

If I could freely report to the CRAs, I would, but if a tenant disputes it and I have to call my lawyer for legal help, all of a sudden a "nice thing to do" can cost me hundreds of dollars. No, thanks.

Now, about my lawn?

Anonymous · ‎08-16-2017

Very helpful reply from our landlord friend!

As a practical matter, our OP has been asking about all this because he wants to improve his credit profile with the addition of a very old (20-year) rental tradeline. People who ask about this question often have very few conventional accounts (loans and credit cards) or the credit profile as a whole is extremely young. If that's the case for our OP, we may be able to suggest practical solutions that employ conventional credit accounts.