@EAJuggalo wrote:I just signed a lease for a new house today. At the signing the agent offered to report the lease and payments to CRA for $15/ month. Would this likely do anything for me or my wife on our reports? I have no derogs but not much history on my report, she has lots of derogs and a long history.
It would help if all payments are on time, but I wouldn't pay $15 month for it when most of your other creditors will do it for free.
I would only spring for it if I had no credit score and wanted to get one started.
@EAJuggalo wrote:We told them no, but wanted verification on what I already thought.
Used to be a big fan, back in about 2002-03. Screen name has still hung around, easy to remember and rarely taken.
Good call. Whoop whoop 
@CreditDunce wrote:Even if they report the payments, I don't think it would affect your FICO score. The CRA's are trying to create new credit risk models that use other payment history. But it isn't included in the current FICO models. Of course, I could be mistaken. It isn't something I have looked at.
Actually I think you're spot on. None of us really know how utility and rental tradelines are going to factor, and it's unlikely they're in the current version of algorithms. New ones are being created specifically for the mortgage market which is where the complaints are coming from but I don't know if they will make inroads into other things, maybe auto lending would be my guess but there's usually options there for people who don't have credit at all. Mortgage land is where people get stuck.
If I could establish or already had a traditional credit score, I wouldn't be chasing non-traditional tradelines for non-traditional scores (which mortgage wise are only going to be used if you can't qualify traditionally on some criteria), and paying $15/month to report, that seems scammish in my opinion... I looked into it last year as I was sort of considering renting out a room or my entire condo and the Transunion services didn't seem anywhere close to that expensive but maybe it's changed or more likely there are 3rd party middle men trying to make a buck, or several bucks in this case.
