Rebuilding Your Credit

[Give_Me_Credit_Please]

Hi all, My cellphone carrier is not reporting my on time payments, how can I have them start reporting and is it important for my credit profile? Thank you.

[dmorey]

I've never heard of cell phone companies reporting payments to the credit bureaus -- with the exception that they will report collection acounts if you don't pay them.

[Give_Me_Credit_Please]

Yes, I've seen that happen! No reporting for ontime payment but report for bad payments!!?? What's up with that!

[Shogun]

Mine has never reported any payments.  I do believe they only report if it's a negative.

[Jutz]

Like other utilities, you will only see a tradeline for a cell phone bill if it is negative.  They aren't loaning you money, and therefore your service plan isn't relevant to your credit profile.  However, if you fall delinquent and the account is charged off and/or put into collections, there will be a tradeline for that.  In this case you ARE in debt to them, and it is reported as such.

[Give_Me_Credit_Please]

My personal opinion is that any company that gives you a line of credit should report your good payment schedules. Even though cellphone carriers isn't physically loan you money, they still give you an open line of credit that that you can easily rack up, specially with texting and data charges. I know personally at one point, My cellphone bill was about $900, that's more than the credit limit on my Cap1 card. It would be nice to have another good credit reporting. Thanks.

[MovingForward_2012]

Yes all replies are correct. Cell phone companies won't report unless you miss a payment and don't reconcile it for months. You will possibly get a warning letter before this occurs.

[loviedovie]

Has anyone heard anything about services that DO report your rent/utility on time payments to the CRAs if you pay via their service?

I read an article on some finance site the other day about a service called RentReporters that, for a processing fee like 8 bucks a month or so, would charge your rent via a credit card or your debit account and cut the check for you to your landlord. Then they would report to all 3 bureaus as a means of establishing 'alternative credit.' The article mentioned some other service that does this for utilities as well. 

Do any of these work? I was hesitant to jump on board because I was a bit skeptical that CRAs would factor this into the score, and there is no sense paying a fee for what might not work...

[fishbjc]

It costs money to report, and everyone is cutting corners these days. 

The utilities don't report either.....unless you are off to collections.

[pizzadude]

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loviedovie wrote:

Has anyone heard anything about services that DO report your rent/utility on time payments to the CRAs if you pay via their service?

I read an article on some finance site the other day about a service called RentReporters that, for a processing fee like 8 bucks a month or so, would charge your rent via a credit card or your debit account and cut the check for you to your landlord. Then they would report to all 3 bureaus as a means of establishing 'alternative credit.' The article mentioned some other service that does this for utilities as well. 

Do any of these work? I was hesitant to jump on board because I was a bit skeptical that CRAs would factor this into the score, and there is no sense paying a fee for what might not work...

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FICO scoring ignores rental tradelines, however many FAKO scores would likely include them.