The short answer is: Won't help now, but it might in a few years. Won't hurt either.
Longer answer:
FICO releases new models every now and then. In the past, their names often indicated the year they were released. FICO 98, FICO 04, FICO 08, etc. Sometimes only a couple years go by before they release a new model. Sometimes it is several years. It's a lot like the way that Microsoft releases new versions of Windows or Office.
FICO moving forward sounds like they will be naming models with just consecuting integers. Thus, although the latest version of FICO was released in 2014, it's being named FICO 9 (the next release after FICO 8).
Almost no lenders or credit card companies are using FICO 9, though the big ones are testing it out behind the scenes. Everybody is still on FICO 8 or earlier.
In a recent document describing FICO 9 in detail, FICO writes:
"Previous FICO Scores have included items such as telecom and utilities. Now, FICO Score 9 factors in rental trade lines, when reported, in order to leverage a more comprehensive view of a consumer’s credit history."
The word "now" clearly implies that previous versions of FICO (version 8 and earlier) did not use rental trade lines, even when they are reported.
So you will get some benefit to your score when lenders start using FICO 9 (or if a lender is using Vantage Score) but not before.
It's also possible that mortgage lenders will be using rental history even sooner. Fannie Mae will be forcing them to use trended data (not the same as rental history) this summer, so maybe FM's new Desktop Underwriter product will also consider rental data at some point.
