AT&T

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are both young and have a pretty short credit history (under one year) with 2 accounts (auto loan and secured card through our credit union). We are currently on my parent's phone plan and pay them for our phone bill, but we are wanting to get our own plan since they are having a deal from switching from Verizon to AT&T. My phone is paid off, so we are planning to trade it in as a down payment (they said it will be worth $200 or more) on one new phone and the other they are giving to us for free. 

The accounts that my husband and I currently have only report to experian and equifax - so we do not have a score with TU. My scores are EQ: 684, EX: 707 (my husband's are the same give or take a few points). Since we will be making payments on one phone, will these scores be okay to get approved? I wasn't sure if not having a trans union score would affect us, especially since we are making a down payment. Also, I wanted to see if anyone knows if they will report these payments to the credit bureaus since we are basically financing a phone? I was hoping that this would also help build our credit some.

[MakingProgress]

Verizion has never reported my phone purchase payments to any CRA.  I assume if you don't  pay your bill then you will eventurally have it show on your CR

[Anonymous]

No, phone financing plans (usually 0% for 24 months) are not reported to the agencies. However you may get a hard pull when AT&T runs your credit. You should consider T-Mobile as well as a side note. They include taxes and fees into their prices plus free Netflix.

[Anonymous]

Yes, AT&T is a HP. And they don't report as an open accn't on you CR. However, with a low score and short credit history, you may have to pay a deposit. Also, the phone plan will differ according to your credit, and will determin which one you can finance.  Also, I'm not sure "switching" is the right term, unless your names are on the contract with Verizon. IDK how all that stuff works out.

[Anonymous]

You will be fine with those scores. I went through this last year. At the time I had sub 600 scores and was worried. Applied for ATT and to my surprise I was approved without a deposit. My scores are much higher now. I think ATT is more worried about those with sub 500 scores from what the CSR rep told me. It will be a hard pull but they do not report the financing to the CRAs. Good luck. I love ATT!

[elim]

I tend to avoid any unnecessary HP's and any mobile contract so my choice is to buy the phone(s) I want on a 0% card or counter check, then use a cheap but decent carrier like straight talk.