Cell Phone

[Anonymous]

In July of this year I took over my mother's Nextel account. She wasn't using it anyway and I needed another phone.

Now Sprint/Nextel shows up as a hard pull on my credit. This is crazy because all I did was change names on the account. In fact I have been paying the bill with my CC since April of 2002.

Is it legal for them to do this? And if so isn't it a bit crazy to have my score lowered because I took on a bill that I was paying anyway.

I can't believe something so petty as getting an additional cell phone account would lower my score.

[Anonymous]

I work for Alltel, when we do a change of ownership on an account, we have to pull the credit of the person taking over the account to see if they qualify for an account without a deposit. Its completly legit.

[marty56]

Verizon did a hard pull on my TU when I got a cellphone but they dont report the payments.

I wonder if they did report if that would boost your FICO score.  Of course if you are late to pay, I know it would lower it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah seems kind of funny that they don't report my good payments. But I'll bet that if I went into default it would show up as negative info on my credit report.

Seems like one of those situations where you can't win but you sure can lose.

[MidnightVoice]

Cingular not only did a hard pull on me when I got a cell phone, they did another a couple of months later when I got a second line (family plan)

[marty56]

I read a news story recently about a utility company that would report payment history to the CRAs and their stated reason was to help customers "build" their credit.

The funny thing is that there was a dramatic drop in late payments after they implemented the program.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I remember telling a friend of mine thatI was upset about not wanting to get a house now because it could definitly give me a boost on my credit if I decided to add a mortgage. Well he told me I was okay, because cell phone payments, rent, cable subscription, etc vcould all be reported on my CBRs to show credit. I've lived in at least 5 apartment complexes. Never had anything reported (guess thats also good cause no bad has been reported).

As far as Cell is concerned, my mom used to work at Circuit City and they gave her a Sprint demo plan for 24.99 a month with 500 minutes anytime and 500 minutes nights and weekends. She passed it on to me about 7 years ago . To this day, it shows her name on some caller IDs. They have often offered me upgrades for $5 more here, $10 more there and I've flat out refused. A few months later they automotically update and I keep my low payment. 

Currently: 3000 anytime minutes, Unlimited nights and weekends 7p to 7a. Unlimimted Sprint to Sprint. Unlimited texts. $24.99 a month. I love to brag when my friends talk about their $60 phone bills. I don't even count my minuts any more. Every month I check my usage at the end of the month and it says, "You have 2,100 minutes remaining!"

[George2037]

I have Verizon and to use the monthly payment to "Help" my score.  I have my account set-up with a auto pay using my Citi Card.  I'll pay the Minimum one month and PIF the next.  It show Credit activity and gives me "Pays on Time" ratings.

I do the same thing with my Rent, Cable, Electric, Water/Sewer.  Using differant cards for each account.  I also have cards for Gas, Food/Grocery, "Entertainment", and one for Big Purchases.  I'll alternate Min Payment and PIF each month.  This does a couple things for me, My Bank sees I keep a high average balance of cash in Savings/ Checking, earned POINTS!!!!, pays as agrees, and most importantly Credit activity.  A stagnent card can eventually hurt your score in the long run.

I prob waste a lot of Money in intrest ($20-30 a month range) but it's worth it for the history.

[SmartCookie]

Yes it is legal.  They are extending you credit... which is why your SSN was needed.  It's an application like any other.  Your score will recover from the hard INQ in 12 months.

[Anonymous]

It just seems kind of funny to me that something so insignificant as changing ownership on a $59 dollar a month cell phone can lower my score for a year.

If I was trying to mortgage my home to pay off CC balances or something I could see where that would pop up a red flag in the eyes of a lender, but a cell phone? I spend more than that on coffee in a month.

Don't get me wrong, my score isn't that bad (740) but to see it banged up by a cell phone company kind of ticks me off.