I can see a scenario where an old utility, let's say 10 years old with a perfect on-time history could help if your AAoA is under 10 years (AAoA is big scoring component and is the avg. age of all of your good, bad, opened, or closed OC accounts like CCs, loans, etc.). A 30% balance on Dell would be score damaging for many on here because the util is too high, but an old, paid off Dell that still reports as opened and is active would help most.
But should the government mandate that these traditionally non-reporting account report? And how far would it go? Cell phones? Utilities? Rent? If I loan money to someone, should that report too? How far is too far? There's an added cost for these items to report. The consumer would have to pay for it as a cost to do business by the one reporting. Would you mind paying extra to have an account like this report? Certainly a YMMV answer if others were polled on here. Also, when it reports, it would report on a fixed schedule on the statement date. When it reports, it would report with a balance because the balance is generated when the statement cuts. In FICO-speak, that's not a good thing because you are adding an account with a balance and you can incur a score hit (assuming FICO would to score it fully). Would it be worth it to PIF 30 days prior to the next due date to avoid a balance on the statement?
FWIW, I think Dell reports. Or maybe I should mention that they did report. They reported my biz account on DnB and Experian biz. I know they went through some issues with CIT. But if your Dell reports, they report an Open Date. FICO ignores the on-time payments, but will take that open date into consideration for your history which can help or hurt you depending on the age of the Dell account in relation to your AAoA. Of course any negative history would likely offset much or even more than that length of history. Depends on what reports and how it reports. So even if Dell showed a positive history from years back, you wouldn't see any score improvement. In the eyes of lenders, they too would zero in on the baddies vs. looking at the positive years. And some utilities do report. IIRC, one of the Edison utilities out there reports monthly. PG&E, I think, reports monthly (or somewhere out there). And some rental agencies report monthly now to EX via their program.
