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Landlords can check your credit when you apply for a rental, but they aren’t required to report your rent payments to the credit bureaus. In fact, your rent payments generally don’t impact your credit at all—unless you pay late.
However, you can use a rent reporting service to add your rent payments and other bills to your credit reports. These services often cost money, and they’re not always helpful—but they can make an important difference to your credit by helping you establish a consistent payment history. We’ll walk you through how these services work and how to use them to get the most benefit.
Key Takeaways
- Rent payments generally don’t impact your credit unless you pay late.
- Rent reporting services work in different ways, with varying costs to add rent payments to your credit reports.
- Adding rent payments to your credit reports only impacts some credit scores, and not always the ones that lenders commonly use.
- A credit monitoring service can help you keep track of your credit as it changes over time.
What Is a Rent Reporting Service?
A rent reporting service is a third-party company that sends information about your rent payments to one or more of the three main credit bureaus. Rent isn’t traditionally included on credit reports because it’s not a debt or credit account, like a mortgage or credit card. But paying rent can be an important predictor of whether you can pay other debts on time, and that’s the entire purpose of credit scores.
Including your rent payments on your credit reports can boost your credit score, especially if you don’t have good credit to start with. Your payment history makes up 35% of your credit score, and the length of your credit history makes up a further 15%. Adding current and past rent payments, as these services typically do, could help bump up your credit score by a significant amount with minimal effort.
Rent reporting services are usually aimed at individual renters or landlords who want to report payments for all of their tenants. Companies typically charge a fee for this service; except in a few cases, rent reporting is not free.
Which Credit Scores Do Rent Reporting Services Help?
It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have just a single credit score. You actually have dozens, depending on which combination of credit score and credit bureau is being checked.
While rent payments can be listed on any of your credit reports, they’ll only be factored into your credit score when using the FICO Score 9 and FICO Score 10 models. Rent payments won’t impact any of your other credit scores.
The good news is that many lenders use FICO Score 8 or 9. The bad news is that lenders in many industries prefer other credit score combinations, an important factor to consider if you’ll be applying for a specific type of loan in the near future.
For example, auto loan lenders generally use FICO Auto Score 8 or 9, calculated from any of the three main credit bureaus. Mortgage lenders, on the other hand, generally check your FICO Score 2 (Experian), FICO Score 5 (Equifax), or FICO Score 4 (TransUnion).
How to Enroll With a Rent-Reporting Service
Rent reporting services can make a big difference in growing your credit score or helping you rebuild your credit. However, it’s a good idea to make sure you actually do benefit from a service.
Step 1: Check Your Credit Reports and Credit Scores
Less than 10% of renters have their on-time rent payments reported to one or more credit bureaus each month, according to Freddie Mac, which launched an initiative in 2021 to encourage more landlords to report rent. You can check if your rent payments are reported by looking at each of your three credit reports. While you’re at it, look through your credit history to see how many on-time and late payments, in general, are listed.
While reviewing your credit reports, check for any errors that could affect your score, like incorrect information or accounts you didn’t open. Consider using a credit monitoring service to keep tabs on your credit and get alerts when anything changes.
Rent reporting services add positive payment information to your credit history. If you already have years of on-time payment history, a rent reporting service may not offer much help compared to the cost of the service. If you already have a good credit score, you’re also less likely to see much of a credit boost. But if you’re rebuilding your credit or starting from scratch, establishing a history of on-time payments could make a big difference.
Step 2: Consider Your Credit-Building Goals
Rental payments are only factored into your FICO 9 and FICO 10 scores. These are general-purpose credit scores used by many companies when checking your credit, but not every lender uses those scores.
In particular, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, auto lenders, and credit card companies tend to use other credit scores that don’t factor rental payments into the equation. If your primary goal is increasing your credit to apply for one of these products, consider whether it’s worth the extra cost for something that ultimately may not help you.
Step 3: Research Rent-Reporting Services
Many services offer to add rental payments to your credit reports for a fee, though a few are free. Here are some good things to look for as you shop for companies.
- Allows you to cancel service at any time
- Reports payments to all three credit bureaus
- Clearly states how it handles late or missed rent payments
- Retroactively adds prior on-time payments to your credit reports, not just current payments onwards
- Clearly states payment options, such as whether you need to pay rent through the service
Make sure to compare costs as well. Many services charge an initial setup fee followed by a monthly charge, and these costs can vary. For example:
- Piñata reports to all three credit bureaus and charges a flat $5 monthly fee with free reporting of prior rental payments.
- Rent Reporters reports to Equifax and TransUnion. It charges a $94.95 setup fee to report prior rent payments and $7.95 or $9.95 to continue the service each month.
- Experian Boost is free, but only incorporates your rent into your credit history with Experian, not the other credit bureaus.
It’s also important to note how the different services work. Some services, like Experian Boost and Self Rent+Bills, work by checking your bank account history for payments you make. But more commonly, rent-reporting services work by verifying your renting profile and monthly payments with your landlord directly, in which case your landlord will need to be on board with participating.
Step 4: Talk to Your Landlord
Many landlords, especially smaller ones, may not know they can add your rental payment history to your credit reports. In fact, about a third of landlords who learn about it will actually start doing so, according to a 2022 TransUnion report.
That leaves two-thirds of landlords who aren’t taking this extra step—but you can’t know which camp your landlord will fall in without asking them. Try asking if they’re aware of rental credit reporting and willing to participate. Focus on the benefits they’ll get, like the potential for more on-time payments.
73% of renters would be more motivated to make on-time rent payments if they knew their landlords reported them to the credit bureaus, according to a 2019 TransUnion study.
If your landlord isn’t willing to proactively report your monthly payments, check to see if they’re willing to work with a third-party rent reporting service. They may need to create an account, for example, or respond to monthly requests about whether you paid your rent on time.
Step 5: Sign Up for a Rent Reporting Service
Once you’ve assembled all the pieces, it’s time to sign up for an account with your rent reporting company of choice.
If the service requires you to pay rent through it instead of directly to your landlord, confirm that with your landlord, and then check with them before your due date to ensure they’ve received the payment. Finally, wait at least 30 days and then check your credit reports to verify that the payments are now listed.
Does Unpaid Rent Affect Your Credit Score?
Late rental payments can affect your credit score if your lender reports them to the credit bureaus. Since landlords don’t often report to the credit bureaus in the first place, it’s possible that you won’t see any impact on your credit score if you’re overdue on your rent—at least for a while. You can check your rental agreement or ask your landlord if they only report late payments, as opposed to on-time payments.
At some point, landlords generally send the overdue rent to a debt collection agency, and these companies usually do report your overdue debt to the credit bureaus. This can have a significant negative impact on your credit score.
Credit bureaus generally classify late payments in 30-day increments, and the more overdue the debt is—or if it’s been written off entirely as a loss—the more it’ll harm your credit score.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When Is It a Good Idea to Report Rent to Credit Bureaus?
You’re more likely to see a benefit from reporting rent to credit bureaus if you have a low credit score because, in part, you may not have a multi-year history of on-time payments.
Reporting your rent can also be a good idea if you’re looking to improve your credit score in general, as opposed to trying to get better rates on your car insurance or get approved for a mortgage, auto loan, or credit card. Rent payments don’t factor into the credit scores used when evaluating those applications.
How Much Do Rent Reporting Services Cost?
The cost of rent reporting services varies widely. Some services, like Experian Boost, are free. Others are more expensive and may charge an initial set-up fee followed by a monthly fee. Rental Kharma, for example, charges a $75 initial fee, followed by an $8.95 monthly fee.
Does Rent Reporting Require Landlord Approval?
Rent reporting doesn’t always require landlord approval, but it can. Some services confirm information with your landlord directly and therefore need their cooperation. Other services operate independently of your landlord by examining how you use your checking account to pay your bills.
Can I Rent an Apartment With a Low Credit Score or No Credit?
Depending on the landlord, it can be possible to rent an apartment with poor or no credit. Not all landlords check credit, but many do. Some landlords are willing to accept tenants with no credit if they make a larger security deposit, offer additional personal references, or use a co-signer. Some landlords will also accept formal job offers or documents showing a history of paying other bills and rent payments on time.
Does Paying My Bills Improve My Credit Score?
Regular bill payments aren’t usually reported to the credit bureaus, but if you use a service to have them reported, on-time bill payments may help improve your credit score. Payment history is the largest factor impacting your credit score, so those reported on-time payments—although the effect is slow to build—are ultimately the biggest way to help your score. Even if they’re not reported, paying on time prevents any missed payments that can set you back.
The Bottom Line
A rent-reporting service can help your credit score if you don’t have much else listed on your credit reports. But first, you’ll want to check that your landlord is on board, if necessary, and that your credit-building goals align with the type of credit score you’ll be improving. A shiny new FICO Score 9 doesn’t really help if you’re planning to apply for a mortgage and the lender will check your FICO Score 5.
Aside from rent reporting, there are many other ways to improve your credit. Signing up for autopay on all of your bill payments, keeping your credit card balances low, and periodically looking over your credit reports for errors can go a long way toward building all of your credit scores.