subject: First Credit Bureau to start reporting rental payment history to your credit report [print this page] First Credit Bureau to start reporting rental payment history to your credit report
Big News! I've always wondered why my rental payments, cell phone and even monthly utilities do not get reported to the credit bureaus. After all everyone has the above and usually I would think pay these items on time because simple we need them in today's world.
Experian has announced they will start reporting rental history to your credit report; however, you have to live in an apartment or condo that is managed by a large property management company. I can certainly see the benefit to this new service as well as the downside to it. Perhaps due to the increase of homeowners who know will be renting and may soon only be renting due to tighter lender restrictions, I can see this become the norm as many homeowners struggle with mortgage payments and will have bruised credit for many years.
Experian has started to gather information from property management companies nationwide, it estimates about 8 million tenants who generally live in larger apartment complexes will be affected initially by its decision to report on time rental payments. Rent Bureau an extension of Experian will be the first to finally come out with this type of reporting.
For many people this will be a great way to rebuild credit or even establish good credit. As for some it may not be a good thing if you happen to not make rent or live in a more private establishment. One of the main reasons why rental payment history has never really been targeted is because there are so many different types of property management companies and not one of them has a huge market share. Consider JP Morgan and Chase, Bank of America both of which have huge market share in many things like mortgages, credit cards etc
I am happy to have trolled across this news and am even happier because I live in a huge apartment complex and will certainly take advantage of this new opportunity to enhance my credit. Believe it or not there are over 96 million renters according to the National Multi Housing Council a trade group for major landlords.
This is perhaps an untapped market, because market share for new college graduates looking to build credit cannot because they have no established credit. Many student loans do not report until after you graduate and are a great way to establish credit however, if you are in college or do not have any student loans than it will be even harder for you. New legislation for credit card companies has also curbed college students away from getting access to credit cards to establish credit because of the delinquency of that age bracket.
This will in the end take some time to see the full effects, however, if you are looking to buy a house in a few years or are rebuilding credit this will certainly help in the long run. Experian still needs to evaluate and see how the data will be used, their approach is to let the data tell the story and aim them in the right direction.
