If you don’t own a home, have little credit card history, or don’t own a car, you still have a chance at building your credit file. Credit reporting agency Experian has begun including apartment rental history to their database. Before, apartment rental history only appeared on your report after a property management company sent it to a collections agency and the agency then reported it to the credit bureaus. Now, positive history will also be reported. This is beneficial to consumers who have thin credit files (those with little or no credit history), making it easier for them to qualify for loans. Now, paying your rent on time will improve your credit score. But this only applies to Vantage scores offered by Experian. Equifax and TransUnion are not offering rental payment history.
Experian notes that in order for your positive rental history to be included in your file, your property management company has to provide its rental history database to Experian RentBureau, a division of Experian that collects and reports rent payment history. If your property management company does not currently provide this information to Experian, you can contact the company and ask them to begin providing this information.
Sheiresa Ngo is the multimedia content producer for consumer affairs at Black Enterprise.
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