For many renters, the rent check is the largest revolving-credit transaction you’ll make every month, so it’s reasonable to wonder whether your rent payments will affect your credit scores.
After all, if you’re always on time with your payments, you’d like to see this reflected in your credit score. On the other hand, if you’ve been late on a few payments or skipped them altogether, it’s useful to know how badly you’ll be penalized, if you’re penalized at all.
Unfortunately, the question of whether your rent payment history will influence your credit scores can’t be answered by a simple “yes” or “no.” The answer depends in good part on how well you maintain a history of on-time rent payments.
Landlords and credit bureaus
Landlords of large apartment communities deal with so many customers, it may be more efficient for these companies to track customer payment histories through one or more credit bureaus. Therefore, these landlords are likely to report rental payments to a credit bureau, although none are required to do so.
In June 2010, Experian acquired RentBureau, a large credit bureau that compiles data on more than 7 million renters in the U.S. This could lead to an expansion of the information used to calculate credit scores, which would benefit on-time rent payers and penalize inconsistent rent payers.
Late or missed payments
If you maintain an on-time payment history, you don’t have to worry about whether it’s reported to the credit bureaus. However, if you’re consistently late with your payments, or if you’re several months in arrears, it could be sent to a collection agency. Any such action can be (and typically is) reported to the credit bureaus.
Once a collection agency has an outstanding account of 30 days or more, it can report the delinquency to the credit bureaus. (Collectors even use this as leverage: “If you don’t pay up, we’ll report you to the credit bureaus.”)
Being reported to the credit bureaus could drive down your credit score, which could take years to repair as you work to re-establish a history of on-time payments.
Simply put, it is critical to consistently pay your rent on time to maintain a good credit score.
