Experian: Another Good Reason to Pay Rent On Time

Paying rent on time has never been a better idea! Because the U.S. homeownership rate has not looked this bad in over ten years, Experian’s potential credit boost has received a warm welcome. About one-third of Americans rent their home and Experian is making rental history a part of building good credit. Being a renter myself and proud to say that I have always been on time; I think it is great to have the opportunity to add to my growing credit history. Who does not want every good point that they can get?

Many college students could benefit from this because insufficient credit history tends to be the problem at this stage in life. No matter who you are though, as long as you are paying rent on time, you could always benefit from an increase in good credit.

Those who rent out apartments or their own property will have more information to base a decision on who will be accepted to rent and who will be denied. Having more data on rental history is beneficial to know if someone is responsible and likely to pay their rent on time.

Experian’s rent payment history is like extra credit points from the teacher you wish you could have received the points from, unless you are among those who do not pay rent on time. Right about now, you may be getting nervous and thinking of who you can borrow money from until the next paycheck. If this is you, today could be the day to make a resolution to pay rent on time from now on.

However, there’s a catch! Besides not paying rent on time, the problem with Experian’s idea of helping good renters out is that only about 8 million renters are being reported about by their property managers. This might only be about 22% of all American renters. While Experian is the first to include rent payment history, they do not know the payment history about the majority of those who rent.

As I was coming to the close of this article, I called my landlord curious if he reports my rent payments of Experian. He said “no.” I still plan to pay on time but it would have been nice to know that paying one time was helping me build good credit. I suppose late payments on rent will have to be enough to keep the majority of us paying on time for now.