Does Rent Affect Credit Score?

When you fill out a rental application for a new apartment or home, the landlord often runs a credit check. So you might expect that your rental payments are shown on your credit report, but they are not. 

When you are building credit, there are rent payment reporting options out there that can add your rental payments to your credit reports. This has the potential to impact your credit score.

Do Your Rent Payments Affect Your Credit Score? 

No. Normally rent does not affect your credit score. However, there are services that you can use that will report your rent payments to the credit bureaus. When it is reported, it will impact the payment history, length of credit history, and other portions of your credit scores. If you’d like to see some statistics, check out our article on Credit Score Statistics for more information.

If you have a positive payment history, your credit score will go up. If you have late rent payments, your credit score will go down. 

Generally speaking, rent does not affect your FICO score because most landlords do not report it to the credit bureaus. Either because they are too small to meet the credit bureaus reporting requirements or because they don’t want to pay the fee that comes with reporting. 

But there are larger landlords that do give their tenants the option to pay a small fee for rent reporting. Or, you can independently sign up for a rent reporting service yourself. Some of which don’t even require verification from your landlord. 

When this positive rent payment history is added to your credit reports, it can improve your credit score. Much like a credit card or loan, rent payments will help you build your length of credit history and establish a perfect payment history. 

Is Rent Reported to Credit Bureaus?

Rent is usually not reported to the credit bureaus. 

Most of the major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, & Equifax) have very specific requirements for landlords who wish to report payments and/or debt. 

Transunion, for example, requires a landlord to have 100 accounts (i.e. tenants) before they are allowed to register for credit reporting. 

So, it is possible that your landlord doesn’t even have access to credit reporting services. 

If your landlord is larger, or your property manager uses a rent payment service that offers rent reporting, then your rent payments could appear on your credit report. 

The service is not usually free, so you may be required to pay a fee to receive rent reporting.

If you do have your rent reported, the credit bureaus will receive information on the history of your rent payments, the amount of rent you pay, and how long you’ve been renting at the property. (Credit Rent Boost Review or Rental Kharma Review)

Rent history can also appear on your credit report when you are sent to collections or evicted. 

What Information Is Included in a Credit Report?

Your credit report is full of information on your identity, credit accounts, and more. 

Each person’s credit report contains some basic information about that person. Name, birthdate, social security number, current address, current employer, etc. This information does not affect your credit, it is used simply for verifying your identity. 

The most important facet of your credit report is all of the information available regarding your credit history. This information can include: 

• Credit cards: current balance, credit limit, and opening date
• Loans: current balance, original loan value, and opening date
• Service payments: Rent, utilities, and other bills can be reported to the credit bureaus if you know how. We share how to do this elsewhere on the blog!
• Closed accounts: 7 years or younger
• Payment history: on all accounts that are on time and late
• Credit inquiries: hard pulls and soft pulls
• Collections: hospital bills, overdue utility bills, unpaid debt, etc.
• Public record: bankruptcies, evictions, etc.

This information is what is used to establish if you are creditworthy and to calculate your credit score. Note: Your actual credit score is not part of your credit report, it is a separate feature. 

It is possible that not all of your accounts or inquiries appear on a single credit report. You have three credit reports, one from each of the major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, & Equifax), and certain information may have only been reported to one or two. 

This is why many lenders/creditors pull all three reports, that way they have access to the full picture of your creditworthiness. 

If your rent is being reported to the credit bureaus then information on when your lease started, how much your rent is, and what your payment history looks like will all be added to your credit report. If you’re having trouble finding a place to rent, check out our How to Rent With Bad Credit article.

How to Find Out if Your Rent is Being Reported

The easiest way to find out if your rent is being reported is to check your credit reports yourself. 

You can pull a free credit report once a year from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 

There are also 3rd party services, some of which are free, that allow you to view information that is being reported. Your credit card or loan account may even come with some kind of free credit report update feature. 

If you don’t have access to a free credit report, there are 3rd party options for credit monitoring or you can pay and pull your reports directly from the credit bureaus. 

When looking at your report, your rent payments should appear in the “Accounts” section as a “Residence tradeline”. The exact name of the entry will depend on which service you are using to report your rent payments. 

If your rent is supposed to be reported, and you don’t see it on your credit report, then you’ll need to contact whoever is in charge of the reporting. See also our