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Our verdict: Experian BOOST™ is worth it if you have bad credit or a thin credit profile. It’s free and quick, and the average user sees a 13 credit score point boost.
If you are looking to improve your credit, you may have stumbled across Experian BOOST™ and their memorable purple cow ads. But can you actually use this tool to achieve a good credit score?
The Boost service offers you a way to add positive payment history for your utility bills, phone bills, and streaming services to your Experian credit report. Adding this information to your credit file could improve your FICO score.
But is this increase enough to move you from bad credit to good credit or improve your chances of getting approval from a lender/creditor?
How Does Experian BOOST™ Work?
Experian’s Boost tool works by adding your utility bill payments to your Experian credit report. The addition of this payment history helps ‘boost’ your credit score.
To get started, you’ll first need to create an Experian account. But don’t worry, it is entirely free.
It takes about five minutes to set up your account, and when complete, you’ll have access to your free Experian FICO score, a wealth of resources to help you better understand your credit score, and the Boost tool.
To use the Boost tool, you’ll need to provide Experian with either your bank account or credit card account information. Experian then searches through this account to find recurring payments for utilities and services. Per Experian, this can include:
- Mobile and landline phones
- Internet
- Cable and satellite TV
- Gas and electric
- Water
- Power and solar
- Trash
- Video streaming services
For each utility/service you have appearing on your account, Experian will add up to 2 years worth of positive payment history to your credit report. So if you’ve had the same internet and electricity providers for 2 years, you’ll get 2 years’ worth of payment history for each of them.
As payment history accounts for 35% of your credit score, using Boost can positively impact your credit score.
Advantages of Experian BOOST™
Being able to use your bills to boost your credit score is an excellent opportunity for many consumers. But what are the other advantages of using Boost?
It Is 100% Free
Using the Experian BOOST™ tool is 100% free. Experian will never charge you for utilizing this service.
There are only three requirements for using Boost:
- You need to have an Experian account
- You need to provide your bank or credit card information
- You need to have at least three months of recurring payments (within the last 6 months)
The basic account for Experian is free, and it gives you access to your Experian FICO Score 8, refreshed once every 30 days. You also have access to Boost and many of their credit monitoring resources for free.
Experian does offer an upgraded account for $24.99/month. This premium account gives you access to credit scores for all three major credit bureaus and advanced tools like their score simulator and score planner.
Quick Way to Boost Your Credit Score
Using Experian BOOST™ is probably one of the quickest ways to improve your credit score. It instantaneously adds up to 2 years worth of payment history.
Signing up for an Experian account only takes a few short minutes. And when you sign up for Boost, it will only take Experian a few minutes to go through your account and find eligible payments.
You have a final chance to review which bills Experian will add to your credit report, and once approved, the changes to your credit report and score are instantaneous.
Experian will show you exactly how much the new credit history has improved your score. The increase could range from