Primary Tradelines: Guide to Buying Right [And What to Avoid]

Credit tradelines, and the information contained in them, are what make up your credit history. 

These tradelines can include credit cards, auto loans, home loans or student loans. Scoring models take the information from these tradelines to calculate your credit score. 

Lenders not only look to see if you meet their minimum credit score requirements, but they also evaluate your tradelines. Therefore, primary tradelines will look better to a lender than an authorized user credit card account will. 

This is why it is worthwhile to look at not only your credit score, but what kind of tradelines you have on your credit file. 

What Are Primary Tradelines?

A primary tradeline is any account that you open in your own name. This includes a credit card, loan, virtual credit line, etc., where you fill out the application, and your credit is pulled to determine approval. A primary tradeline will report all of your account information to the credit bureaus each month. 

All of that information is then used to calculate your credit score. 

An authorized user tradeline, or an account where you are added as a user, is not considered a primary account. This is because you are not the account holder, and if the account goes unpaid, the lender cannot come after you for payment. 

While authorized user accounts (espeically from credit cards) are not considered primary tradelines, joint accounts are. So, for instance, a mortgage you take out with a spouse would be regarded as a primary tradeline for both of you. 

A credit card that you personally apply to is also a primary tradeline. But If you add your spouse or child on the credit card as an authorized user, the credit card is not a primary tradeline for them. Here is a list of Tradelines to Build Credit to check out.

How Can You Add Primary Tradelines to Your Credit Report?

There are several ways to add primary tradelines to your credit report. The simplest way is by opening a new credit account, i.e., applying for a new credit card or taking out a personal loan. 

Or you can open a joint account. This can be a good solution if your credit is insufficient to get the lending you need. 

For instance, a college student might not have enough credit history or income to qualify for a credit card on their own. 

There are also ways to obtain new primary tradelines on your own, even with bad credit. For instance, you can open a secured credit card and put up a security deposit. 

Or you could open a credit builder loan, which often doesn’t require a credit check. 

And you can even use services like Experian BOOST^™ and BoomPay that add rental or utility tradelines to your credit reports. These accounts are also considered primary tradelines and can help build your credit; they just don’t have the same weight as credit accounts. 

How Are Primary Tradelines Different from Authorized User Tradelines? 

An authorized user is someone added to a credit card account who can purchase things on the account but is not obligated to make payments. 

Often, there is no credit check when adding an authorized user to an account. Often, all the primary account holder needs to do is request the addition of a user to their account. 

This is most often done for family or close friends, or in the case of business credit cards, employees. 

Then there is also the shady practice of selling authorized user slots. 

When it comes to reporting, not all credit cards will report account information to an authorized user’s credit. And even when they do, the information is not weighed as heavily as it would be for the authorized user. 

The upside to primary tradelines is that they encompass more than just credit cards and loans. For example, unlike authorized user tradelines, you can obtain primary tradelines for credit accounts, rental history, and utility payments. 

How Much Do They Cost?

The cost of opening a primary tradeline depends on the type of account you open. 

A secured credit card will require you to put up a security deposit and may also come with an annual fee of some sort. 

Unsecured credit cards are often fee-free unless you carry a balance on them, in which case you’ll need to pay the interest charges. Some may have annual fees as well.

Loans are never free. The bank will usually charge some kind of administrative fee and interest. Even credit builder loans will charge you these fees, but they have the upshot of allowing you to earn interest on your secured (locked) funds. 

Having your rent reported could be free if your landlord offers the option to you. However, if you are retaining rent-reporting services on your own, then you will need to pay for them. This could start at as little as $2/month and go up to over $100/year.

The one free option is utility reporting. Experian offers their Experian BOOST^™ program for free, which will add utility payments and streaming services payments to your Experian credit report for free. 

Are Buying Authorized User Tradelines Legal?

For those that struggle to qualify for primary tradelines, there are several companies out there offering to sell you tradelines. These tradelines are authorized user tradelines, not primary tradelines. 

These authorized tradelines start at $200 for young, low-limit accounts and go up past $1000 for seasoned tradelines or ones that are older with higher credit limits. 

When you purchase these tradelines, they can boost your credit score, but the boost will be temporary. The tradeline will be reported as closed on your account in as little as two months. 

While this practice of buying tradelines is technically legal, it can violate the credit card company’s terms of agreement. This means that the action of buying or selling an authorized tradeline is fraud. 

FICO even caught onto this practice a while ago and changed the algorithms with the FICO 8 model to start looking for and omitting these fraudulent accounts from credit score calculations. 

If you are looking for a way to quickly build credit, you may be tempted to purchase one of these seasoned tradelines, but don’t. They are expensive, fraudulent, and may not improve your credit score. 

Instead, opening a primary account is the better option. Even if you have bad credit, there are options out there.

Get Primary Tradelines from These Companies Instead

CreditStrong

CreditStrong offers a unique type of loan called a credit builder loan.