These tradelines will boost your credit! Why pay hundreds of dollars for tradelines when you don’t have to?
| Name | Type | Credit limit | Availability | Price | Action |
| CreditStrong | Credit builder account | $1,000 | In stock | $15/mo. | More Info |
| StellarFi | Revolving account | $25,000 | In stock | $10/mo. | More Info |
| Extra | Debit card that builds credit | Varies | In stock | $20/mo. | More Info |
| BoomPay | Rental tradeline | Varies | In stock | $25 | More Info |
| Grow Credit | Revolving account | $204 | In stock | $41 | More Info |
| Self | Credit builder account | $1,000 | In stock | $25/mo. | More Info |
| Experian BOOST™ | Utility tradeline | Varies | In stock | $0 | More Info |
Why These Tradelines are Better than Authorized User Tradelines
All of the options we list above are accounts in your name and will be considered primary tradelines.
When trying to build credit, primary tradelines are much better for consistent long-term credit score growth.
An authorized user tradeline may give your credit score a boost, but it will be a smaller credit score increase than what you would see if you had that same credit card account opened in your name as the primary account holder.
Buying tradelines like the ones we listed above are a whole lot cheaper than the $1000+ price tag that comes with purchasing seasoned authorized user tradelines.
Some of the options we presented are accounts you can open for free, while most come with a small associated fee or low-level interest charges.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “Are tradelines legal?” All of these accounts and services are 100% legal, whereas the authorized user tradeline market operates in a gray area that walks the line between legal and fraudulent.
So if you are in need of credit repair, or are just working at improving your bad credit score, instead of buying tradelines like the authorized user slots many tradeline companies offer, consider opening a credit account in your name.
This way, all of the beneficial account info added to your credit reports, like the credit limit, payment history, and credit utilization, can have the maximum impact on your credit score.
How Do Tradelines Work?
A tradeline is any account that appears on one or more of your credit reports.
This usually includes installment accounts (loans) and revolving accounts (credit cards). But it can also include other types of accounts, like rent history and utility payments.
These tradelines are the building blocks for your credit score calculation.
Each tradeline on your credit report contains essential account data, including a record of your payments, balance history, the date you opened the account, and more. Each of these factors is weighed as a part of your credit score.
For instance, payments are reflected in the payment history portion of your credit score, and the date you opened the account will be factored into the length of credit history part of your credit score.
When buying tradelines or adding a tradeline to your credit reports, it will impact each of the different credit score factors as the new information appears on your credit reports.
For instance, an account with a newer account opening date may decrease your overall length of credit history. Or, an account with a high credit limit may improve your overall credit utilization.
Why Authorized User Tradelines are Shady
The buying and selling of authorized user tradelines occur in a gray area of the credit world. While the practice is not technically illegal, it is often viewed as fraud.
If you are selling tradelines, and your credit card company finds out, they could drop you as a customer.
Buying tradelines like this is often very expensive, and it is unclear how much of the money changing hands goes to the cardholder versus how much remains in the broker’s pocket.
In addition to being expensive, these authorized user tradelines are temporary, often reporting activity for two months or less before being closed out. And, they might not even report to all three credit bureaus.
FICO has caught on to this practice and has actually adjusted its scoring models to ignore these potentially fraudulent authorized user accounts, omitting them from credit score calculations.
Because of the limited reporting window and FICO’s crackdown, buying tradelines in this way might not even impact your credit score.
And the worst part is that this market is a gray area; you have little to no recourse for getting back your money if you are unsatisfied with the service.