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A tradeline is a term referring to a credit account that appears on a consumer credit report. After adding a new tradeline, an entry should appear on the report within 45 days, but this depends on many different factors.
What Happens After You Buy a Tradeline?
Consumers looking to quickly boost credit scores often consider buying a tradeline. Some companies will facilitate the process of adding a consumer as an authorized user to an existing credit card account.
Renting or buying a tradeline as an authorized user on another cardholder’s account is often called “piggybacking.” The tradeline company provides financial compensation to the cardholder.
Buying or renting tradelines is not an advisable way to build your credit quickly. Credit bureaus and credit card companies view this as fraud. It often only lasts for a month or two and can be risky for you by giving out your personal information to strangers. It’s also expensive.
Instead, you can ask a close friend or family member if you can be added as an authorized user on their account or open up a new tradeline as the primary account holder. These are great ways to begin building credit.
How Long Do Tradelines Take to Show Up on Your Credit Report?
The amount of time it takes for tradelines to appear on a credit report entry varies based on several factors. One reality revealed when looking for this answer is that often it depends on who you ask.
For example, RentReporters is a company that assists consumers with reporting their rent to credit bureaus. They find that credit score improvements may occur within 10 days after reporting.
According to Experian, many credit card companies send new data at the same time each month. Often, this is soon after the current monthly billing cycle ends, which is every 28 to 31 days.
Experian explains that consumers with several credit cards might notice a revised credit score each week. This occurs from the disparity among the billing cycles of each credit card company. Further, they estimated that new accounts might take up to 60 days to appear.
TransUnion says that the timing is largely dictated by the lender’s practices. They described the frequency as once each month up to roughly 45 days. On TransUnion credit reports, each tradeline should contain a “date updated” line.
Based on these sources, most new tradelines take anywhere between 30 to 90 days.
How Long Do Tradelines Stay on a Credit Report For?
Current (active) credit accounts like credit cards remain on your credit report indefinitely. Most negative credit entries remain on your credit report for seven years.
Negative entries may include late payments, vehicle repossessions, and home foreclosures. Depending on the type of bankruptcy filing, they either remain visible for seven or ten years.
Most delinquent credit accounts are soon forwarded to a collection agency. This transition typically creates a separate report entry. Removal of the original and any subsequent collection entries occurs seven years after the first missed payment.
Closed credit accounts “in good standing” or “paid as agreed” will typically remain visible for 10 years.
Consumers may dispute tradelines they believe are improperly reported or that result from acts of fraud. If the credit bureau confirms that an entry is erroneous, it will generally disappear within 30 days.
“Hard” credit inquiries or credit pulls occur when a prospective lender performs a credit check on a consumer. Hard inquiries occur with approval from the consumer. With Equifax, these inquiries generate a credit report entry that typically remains visible for two years.
How Much Will a Tradeline Boost My Credit?
The exact impact that a new tradeline will have on your credit score is unknown. A host of different factors may influence the number of points that a score can rise. A new tradeline might initially increase your credit score anywhere from roughly five to over 100 points.
First, let’s outline the factors that influence score calculations. The following table explains the two primary credit scoring models: FICO and VantageScore.
Credit Scoring Model Calculations
FICO | Influence |
Payment History | 35% |
Amounts Owed | 30% |
Length of Credit History | 15% |
New Credit | 10% |
Credit Mix | 10% |
VantageScore Model 4.0 | |
Payment History | 41% |
Credit Utilization | 20% |
Age of Credit Accounts / Credit Mix | 20% |
New Credit Accounts | 11% |
Balances | 6% |
Available Credit | 2% |
Sources: FICO and VantageScore
Many rent reporting services will report a tenant’s past two years of payment history. This is one way to boost your credit.
One potentially significant initial influence is the credit utilization rate. For example, opening a new credit card with a $2,000 credit limit will improve the utilization rate if you don’t use very much of it. It’s best if you keep your credit utilization under 10%.
A new tradeline might also help add to a consumer’s credit mix. For example, if your credit history only contains installment credit accounts and you open a new revolving account.
There are legimitate ways to get tradelines if you have bad credit, even free tradelines in some cases.
New tradelines are likely to appear on your credit report in only a few weeks and begin increasing your credit score.
Yet, those who achieve very good to excellent credit scores (750+) don’t do so “overnight.” Rather, they demonstrate a pattern of making timely payments on all credit accounts over a long period, usually 6-12 months.
Also Read:
- What Cell Phone Companies Report to Credit Bureaus?
- How to Add Utility Bills to Your Credit Report
- Grow Credit Review
- How Long do Tradelines Stay On Your Credit?
- Tradelines to Build Credit
- Authorized User Tradelines?
- Primary Tradelines
- Rental Tradelines
- Types of Tradelines
- Buy Credit Tradelines

Anthony Amodeo is a regular finance writer in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries. Particular areas of focus include personal finance, small business, real estate, and more. He is a graduate of Kent State University. His credit scores are top tier.