Improving Your Credit Score by Paying Rent Online

Is the stress of improving your credit score wearing you out? You can ease your worries by doing this one simple thing: paying your rent online! A 2017 TransUnion study followed 12,000 renters who reported their rent payments to the credit bureaus for a full year. This resulted in an average credit score increase of 16 points within six months! And for those with an initial credit score of below 620, the point increases were the greatest.

If you’d like to see a similar increase to your credit score, try paying your rent online! Doing so reports your payments to the credit bureaus, offers credit bureaus relevant information, and can be used with credit card payments for higher score gains. Here’s how.

Make Sure Credit Bureaus See Your Payments

“Simply paying your rent will not help you build credit,” says Bev O’Shea at NerdWallet. “But reporting your rent payments can help you build credit— especially if you are new to credit or do not have a lot of experience using it.”

So how do you make sure your rent payments are submitted to the credit bureaus? At Twin Pines Apartment Homes , our online rental payment system takes care of the reporting for you. The credit bureaus will receive a record of your on-time rental payments, which helps to increase your credit score. In order to opt in for the credit reporting, follow these steps:

Give Credit Bureaus What They Need

What actually goes into a credit score? In general, the major credit bureaus look at the same information. Experian, for example, determines credit scores through the following elements :

When you pay rent online, those payments bolster your payment history. As you pay in full and on time each month, you’ll be improving your credit score with this relevant information as well.

Use a Credit Card for Higher Score Gains

To strengthen your score even more, consider using a credit card to pay your rent online. “Open a credit card and use it to pay your rent . . . then pay your credit card balance in full each month,” says LaToya Irby, credit expert for The Balance. “The timely credit card payments will help boost your credit score.” You don’t have to pay your rent with a credit card, but it can be a nice little boost to your credit score in combination with the benefits of paying your rent online.

Improving your credit score doesn’t have to be difficult. Give your score a boost by paying your rent online through the resident portal. As you do so, it reports your payments to the credit bureaus, offering them the relevant information they need to potentially improve your score. Plus, if you pay rent with a credit card, you’ll see higher score gains. Happy credit-score-boosting!