Rent Reporting: How to Build Your Credit Just By Paying Rent!

When renting an apartment, one of the most important factors for tenants and landlords alike is credit scores. Credit scores can make or break approvals, as credit score requirements are common in the rental industry. Beacon Management is happy to report that we will soon be utilizing a new rent reporting program with our tenants.

Beacon Management has partnered with Experian RentBureau to use the data provided to them about Beacon Management’s tenants. Experian will generate a report that will include payments, leases, and debts. By creating these reports for tenants, rent payments will no longer be just a monthly expense, but will be an opportunity to raise credit scores and develop a trustworthy payment history.

There are several different ways that rent reporting can be beneficial to your credit score as a tenant:

Rebuild your credit score: If you have low credit and are working on improving it, rent reporting can help to increase your credit by including your rent payments in your credit report. This will help to build your score by showing a history of on-time payments each month.
Build credit history: Another problem some tenants run into with their credit scores is a lack of credit history. If you have a brief credit history, this can negatively affect your score. By reporting rent payments, you can help to build that history and improve your score.
Add credit transactions: Tenants with no credit at all can benefit too! Rent reporting has no downfalls for on-time payments, as that money will be paid regardless of whether or not it is reported. Increasing your credit score only makes renting easier in the long run!

Rent reporting also has many benefits for landlords. They include:

Encourage on-time payments: Landlords who report payments often get a lower amount of late payments and delinquencies when tenants know that missed payments will affect their credit score.
See rental payments when checking credit: Reported rent payments can also help landlords understand a tenant’s history and find a suitable and trustworthy tenant for their unit.
Find long term, trustworthy tenants: By screening for responsible tenants, a landlord is able to fill their unit and increase tenant retention simultaneously. Rent reporting is an attractive program for tenants who always pay on time, which is the best kind of tenant!