You’ve probably heard of Experian Boost as a way to “boost” your credit. But what is it, does it work and is it an alternative to RentReporters? (hint, it’s not!)
Keep reading and learn more about Experian Boost!
What Is Experian Boost?
Experian Boost is a free service that gives Experian access to your bank records to identify your payments for streaming services like Netflix, utility, and cell phone bills. These payments are then added into your Experian credit report and included in your FICO 8 score.
How Does Experian Boost Work?
To Use Experian Boost you’ll need to grant Experian access to read your bank account information by linking your account via a third party.
The nice thing about Boost is that it only counts positive payment history towards your score (just like RentReporters!)
After connecting your bank account and identifying the services you’d like to add to your credit history, you’re on your way! You’ll get your updated FICO score in real time after doing so.
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Does Experian Boost Work?
According to Experian’s website, the average user sees a boost of 13 points. It states that, of users with FICO scores classified as “very poor,” 87% of them saw their scores increase. Of users with FICO scores classified as “fair,” users that saw their score increase drops to 63%.
Based on this, it would be safe to assume that the better your score is, the lower the boost will be.
Lenders use several different models when checking your credit, FICO 8 is one of those and Vantage 3 is another (what you’ll find on Credit Karma), and the data can come from Equifax, TransUnion, Experian or a combination of all three.
How Does Experian Boost Compare To RentReporters?
RentReporters reports your rent payment history to the credit bureaus which creates a new rental tradeline on your credit report. This not only reflects your on-time payment history but also impacts your length of credit history. Users see an average increase of 40 points.
Experian Boost adds a tradeline for your subscription payments, your cell phone, and utility bills and users see an average increase of 13 points.
Is Experian Boost a RentReporters Competitor?
Nope! In fact, we highly encourage you to use Experian Boost alongside RentReporters.
Simply put, Experian Boost and RentReporters are two complementary products without any overlap in what they do. Both products will boost your credit scores in different ways.
Remember, lenders don’t just use FICO scores. Some use Vantage, others may use FICO and they can pull those scores from just one credit agency like Experian or a combination of credit bureaus.
You’ll greatly benefit from having a robust and healthy score with all agencies and Experian Boost and RentReporters are great ways to help accomplish that!