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Payment history is the most prominent factor in your credit score, making up 35% and 40% of FICO and VantageScore calculations, respectively. You can build that history by making regular, on-time payments toward debt such as mortgages, auto loans, or credit card accounts, all of which are reported to credit agencies.
It’s unfortunate that credit-related payments, which make up just a portion of your monthly expenditures, are the sole payments automatically included on your credit report and included in credit score calculations. Meanwhile, rent is a large percentage of the typical American budget, but rental payments are not reported to credit bureaus by default. That’s where rent reporting services come in. These services can ensure that paying your rent on time counts toward your payment history, which will help you build credit.
Read on to see our top picks for rent reporting services and learn more about when you should (and shouldn’t) sign up.
The Best Rent Reporting Services of May 2023
Boom Pay – Editorial Name Only: Best for affordabilityLevelCredit – Editorial Name Only: Best overall valueRentReporters – Editorial Name Only: Best for quickly boosting creditRental Kharma – Editorial Name Only: Best for skepticsPayYourRent – Editorial Name Only: Best for property owners
The Best Rent Reporting Services
Methodology: How We Chose the Best Rent Reporting Services
We looked at a wide variety of rent reporting services serving an equally wide variety of needs. To differentiate between them, we prioritized the factors below. Whether you’re eyeing one of the services listed or another, we encourage you to consider the following.
Three-bureau reporting: We prioritized services that report to all three major credit bureaus. When you apply for a loan, you don’t get to control which credit bureau a lender pulls your credit report from; you may not even know which credit report they use. If a rent reporting service doesn’t report to all three bureaus, there’s a chance you won’t see any benefit from rent reporting.
Three of the five services we recommend report to all three major credit bureaus. The two exceptions report to two bureaus, but we included them for other standout features they offer. Services that report to only one bureau were automatically disqualified.
Degree of service: We considered the degree of service provided, including the availability of customizable coverage to suit individual needs. In particular, we looked at the extent of rental payment history that can be reported, the ability to report bills like utility or cell phone payments without using a third-party service, and the option to add additional people (like a housemate or spouse) at a discounted rate. Services that offered these valuable tools scored higher in our ratings.
We also considered the cost of each service, including who pays, how much, and how often. We weighed how the price reflected the other factors described above and focused on services that provided good overall value.
Fine print: Finally, we considered intangibles such as company reputation, customer satisfaction, and support. We also looked at miscellaneous factors, such as the setup process, user interface design, and ease of cancellation. Finally, we considered whether the tenant needs cooperation from their landlord to participate in a company’s rent reporting service.
Best Rent Reporting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does my landlord need to approve my rent reporting?
You don’t necessarily need your landlord’s approval to use a rent reporting company, though their cooperation may be necessary depending on the service you choose. Aside from the rent reporting service for property owners, all the rent reporting services included in this guide do not require landlord approval.
Why does rent reporting increase my credit score?
Rent reporting helps increase your credit score by adding additional payment history onto your credit reports on top of the payments you make on your credit accounts. This is especially helpful if you’re just starting on your credit-building journey.
Are rent reporting services worth it?
The boost in your credit score can be well worth the cost of rent reporting, especially when you consider the money you’ll save by qualifying for lower interest rates. LevelCredit, our pick for the rent reporting service with the best overall value, claims that the average LevelCredit customer sees a 20-point increase within two months and a 50-point increase within two years. Similarly, RentReporters claims an average credit score boost of 40 points.
Most Affordable
Boom Pay
Cost: Boom Pay – Fees Display, $25 to report past payment history (optional)
Launched in 2020, Boom Pay – Editorial Name Only (also known as Boom) is a mobile app that offers rent reporting to all three major credit bureaus at a bargain price. Ongoing reporting costs just $2 per month, and the enrollment fee is just $10. You can also choose to report up to 24 months of past payment history (including leases that have been closed for up to 12 months) for a one-time fee of $25. There’s no discount for housemates, but the app can accommodate anyone on the lease.
The low price is one of many attractive features. Boom doesn’t require involvement from your property owner and doesn’t pull your credit (useful for those looking to improve their score). The mobile app development is top-notch, and Boom has already earned a reputation for excellent customer service.
On the downside, Boom’s high-end mobile app, available on the Apple app store and Google Play, comes at the expense of a web-based interface. If you don’t have a compatible device or simply don’t like transacting via mobile app, then Boom won’t be a good fit for you. Boom also doesn’t provide a way to report utility bill payments or any other regular subscription payments.
Best Overall Value
LevelCredit
Cost: LevelCredit – Fees Display
Like Boom, LevelCredit – Editorial Name Only reports rent payments to all three credit bureaus and doesn’t require any involvement from the property owner. There’s no setup fee, and the monthly rate of $6.95 is higher but still competitive. There’s no discount for housemates or other secondary users. You can also opt into LookBack, which is LevelCredit’s retroactive rent reporting service. You can report up to 24 months of payment history for a one-time fee of $49.95.
Unlike Boom, LevelCredit also reports utility and cell phone payments, though these payments only get reported to TransUnion and not to Equifax or Experian. The service also includes basic credit monitoring from TransUnion and $1 million in identity theft insurance. There’s no mobile app (even though LevelCredit’s website implies otherwise), but the web interface is tailored for use with mobile devices.
LevelCredit tracks payments by connecting to your bank account and using a matching algorithm to identify corresponding transactions. This is convenient because you don’t have to change any of your payment methods. However, some users have reported issues with LevelCredit misidentifying (and then misreporting) transactions.
Finally, while LevelCredit gets predominantly favorable reviews online, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the poor experiences we had contacting their customer service. Both email and chat representatives were friendly and quick to respond but could not provide basic information about a prominently marketed feature.
Most Prior Rent Payments Reported
RentReporters
Cost: RentReporters – Fees Display
RentReporters – Editorial Name Only doesn’t look competitive at first glance. The service only reports to Equifax and TransUnion, doesn’t report utility or phone payments, and charges a monthly fee of $9.95 or $95.40 annually with a hefty signup fee of $94.95 (though spouses and roommates can sign up with a $50 discount). Furthermore, RentReporters has a less-than-stellar track record of customer satisfaction, with dozens of complaints logged to the Better Business Bureau in the past three years.
Despite these apparent drawbacks, RentReporters has several features that could make it attractive in select circumstances. First, RentReporters plans allow you to report up to 48 months of payment history, which breaks down as up to 24 months of history reported on each of two separate leases, provided the previous lease ended less than 24 months ago. This is useful if you’ve recently moved to another apartment but want to capture the payments from your previous lease.
Second, you can get your past 24 months of rent reported within three to five days if you opt into RentReporters VIP service, which is included with the annual plan or costs an additional $25 with the monthly plan. This expediency is a great asset if you’re looking for ways to boost your credit score quickly (like if you’re a prospective home buyer with a limited credit history).
Finally, RentReporters guarantees a full refund if you’re unsatisfied within seven days of your initial results (i.e., once your credit score has been updated to reflect your rental payments). This reduces the risk of high upfront costs since you can try the service out and get your money back if it doesn’t have the desired impact. Note that RentReporters will remove whatever rental history they previously reported if you get a refund.
Note: RentReporters also requires landlord cooperation in verifying the accuracy of your rental payments. If your landlord fails to cooperate, RentReporters will not issue a refund.
Altogether, RentReporters is likely to appeal to only a small subset of renters, but it’s a good option to have for those who need it.
Best Return Policy
Rental Kharma
Cost: Rental Kharma – Fees Display
Like RentReporters, Rental Kharma – Editorial Name Only seems lackluster at first. The service only reports to Equifax and TransUnion and has a relatively high $75 setup fee and $8.95 monthly fee for ongoing reporting. Rental Kharma also doesn’t report utilities and other payments.
On the positive side, Rental Kharma claims to report all past payment history at your current rental and offers a substantial discount for a spouse or roommate with a $25 setup fee and a $5 monthly fee for ongoing service. Split between two people, the cost is closer to the average among rent reporting services.
However, Rental Kharma’s main draw is its 90-day, 100% money-back guarantee, including the setup fee and any ongoing fees accrued. If you aren’t convinced that rent reporting is worthwhile, those 90 days give you plenty of time to see the impact on your credit score. Unlike RentReporters, if your landlord refuses to verify payments, Rental Kharma will give you a refund.
Best for Property Owners
PayYourRent
Cost: PayYourRent – Fees Display
PayYourRent – Editorial Name Only is a rent payment processor that offers a variety of additional property management tools, such as rental applications, resident screening, and maintenance requests. But it also serves renters by reporting payment history to all three credit bureaus at no extra charge.
Plans are priced according to the number of units: a smaller property with up to five units pays a $9.95 monthly fee, while larger properties with 50 or more units pay no monthly fee. PayYourRent doesn’t report past rental payments or utilities, so it’s not the best option for renters looking to improve their credit scores quickly, but it’s a good solution for forward reporting if you can get your property owner on board.
One negative is that many reviews criticize PayYourRent for having a lengthy and difficult setup process. The mobile app has also received negative feedback for being clunky and poorly designed. However, users who get through the early hurdles tend to review the service favorably.
How Does Rent Reporting Work?
Since rental payments are not reported automatically, and renters cannot report payments independently, rent reporting services act as intermediaries to verify payments and pass data to the credit bureaus.
This generally works in one of two ways: most commonly, rent reporting services generate firsthand data either by monitoring your banking activity or by receiving your rental payments directly and then forwarding funds (minus fees) to your property owner. Another common arrangement is for your property owner to receive rent as usual and then submit payment data to a rent reporting service, with you or your property owner (or both) paying the fee separately.
Once your rental payments are reported to a credit bureau, those data points are added to others in your payment history, and your credit score is adjusted accordingly. Naturally, reporting full and on-time rental payments improves your score, while reporting incomplete, late, or missed payments drags it down.
Note: Not all credit scoring models factor rent into your overall score. While VantageScore 3.0 and FICO 9 include reported rent, FICO 8 (one of the most widely used credit scoring models) does not.
Should You Pay for a Rent Reporting Service?
Reporting rental payments is unlikely to be productive if you already have extensive credit history and high credit scores. It won’t hurt your credit as long as you continue paying in full and on time, but it won’t make a significant impact.
Rent reporting is most useful for those with minimal credit history who need to generate more data points or those with bad credit looking for ways to improve it. Reporting rental payments can help in both cases but should be viewed as a partial solution. Consider it as one tool among many you can use to build credit and fix your credit score.
Before enrolling in a paid rent reporting service yourself, find out whether your property owner is already enrolled or interested in signing up. Many rental payment processors provide rent reporting services, and large-scale property management companies increasingly offer rent reporting to attract tenants. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac launched initiatives in 2022 to facilitate rent reporting for eligible properties. Experian Boost also added rent reporting to the growing list of payments it allows on your credit report, though the list of eligible properties is currently very limited.
Taking advantage of services offered by your property owner may spare you the expense of reporting rental payments on your own.