Guide For Adding Credit Tradelines to Your Credit Report

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May 19, 2022

Guide For Adding Credit Tradelines to Your Credit Report

When you decide to prepare a credit report for yourself, you will discover that a credit tradeline will surely come in handy. Your credit report might contain the following examples of a credit tradeline; a line of credit, car loans, mortgages, credit cards, or payday advances.

However, if you are new to this, you might be wondering what a credit tradeline is. This article will contain what a credit tradeline is and how it can benefit you in improving your credit effectively.

What is a Credit Tradeline?
How Does a Credit Tradeline Work?
Should I Add Tradelines to my Credit?
How Much Will my Credit Score go up With a Tradeline?
How do I Add a Primary Tradeline to my Credit Report?
How do I Add Positive Tradelines to my Credit Report?
How Fast do Tradelines Work?
How Many Tradelines Should I Have?
How Much do Tradelines Cost?

What is a Credit Tradeline?

A credit tradeline is a term to describe a credit account. If you have a credit account, then you have tradelines on your report.

Credit agencies build credit reports on individuals based on these tradelines. Each tradeline includes information reported by the creditor, including:

Creditor or lender’s name
Partial account number
Type of account
Date the account was opened
Date of last activity
Current balance
Credit limit or loan amount
Amount of the last payment
Date the account was last updated
Payment history
Current account status

There are two kinds of tradelines: revolving and installment. A revolving tradeline is a line of credit or a credit card account. These accounts let the borrower use credit as needed (up to their credit limit) over an extended time frame. An installment tradeline, such as a student loan, mortgage, or auto loan, is a loan for a set amount that is paid back in installments.

How Does a Credit Tradeline Work?

Your credit score, the three-digit number that measures your creditworthiness, is calculated using tradeline information from your credit report. If you’ve made your payments on time, kept your balances low, and otherwise been responsible with your credit obligations, then your tradelines will contain positive information, and you’ll have a high credit score to show for your efforts.

Without a tradeline, you can’t have a credit score. For the credit scoring calculation to work, your credit report must have at least one tradeline that’s been open and active in the past six months.

Should I Add Tradelines to my Credit?

As a business, a credit report reflects the creditworthiness of your business. It is not connected to you personally. As a result, it needs to have business tradelines reporting to it. Here are some reasons.

1. It can help establish a business credit score.

Your business credit is separate from your personal credit. For one, you have to be intentional about building it. Not all vendors will report payments to your business credit report. That means you need to add tradelines that do. You’ll likely need help with this from a business credit expert, as most vendors do not make publicly known whether they report or not.

2. It establishes a PAYDEX score with D&B.

You need tradelines on your business credit report to establish a PAYDEX with Dun & Bradstreet. They are the largest and most commonly used business credit company. So obviously, having a PAYDEX is important. D&B says you only need two. However, many reports that in their experience it took 3 tradelines reporting to establish a PAYDEX.

3. It can help raise your business credit score.

Remember, this only works if you pay on time. However, if you do, the more the merrier. When you add tradelines to your business credit report and handle them responsibly, you are only helping your business credit score grow.

4. Adding tradelines to your credit report is a way to build business credit without good credit.

Tradelines break the vicious cycle of “you have to have credit to get credit.” They typically do not take credit into account for approval. Rather, they look at other things to determine credit worthiness like time in business, business revenue, and business bank account balance.

5. Strong business credit is essential to running a strong business and protecting your personal credit.

And as we said, you need tradelines to establish business credit, let alone build it. Business credit allows you to fund your business without jeopardizing your personal credit.

How Much Will my Credit Score go up With a Tradeline?

You can increase your credit score by 200 points and more by simply buying good credit. You may wonder how it’s possible and even argue that it’s unethical, but individuals and businesses have been doing it for over 30 years and it’s perfectly legal!

If you need a quick boost in your credit score for a home loan, auto loan, or any other loan for that matter, it is definitely worth it to invest in purchasing seasoned primary accounts. You need to make sure they are primary accounts and not just authorized user accounts. According to the new fico ’08 law, authorized user accounts are no longer being considered in factoring credit scores like they were previously.

A seasoned primary account is one that is 2 years old or older and has an excellent credit history. The great thing about this practice is that it saves someone who has bad credit hundreds of thousands of dollars in loan payments.

The concept is really quite simple. You pay to use an individual’s account that has already established excellent credit history on the account. You are put on the account as a joint account user just before the account is closed. The previous account holder is transferred off the account and you become the primary account holder and inherits all of the excellent payment history. It then shows up on your credit report, usually within 15-30days.

This is legal because federal law permits adding users to your accounts and does not prohibit the rental or sale of user designations. Mortgage brokers, lawyers, and real estate agents have been using this practice for years to get their clients better rates and lower payments.

The number of tradelines you purchase will determine the approximate increase in your credit score. Usually buying one trade line will increase your score by 40-45 points. If you need a bigger increase you can just purchase more accounts.

There are companies that offer up to 5 accounts that you can purchase which will give you an approximate increase of 200-225 points in your fico score. This is great for someone who has a credit score that is in the 500s and needs to quickly get to that almighty 720 to get the best interest rates.

Of course, this service does not come cheap when you’re talking about upfront costs. The going price for one primary account is around $1500. It may seem expensive but is well worth the price since boosting your score by even 40 points can make the difference of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars less in loan payments.

How do I Add a Primary Tradeline to my Credit Report?

There are a lot of things you need to know about the primary tradelines. Before you even start thinking of buying tradelines, it is vital to know and understand what you are putting yourself into. This way, you get to weigh your options properly and buy tradelines that are only necessary to help boost your credit. To start with, what is a primary tradeline is?

A primary tradeline is an account on a credit report designated only for the primary account holder. This includes all their lines of credit such as mortgages, credit cards, car loans, or anything else that is being borrowed under the primary account holder. They will be responsible for paying the balance on their accounts.

Then, it’s reflected on their credit score depending on how well they can manage their debt. These are used when users want to first establish a credit score and begin to build a payment history. Most of these primary tradelines are easy to open, such as credit cards through banks.

First of all, a credit report is a statement that shows all the information about your credit activities and current credit status. The report is prepared by any or all of the three major credit bureaus. The credit report plays a crucial role in determining your credit score.

The easiest way to add a primary tradeline to your credit report is to open a free credit card account. The account has to be under your name. There are many banks and credit companies out there to choose from.

While there are companies out there that claim to sell primary tradelines, most of them are shady operations. Transferring a primary tradeline to another person’s name can be legally exhausting. Worse, you can even be charged for fraud or identity theft.

If your goal for adding a primary tradeline is to improve your credit score, that’s achievable by paying off your loans on time. That way, you keep a low credit utilization ratio, which is also known as the debt to credit ratio. You can also buy authorized user tradelines from reputable tradeline companies. Buying seasoned tradelines, in particular, are great choices to improve your credit record. Having a good credit record means a higher credit score.

How do I Add Positive Tradelines to my Credit Report?

Having too few tradelines in your credit history can make you “unscorable” or mean you have a “thin credit file.” Either of those can get in the way of having a good credit score. Having more than three tradelines lifts you out of thin-file territory.

One way of adding tradelines to your account to help improve your credit is to ask a family member, such as a parent or a spouse, to add your name as an authorized user to one of their credit card accounts. “If they have a credit card in good standing, it’s 100% OK to ask your loved one to add you as an authorized user,” Black says.

In fact, Black adds that it’s one of the best ways for parents to help kids build their credit scores. The account holder doesn’t have to physically share the card or give the authorized user spending privileges in order for them to receive this benefit.

Some credit bureaus also offer ways to add additional tradelines to your account to help build your credit score. Experian Boost, for example, lets your streaming, phone and utility payments count toward your Experian credit score, but you have to share your personal data, including bank account transactions, to participate. Another way to add utility data is via eCredable Lift. It requires login information for utility accounts and can go back up to 24 months.

Rent reporting services let consumers add their rent as a tradeline to their credit reports. Some services require the landlord to offer them, but others let consumers sign up directly. But not all of the services report rent to all three major credit bureaus, and not all credit scoring models consider rent tradelines when calculating scores.

“They are ways to add tradelines,” says credit expert John Ulzheimer about services like rent reporting and Boost. Other than those methods, “you can’t force your credit issuer to report them.”

How Fast do Tradelines Work?

There is no perfect time to add tradelines to your credit. You can add one anytime you want. But, if you are planning to loan money from banks or other financial institutions, it is best to work on your credit profile earlier. Ideally, at least 15 days to a month before filing the loan. Adding a tradeline is also necessary when applying for credit cards. Whether you are loaning money or applying for credit cards, make sure to have ample time to work on your credit profile.

So, you buy a tradeline today. The next question would be, how long do you wait until credit bureaus report it on your credit file?

Tradelines can begin to show up on your credit report as soon as 15 days or as late as 45 days from the time of purchase. There are several unknown factors behind how quickly credit report bureaus receive and update the information. Here are the ones we are most aware of:

How soon does the tradeline company or card issuer reports complete the necessary paperwork
Type of authorized tradeline account purchased
Geographical distance from the original cardholder
Current activity occurring at credit bureaus related to challenging records

Regardless of the reason behind how early or how late the tradeline will show up in your credit report, it is worth noting that buying a tradeline does not guarantee an automatic improvement on your credit score.

When you purchase a tradeline account, you buy an inactive addition to someone else’s account for yourself. This is the practical equivalent of a family member adding you to a credit card account but refusing to give you the credit card. Because no transactions are associated with the account, the credit bureaus eventually flag it as inactive, and it can fall off your report.

This is why the current activity for challenging new or existing records at the credit bureau is essential. It affects not just how soon your accounts report but how long they remain on your file. Some people only see a tradeline report for about 45 days before it drops off. Others can get up to seven solid years of reporting.

How Many Tradelines Should I Have?

When purchasing tradelines, there are some cases where it is best to get a single tradeline and other cases when multiple tradelines might be more appropriate. To help you decide, we’ve provided some points to consider.

When to Buy Two or More Tradelines	When to Buy One High-Quality Tradeline
If you have a thin credit file (too few accounts)	If you have budget constraints
If you need to balance out derogatory accounts	When you want to increase the age of your oldest tradeline
When you want to maximize results	If you already have a very thick file (15 or more accounts)
When you need a tradeline to post to a specific credit bureau	If you want a high credit limit
If you need a tradeline for an important, time-sensitive event	If you have modest goals
	If you have no credit file or an extremely thin credit file

If you are wondering how many tradelines you need, remember that the power of tradelines is always going to be relative to your current credit file and it is important to consider what will be the best fit for your specific situation.

In some situations, it may be important to maximize results using multiple powerful tradelines, such as when you are trying to accomplish a major goal or when there are serious hurdles to overcome. In other cases, one good tradeline might be all you need.

Whatever the case may be for you, it is always best to understand how tradelines work first and foremost and avoid making any common mistakes.

In simplest terms, the safest option is always to overshoot your goal and stick with the highest quality tradelines within your budget, and remember that in most cases, age is key. If budget is a big concern, then it’s usually best to just buy one of the highest quality tradelines your budget allows.

How Much do Tradelines Cost?

Like most things you buy in life, you can get cheap or quality but you can’t get both. With something as important as your consumer credit and finances aren’t getting the results you need more important than the cost?

The two main factors that determine the price of a tradeline is the credit limit and the card age. Note: the higher the limit and card age the higher the cost and vice versa.

Should I go for this cheap tradeline or the one that seems like a higher quality but is out of my budget? Here’re the most common issues we’ve found when buying seasoned $100 tradelines:

They are typically individuals selling tradelines and not through a corporation, so they have no legal obligation to protect your personally identifiable information.
The $100 tradelines do not have 100% perfect payments so the impact on your credit is minimal.
The credit tradeline age is less than 2 years old so it reduces your average credit age which has a medium impact on your credit score.
The credit limit or credit histories linked to those $100 tradelines are low. If you also have a low credit limit and purchase a low-limit tradeline with high usage, it could cause your score to drop.
You typically do not get support from the company if they offer that low-cost $100 tradelines.
Most of those cheap tradelines are used to build credit on fake Social Security Number (aka CPN tradeline) which is fraudulent and is against the law.

These are a few of the compelling reasons why you should not buy cheap or $100 tradelines or even $200 tradelines. Of course, the cost could be a concern. However, the cost is only an issue in the absence of value.

A good starting point is other alternatives like $300 tradelines or a higher price range. Those tradelines usually have at least 2 years of age and a decent limit that could provide the results you need.

What You’ll Get for $100 Tradelines

The simple truth is – not very much! When you click on a link that promises you can buy a tradeline or primary tradeline for just $100, there is a lot to be wary about.

It is not to say that you will get scammed if you buy a cheap tradeline. However, there are important things you should keep in mind when you purchase 100-dollar tradelines.

1. You could fall prey to scammers.

Buying cheap tradelines for $100 or less hardly comes with a caveat those $100 tradelines are legit. It is possible that after buying the tradeline, you will not see it reflected in your credit report even after several months of waiting or the guarantee period has elapsed.

When you see $100 tradelines for sale advertised on Craigslist or even on eBay, it should send warning bells off in your head. The listings usually appear legit. When you click the link, you’re redirected to their website if they have one.

You will most often find out that the website was poorly designed with social proof, little to no information about the company and its founders, and too good to be true promises with a huge “Increase your credit score 200 points overnight, guaranteed!” Please don’t fall for it!

2. Getting on the wrong side of the law.

There is nothing illegal with the practice of buying tradelines for a better credit score. But, most of the cheap tradelines you will find online are pushing the edge from a legal to illegal practice.

For example, it is possible that the credit card you are about to get added on as an authorized user is stolen credit card information from the dark web. When you’re added to the account, your report might be flagged for suspicious activities.

Another common practice when people look to purchase $100 tradelines is to build synthetic credit profiles known as CPN. This practice is against the law!

When this happens, the credit bureau or credit company could report it to law enforcement. Then, you become a suspect of illegal activity for something you are completely ignorant about.

3. Fishbait!

Sometimes, you get emails or notifications of these cheap tradelines as sale options. Most likely, you had been searching for how to get the highest credit score quickly on the internet. You go ahead and click the offer to sign up.

You soon discover that “$100 tradelines” are suddenly not available and you have to go for a “premium tradeline.”

The chat icon prompts you to get on the phone or chat with a sales agent that ends up selling you a $750 tradeline. At this point, you’ve gone too far in the process and feel bad not moving forward; you feel stuck. You end up buying a tradeline that might have cost 150-300 bucks lower in a more conventional company.

Several ‘“reputable” companies use these $100 tradelines as leads. This practice is referred to as bait and switch. Although it is legal, it is not ethical.

4. Giving out Information to the wrong people.

When buying $100 tradelines, you are often required to provide sensitive information such as full name, date of birth, social security number, and address. I believe it is very unwise to input these details on just any site out there.

Read Also: How to Build Piggybacking Credit

You want to make sure the site is secure, the business is registered with the state, the information is encrypted, and they have properly vetted their sellers or partners.

Ensuring you’re working with trustworthy people is important because if someone has all your personally identifiable information, they can open a credit account in your name and you could be liable for every havoc they make.

5. $100 tradelines may not boost your score.

Let us assume you get a genuine offer on a site that sells tradelines for really low prices without you getting scammed or hunted down by the police in the case of a CPN tradeline.

You purchase the tradeline and you’re added to the account. What’s the catch?

Well, before you go to buy tradelines, you have to understand how a tradeline works. When you get an authorized user tradeline and it shows up on your credit report, the age of the account, credit limit, and payment history greatly determine how effective it will improve your credit score.

100 dollar tradelines are credit accounts that are usually less than 2 years old with very low limits.

In the best-case scenario, your credit score may go up by only a few points. Worst case scenario, your credit score takes a nosedive because the new credit account reduced your average credit age.