How Utility Bills Can Boost Your Credit Score - Experian (2024)

FAQs

How Utility Bills Can Boost Your Credit Score - Experian? ›

Automatic bill payments can help you avoid late fees and promote credit score improvement by preventing late or missed payments. Utility companies don't share payment history with the credit bureaus. But Experian Boost can add on-time utility payments to your Experian credit report.

Utility companies typically don't report your payment history to the credit bureaus. But paying utility bills on time can help your credit score when you use Experian Boost. This tool specifically integrates gas, electric, water and other utility payments into your Experian credit report and scores.

On your account homepage, scroll down to the "Explore other actions" box and click the button marked "Add bills to Experian Boost." On the Experian Boost landing page, enter information on the checking or credit card account(s) you use to pay the bills you want added to your credit report.

How does Experian Boost work? Good question! Connect to the bank or credit card account you use to pay your bills and/or rent. We'll look through 2 years of payment history for any qualifying bills that have at least 3 payments in the last 6 months (including 1 payment within the last 3 months).

You cannot usually use utility bills to improve your credit. Most utility bills typically have no impact on your credit score because the information is not generally reported to credit bureaus as they are not credit accounts.

You choose which bills' payment information you want to share, and Experian Boost will add up to two years' worth of payment history to your Experian credit report. The types of bills you could add include: Phone bills (mobile and landline) Utility bills (gas, water, electricity and solar)

Experian Boost works best for those with no credit, bad credit or thin credit files. The main drawback is that it only works for your Experian credit report and has no effect on our Equifax and Transunion reports.

Typically, cellphone providers don't report your payments to the bureaus — though newer services like Experian Boost can help you manually add your cellphone account. Unfortunately, it's easier for your cellphone bill to negatively impact your credit because missed payments do get reported to the credit bureaus.

How can I raise my credit score 200 points in 30 days? ›

Make all payments on time, keep credit utilization low, and give it time. Kikoff's tools provide an easy framework, but your financial behavior is ultimately the cornerstone of improvement.

As someone with a 650 credit score, you are firmly in the “fair” territory of credit. You can usually qualify for financial products like a mortgage or car loan, but you will likely pay higher interest rates than someone with a better credit score. The "good" credit range starts at 690.

Boost can benefit the most common versions of FICO and VantageScore, Experian says. Lenders would see the effects of Boost only if they view your Experian credit report or pull those most commonly used credit scores using Experian data. Experian acknowledges that Boost users may not see a bump in their scores.

You choose which bills' payment information you want to share, and Experian Boost will add up to two years' worth of payment history to your Experian credit report. The types of bills you could add include: Phone bills (mobile and landline) Utility bills (gas, water, electricity and solar)

Since you can't report your own financial activity to the credit bureaus, you must contract with a third-party service that can independently verify your account and payment information.

You can manage your tracked bills on the Bills page of your Credit Karma Money Spend account. If you would link to add a new account to your bill tracking, select Add accounts. If you would like to untrack a tracked bill or unlink a tracked account: Select Manage accounts to see a list of your currently linked billers.