A new study finds that tenants who pay their rent on time can see “significant increases” if the payments are reported to credit bureaus.
People who pay their rent on time can establish credit scores or significantly raise low scores if the payments are reported to credit bureaus, new research found.
A study published this month by the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., looked at two groups of tenants recruited in 2021 and 2022. The members of one group began having their rent payments reported to credit bureaus immediately after signing up to participate in a program offered by their properties. The members of the other group had their rent reporting delayed by four months.
The study found that rent reporting leads to “large, statistically significant increases” in the likelihood of having a score and of having at least a “near prime” score — a minimum of 601 on a scale of 300 to 850.
The research was the first rigorous, randomized study of “positive” rent reporting, said Brett Theodos, a senior fellow at the institute and an author of the study, which enrolled 269 participants in affordable housing programs in five states and Washington. In positive rent reporting, only payments made on time are supplied to credit bureaus.
The study used VantageScore, a competitor to the widely used FICO score. VantageScore, which uses a scale similar to FICO’s but assigns different weights to certain factors, was founded by the three big credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.
Still, some consumer advocates remain wary of rent reporting, saying it may pose risks to vulnerable renters.
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