Have you wondered what are tradelines?
In this article we will go over what tradelines are, how they can increase your credit score, the benefits of having a tradeline, where to get tradelines and how to buy and sell tradelines.
A credit report is the best summary of an individual’s credit history. It paints a picture of the individual’s financial decisions. Tradelines play an important role in your credit score and are the fastest ways to boost your credit score.
What Is A Credit Tradeline On Your Credit Report?
Inside This Article
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A tradeline is a term used by the credit industry for a “credit account”. Some examples of tradelines are personal loans, credit cards, or mortgages. All of these tradelines will show up on your credit report.
A credit tradeline is initiated immediately after a borrower’s application for credit is approved. From then, any activity carried out and reported by the credit reporting companies goes under the account’s tradeline.
What Are Primary Tradelines?
A primary tradeline is an account that you are the primary account holder of on your credit report. The person who is responsible for paying the debt is the primary account holder. The best primary tradelines to have are credit cards, home loans, auto loans and personal loans. These primary tradelines are essential to building a good credit score.
Good credit habits, such as paying your bills on time, means good tradelines while bad credit habits like too much debt and missed payments means bad tradelines that can negatively impact your credit.
Related: What is Credit?
Types Of Tradelines
Each credit account you have is a single tradeline and that includes any accounts that you are currently paying, open and closed accounts and any accounts that you have jointly with someone else. All tradelines fall into these three types:
- Installment Loans– These are accounts that you borrowed at a fixed amount and repay it on fixed terms. This includes student loans, auto loans, mortgages, and personal loans.
- Revolving Accounts– These accounts are considered revolving because they are on-going such as the balance, payments and available credit. Credit cards and lines of credit are revolving accounts.
- Open Accounts– These account are when a buyer receives merchandise and the account is paid in full. This type account are common for businesses and include net-30 accounts or business accounts.
Where To View Your Tradelines
The best way to see what tradelines you have is to check your credit report. You can get your credit report for free at annualcreditreport.com. View your individual credit scores from the three credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You can also check for tradelines and your credit scores at Credit Karma, myFICO, and Credit Sesame.
What Are Tradelines On A Credit Report?
A tradeline on your credit report is when you borrow any money and they check your credit score before you are approved, these tradelines will show up on your credit report. For example if you buy a car and take out an auto loan to buy it, the dealership will check your credit score. If you are approved the loan amount and the payments you make towards that loan will appear on your credit report.
Related: How To Add Tradelines To Your Credit Report
How Does A Tradeline Get Approved?
The lender will pull your credit report to see if you are a creditworthy candidate that they should lend money too. Lenders will check your credit report to see:
- If you make your payments on-time or if you have late payments
- How much debt you have and if you have any credit cards maxed out
- If you have any accounts you haven’t been paying on which includes collections, and foreclosures
- What your debt to income ratio is. Do you have more debt than what you can pay back in an orderly fashion?
- Do you have too many hard inquiries? If you open too many accounts in a short period of time lenders might consider this a red flag and that you are desperate for money.
When all of the above is in a good place your tradeline will most likely be approved. If you are struggling paying your debts, don’t make enough money for the debts you have or haven’t been making payments then there is a good chance your tradeline might get denied.
Where Does The Credit Bureaus Get Their Tradeline Information
Each credit bureau is different and different companies will report their financial information to different credit bureaus. When your credit is pulled by a lender, sometimes the lender will pull your credit from one credit bureau or all three. Each company is different. So how do you know which tradeline will report to each credit bureau? While it’s not possible to predict which credit bureau the lender will use to pull your credit there is a few ways to make an educated guess.
Related: Top 3 Credit Bureaus in 2021
What Company Uses What Credit Bureau?
Credit card companies and companies that report to the personal and business credit bureaus will share where they pull your credit from and what credit bureau their tradelines will report to.
If you are looking to learn about how to get business tradelines read more here.
Companies That Use Equifax
Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus for personal credit and business credit. You can check your Equifax credit score for free on Credit Karma. Not all credit tradelines you have will report to Equifax but if you want to increase your credit score, here is a list of tradelines that use Equifax Credit Bureau:
- Discover
- Chase (Best Business Credit Card For Bad Credit)
- Citi Bank
- OpenSky (best credit cards for bad credit)
- HSBC
Related: 8 Best No-Interest Credit Cards
Business Tradelines That Report To Equifax:
These are some of the companies that will report your financial information for your business to Equifax Business Credit Bureau to help you increase your business credit score:
- Creative Analytics (Business Tradeline)
- Nav Business Boost (Business Tradeline)
Related: How To Start Building Business Credit
Companies That Use Experian
Experian is another major credit bureau for both personal credit and business credit. Some of the companies that use Experian also use other credit bureaus as well. If you see companies use multiple credit bureaus to pull your credit you should be focusing on all those credit scores than just one. Here is a list of companies that use Experian:
- Chase
- Wells Fargo
- Bank Of America
- Citi Bank
- American Express
Related: 10 Best Rewards Credit Cards
Business Tradelines That Report To Experian:
These are companies that report your financials to Experian Business Credit Bureau to increase your business credit score:
- Home Depot Pro
- Murphy USA
- 7-Eleven
Related: Business Tradelines: What They Are & How To Get One
Companies That Use TransUnion
The last of the three major credit bureaus for personal credit is TransUnion. TransUnion only reports to your personal credit report but they also have great services that cater to businesses. For example if you are a landlord and running credit checks on your tenants you can use TransUnion’s My Smart Move to run a complete credit check and screen your tenant to see if your tenant is worthy of renting to based on their financial information.
Related: Best Rental Credit Checks For Tenants and Landlords: The Complete Guide
You can also use TransUnion to monitor your TransUnion credit score, get a free credit report, freeze your credit report and file disputes relating to your TransUnion credit score. Again, not all of these companies will pull their credit strictly from TransUnion and you should focus on improving all three credit scores when applying for a new tradeline. Here are some of the companies that use TransUnion for approving credit applications:
- Chase (Best Student Checking Accounts)
- Capital One
- Barclays (Free Checking Accounts)
- BBVA
- Fifth Third Bank (Best Checking Accounts For Bad Credit)
- US Bank (Best Banks Who Don’t Use ChexSystems)
Related: What Is The Best Strategy To Avoid Paying Interest On Your Credit Cards
Are Tradelines Good For Credit?
Yes, not only show account history they also show account utilization which both can improve your credit score.
All tradelines will have details of the date the credit was issued, the total credit limit, the payment history, missed and delayed payments, and the total balance owed as of the last report. With all this information available and being reported to credit bureaus, having multiple tradelines is good for your credit.
Related: What Happens When You Don’t Pay Your Credit Card Bill?
How Do Tradelines Affect Your Credit Score?
Your FICO score is made up of:
- Payment history: 35%
- Amounts owed: 30%
- Length of credit history: 15%
- Credit mix: 10%
- New credit: 10%
Your tradeline information includes all your payment history, the amount you owe, the length of your tradeline (how long the account has been open), what type of tradeline it is along with all the lenders information.
If you have a tradeline that has been open for 10 years, let’s say it’s a credit card, and it has a limit of $10,000, and you only use this credit card for gas and groceries and pay it off each month, this would be a fantastic looking tradeline that can greatly increase your credit score or keep your credit score in great standing.
If you don’t know your FICO score or how to access your score you can learn everything about your FICO score here.
Related: How To Get Your Free Credit Report:Ultimate Guide
4 Benefits of Tradelines
In a nutshell, tradelines serve the following roles.
- Increase’s the chance of your credit card and loan approval.
- It shows lenders that there is longer account history and on time payments
- Tradelines add additional credit lines and therefor reducing one’s credit utilization rate.
- Having more quality tradelines with no late payments a user can build a case for disputing the inaccuracies, late payments and collections on other tradelines. Get your free dispute letters here
Related: 5 Best Bad Credit Loan Guaranteed Approval
If you choose to fix your credit on your own you can access thebest credit repair software for removing collections and inquiries here
What Is Considered A Seasoned Tradeline?
Tradelines are designed to help you build credit with your tradeline provider, so they report at least once per month. If the tradeline is not used by that date each month, it is considered “unseasoned”. Any tradelines under 180 days old (which is around six months) will be unseasoned. The longer you have a tradeline open the better your score will improve. Based on the FICO Score, in order to get an Excellent mark in your credit length category you should have accounts open for 10 years or longer.
Related: What Is A Good Credit Score
Credit Saint Can Help You Achieve A Good Credit Score
Buying & Selling Tradelines
Tradelines can be bought and sold for their impact on credit. Using this concept, people can benefit from others; spouses, employers, children etc. This form of business benefits both the primary account holder and the appended authorized user. The Tradeline supply companies serve as a third-party platform for the sale of trade lines while protecting cardholders and authorized users’ privacy.
How Do I Get A Tradeline?
There are two ways to get a tradeline.
One way to get a tradeline is to reach out to a lender or creditor and apply for a new loan or credit card. If you have a high enough credit score and credit history then they may approve you.
If you have been denied credit or your score is not above 700 then check out
The Credit Repair Blueprint course
The Second way to get a tradeline is to piggy back off someone else’s.
In other words you can be added to someone else’s credit card or loan.
There are companies that offer access to other peoples tradelines for a small fee.
Related: How Can I Get A Loan With Bad Credit?
3 Best Tradeline Companies
Sometimes a user is added to a credit account as an authorized user. When this happens, the report begins to show the credit history associated with the attached account. A good example is when a child is appended into the parent’s credit account. Such additional tradelines affect payment history.
Tradelines are the foundation of all credit. When an authorized user is added, the resultant trade lines affect the credit report’s overall character. Tradelines will then influence payment history, credit age and credit utilization.
If you want to buy a tradeline you want a company that has a good reputation is trustworthy and has good feedback from customers. Here are three picks of best tradeline companies.
Tradeline Supply Company
Tradelines can improve credit. Based on the need for people to improve their credit score, you can now buy and sell tradelines. The Tradeline Supply Company does exactly that.
Tradeline Supply Company was founded in 2017 and was the first fully automated online system for buying tradelines.
Due to being a fully online company Tradeline Supply Company is able to keep their costs low so customers get a better deal for their tradelines than their competitors. Buying a seasoned tradeline can be expensive so their low prices is one reason to check out Tradeline Supply Company.
Tradeline Supply Company has 4.6 stars on Google with 100 reviews and customers reviews state how easy they are to work with, and how great their customer service is.
BoostCredit101
BoostCredit101 is based in Denver, CO and shows you how you can get tradelines in 6 easy steps. They guarantee their work on their tradelines which last for 2 months but you can extend the tradelines on your account. They do have a great informative blog about tradelines.
Tradeline Club
Tradeline Club is located in Erie, PA and they offer a inventory of low balance, high limit tradelines. You can sell your tradelines, buy tradelines, boost your credit score and offers a free consultation.
They have 5 stars on Google with 11 reviews.
How Can I Buy A Tradeline?
To buy a tradeline, you can use a third-party service such as Tradeline Supply Company and look through their list of available tradelines to buy. You will be able to see what bank is listed when the account was opened, the credit limit, a purchase by date, and the price. Once you select the tradeline you want to buy, you complete the checkout and the tradeline will show up on your credit report during the next reporting period.
The tradeline is allowed to remain on the report for two reporting cycles before being removed to appear like it was closed. However, the close trade line will remain etched on the credit report for several years and will continue positively influencing the credit score.
The age and the credit limit of a tradeline are the most important considerations. The number of trade lines bought depends on an individual situation and need.
How Much Do Tradelines Cost?
A single tradeline costs anywhere between $150 and $1500 but some are available for under $500 on Tradeline Supply Company.
You can also buy tradelines in packages which cost from $800 to$2000.
The problem is…
These benefits fall off your credit report as soon as you’re removed as an authorized user. So make sure that you are ready to put these benefits to work as soon as you rent someone’s tradeline.
Can You Get A Tradeline For Free?
Yes, you can get a tradeline for free. If you have a friend or family member that are willing to add you as an authorized user to their credit account it’s free, if they don’t charge you that is. If you don’t have someone who has excellent credit that are willing to add you as an authorized user you can buy one at Tradeline Supply Company.
How Long Does Tradelines Stay On Your Credit Report?
Once you purchase a tradeline it can take between 15 – 45 days to show up on your credit report. After the tradeline shows up on your credit report it can last for as low as 45 days or up to 7 years. The average tradeline can stay on your credit report for 3 months, with more prominent tradelines lasting up to 24 months.
Some factors that can affect how long a tradeline will last are:
- The type of authorized user tradeline you were added to
- How far you live from the cardholder
Related: Business Tradelines What They Are and How To Get One
How Many Tradelines Should I Have?
You should ideally have 2-3 positive tradelines for every one negative tradelines. For example, if you have an account in collections you should have 2-3 accounts in good standing, with good payment history. If you have one account in collections and one account that has late payments, then you should have 4-6 accounts in good standing.
Related: Can Creditors Remove Late Payments From Credit Report?
How Many Tradelines Can You Buy At Once?
There is no limit on how many tradelines you can purchase but you should only up a couple at a time. When you open up to many tradelines in a short time period it can negatively impact your credit score and end up worsening your situation. You might also be flagged by the financial institutions and be charged for bank fraud if you purchase too many tradelines. Many banks will flag a credit report that has more than three authorized user tradelines.
Ideally you only want to buy tradelines when you need a credit boost for a big purchase such as a mortgage, personal loan, or auto loan. Buying tradelines is a short term benefit so it will only benefit you for a month or two. You should only purchase more than one tradeline if you need to rebalance your credit history due to derogatory accounts or need more improvement to your credit score due to a time-sensitive event such as a mortgage, and one tradeline wasn’t enough.
Who Should Buy A Tradeline
- If you need a higher credit limit
- Need a boost to your credit score
- Need to increase the age of your oldest account
- If you do not have have enough tradelines on your credit report
If you aren’t sure how many tradelines you should buy, you need to look at your credit report and learn what a good credit score is. You will need to compare the factors of your credit score to that of a good credit score and you will learn what areas of your credit you should work on.
Can Tradelines Help Buy A House?
Yes, tradelines can absolutely help you buy a house. FHA loans require you to have two tradelines to qualify for a loan, and Conventional loans require you to have at least three tradelines to qualify for a loan. A tradeline can be any combination of credit cards, auto loans, student loans or personal loans.
If you don’t have two to three tradelines to qualify for a home loan you should see if you can be added as a authorized user to a friend or family members account that is in good standing or buy a tradeline.
Any new tradeline can take up to 45 days to show up on your credit report so that is very important to remember when you are applying for a home loan. It is also very important to not open new accounts while you are in the process of getting a home loan because that can negatively impact your credit score. Having too many hard inquiries can lower your score and be a red flag to lenders.
The higher your credit score the more favorable your mortgage terms will be so keep that in mind during your home buying process.
Related: What Credit Score Do You Need To Buy A Home
How Many Tradelines Do I Need For A FHA Loan?
When applying for a FHA (Federal Housing Authority) loan you will need to have at least two open tradelines to get approved. This doesn’t mean that if you have two tradelines you will automatically be approved. This means that you have met the minimum requirements for the FHA loan but you should focus on optimizing your credit scores to have the best chance of getting approved for a loan and getting the best interest rates.
Can A Tradeline Help You Buy A Car?
The answer is yes. Tradelines are primarily used to establish credit history and keep your credit score healthy after bankruptcy or foreclosure, but tradeline benefits can also be very beneficial when applying for financing of large purchases like automobiles.
Partial tradelines may not directly reduce the monthly payment on your new vehicle , but tradelines may help you secure a better interest rate on your auto loan.
When applying for an automobile purchase, tradelines are considered by lenders to be “seasoned tradelines” that show responsible credit behavior over time. A seasoned tradeline can decrease the risk of lending to someone with less than perfect credit and low income, so tradelines can help to increase a car buyer’s credit score .
Related: What Is The Average Credit Score For An Auto Loan
How Much Will A Tradeline Boost My Credit?
A tradeline can boost your credit by up to 200 for an excellent tradeline.
The age and the credit limit of a tradeline are the most important considerations. The older the tradeline and the higher credit limit will increase your score even higher. The number of trade lines bought depends on an individual situation and need.
The best tradelines to get have a large credit limit, $10,000 to $20,000, low credit utilization (under 10%) and a long credit history (10 years old and up). These tradelines will boost your credit score the most as these categories make up most of your credit and it shows lenders that you are responsible.
Tradeline Supply company has designed a platform upon which individuals can boost their overall credit report by using trade lines. The Act of benefiting a credit report using Primary Users and Authorized Users’ tradelines is called “piggybacking” and is defended using the equal opportunities Act.
Is Buying Tradelines Legal?
Yes, buying tradelines is legal however some lenders and reporting agencies consider buying tradelines as bank fraud. Lenders obtain information contained in a credit report to determine whether or not they should loan money to someone and what interest rates they will offer.
If someone buys a tradeline that artificially inflates their credit score, the lender might end up providing a loan to someone who doesn’t meet their qualifications or loan money at a lower interest rate than they should be.
The borrower could also overstretch themselves financially buy buying tradelines that improves their lower debt when in reality they have a much higher debt and adding on a new loan might put them in a difficult financial spot.
So, yes buying tradelines is legal however more lenders are cracking down on buying and selling tradelines by adding new terms in cardholder agreements that discourages from buying or piggybacking off someone else tradelines.
But if you only buy one tradeline and don’t go against the terms of service to a credit account buying tradelines can benefit you and increase your credit score.
How Do You Sell A Tradeline?
Selling a tradeline invlolves you adding people as “authorized users” to your credit card accounts. In return these “authorized users” will piggyback off your good credit score and your tradeline account will report their credit report and will reap the benefits of having good payment history, long credit age, a high credit limit and low credit utilization.
In order to sell a tradeline you will need to have a good credit score of 700 or better. You will also need to have a credit utilization of 10% or below.
How Do You Make Money Selling A Tradeline?
If you have a tradeline that has a high credit limit and very little utilization with a great credit history you can sell that tradeline to someone who needs it. People with bad credit need a good tradeline to increase their credit score and they are willing to pay for it.
To sell your tradeline, find a good tradeline company to work with that will sell your tradeline to someone who needs it. Tradeline Supply Company has perfected the tradeline buying and selling system to make the process as easy as possible online while protecting your personal information.
While there are risks with selling your tradelines it’s a great passive income stream for someone who is willing to share their tradelines to others in need.
5 Steps To Selling Your Tradeline
- Pick A Broker – Find a tradeline broker that will sell your tradeline for you like Tradeline Supply Company.
- Apply– Fill out their application to sell your tradeline. You will send in information about yourself and the tradelines you have such as the credit card company, the credit limit, credit utilization, account age, your current balance, and the date your payment is due.
- They List it-If you are approved they will post your tradeline on their website with an account summary for authorized users.
- Add Authroized Users– Once someone buys your tradeline, the broker will send you the buyers information and you will contact the credit card company to add the buyer as an authorized user.
- Remove Authorized User– When the authorized user stops paying for your tradeline you will contact your credit card company and remove the authorized user from your account.
How Much Money Can You Make Selling Tradelines?
Depending on the quality of your your tradeline, companies have stated that you can make anywhere from $150 to $500 per tradeline.
The amount you earn will vary per tradeline. If you have a highly sought after tradeline such as American Express, that has a $10,000 credit limit available and the tradeline has been open for 10 years and has excellent payment history you will most likely get more more your selling your tradeline.
Is Selling Tradelines Risky?
Yes tradelines can sometimes be risky to sell. However, if you do decide to buy or sell tradelines make sure that they come from a trusted source. Here are a few tips to look for before you sell your tradelines. Some issues that you can encounter from selling your tradelines is violating your credit card company terms of service, being a victim of fraud or scammed, and there could be a chance of your credit card account being closed for adding too many authorized users.
4 Tips For Selling Tradelines
- Make sure you use a reputable company to sell your tradelines for you. The should have good customer reviews and solid contracts to make sure you know how you are protected legally.
- Never give a copy of your credit card to an authorized user for them to use. Authorized users do not need access to your credit card to benefit from your account. All they need is their name on your account.
- Never add more than 4 authorized users to a tradeline. Credit card companies might flag your account and close your credit card if you add too many authorized users.
- Read your credit cards terms of service. Some credit cards have a strict terms of service agreement where you can only add a spouse, domestic partner or kids as an authorized user. Discover’s terms of service agreement states, “you may not sell, assign or transfer your account without first obtaining our prior written consent.”
Is It Bad To Have Too Many Tradelines?
There is no downside to having tradelines on your credit report. It doesn’t hurt your score, there are benefits for you when getting approved for a loan and it’s an easy way to help build up good credit. The only thing tradelines can do if they’re not used responsibly is give people too much of a positive impact on their credit score.
If a tradeline is not used responsibly it can affect the borrower’s credit score negatively because they’re maxing out their tradelines and creating more of an impact than they should on their credit profile, which isn’t good for them or lenders that are reviewing their tradelines when submitting applications to purchase products like homes, cars or other large ticket items. Tradelines can be an easy and effective way for people to build good credit but it’s all how you manage them that will determine whether tradelines are worth getting or not.
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