A recent survey by online rent payment service provider WilliamPaid confirms that given the opportunity, roughly two thirds of renters would choose to have their rent payment history reported to the credit rating agencies.
It found that more than 70% of American apartment dwellers surveyed “want their rent and monthly utility payments to count toward their credit history.”
Launched in 2012 as an online platform that enables renters to pay their rent by credit card, debit card, bank account or in cash at over 45,000 locations nationwide, WilliamPaid also offers AutoPay scheduling options that facilitate split and track payments with roommates and the option to build credit history by reporting monthly payments to the Experian RentBureau.
Responses from more than 1,000 people WilliamPaid surveyed last month from July 12 to 15 also shows one-third of the respondents had been denied lines of credit within the past year, indicating apartment renters can benefit from the opportunity to have their rent payments included in their credit risk profile.
Up to 37% of respondents, roughly 332 people, had been rejected when applied for credit in 2012, compared to 63% who said that they had not been rejected.
Findings reaffirm Americans should get credit for making timely payments, “not unlike the credit that they receive for paying their credit card bills on time," says WilliamPaid CEO Jeff Golding.
He argues that since rent and utility payments make up a majority of their monthly expenses, the reporting of such data “gives consumers more control over building their credit history.” No wonder most respondents also want their gas, electricity and telephone service payments, or utility payments to turn into determining credit score factors.
Roughly 43% of all respondents said they will continue to rent compared to 56% who plan to someday own a home.
Given that many consumers “feel that building credit history is an uphill battle,” according to Brannan Johnston, Experian RentBureau vice president and managing director, giving renters credit for managing the payments will permit more renters to consider homeownership and qualify for a mortgage loan.
Over 100 million people spend billions of dollars to pay rent each month “and deserve credit for the payments,” says Golding, who supports efforts to address the more than 50 million "credit-invisible consumers" nationwide who have no credit history. Congress is considering an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act called The Credit Access and Inclusion Act, that is designed to enable people “to build credit history from their most frequent and important expenses, such as utilities, “ by reporting to credit bureaus, he says, especially younger people.
"More than one-third of respondents who are in their late 20s to early 30s have no or poor credit history but are still spending large amounts of money every month," added Golding. “It shouldn't be the status quo that people have to build debt in order to build credit."
