FAQS
Typically rent payments are your largest expense each month, so we believe you should get 'credit' for making these payments on-time. We have seen resident credit scores increase over 40 points in a short amount of time; however, you need to maintain good standing with your other creditors as well, such as your auto loan, credit cards, etc.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you may be entitled to receive a free copy of your personal credit report if you have received notice (within the past 60 days) that you have been declined credit, employment, housing, or if adverse action has been taken against you based on information from the credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian or Equifax); or if you received notice that the terms of credit offered to you may be less favorable than the terms offered to consumers who have better credit histories. You can request your free report online from any of the three bureaus. If you're not eligible, some state laws require a free credit report or a lower fee for consumers in their states.
When you move out of your current property, we won't be able to report your rental payment data to the bureaus, but you can continue to enjoy the benefits of the credit monitoring and IDTheft protection portion of Resident-Link. We simply continue billing your credit card the monthly fee. If you are moving to another Resident-Link supported community, you will need to cancel your current subscription and re-enroll with the link provided by your new management company. You can cancel at any time by logging into your account or contacting customer support.
Resident-Link only reports positive data to the credit bureaus. If you pay late, your property will likely enforce a late fee, however, we will not report ‘late’ payments to the bureaus. If you fail to make your rent payment for a given month, we will not report any information to the bureaus that month, which will not have a negative impact on your credit. If payment is not made for three (3) consecutive months, your rental trade line will be removed from your credit report by the credit bureaus.
Friends and Family can enjoy the Credit Monitoring and IDTheft portion of Resident-Link , however, only responsible parties on the lease are eligible for rental payment reporting. Feel free to share the link with them to enroll.
Credit card companies offer alerts for their respective credit cards, which is a good benefit, however, it does not compare to the coverage that Resident-Link provides. For a complete list of benefits please visit the home page.
There are other companies that may offer credit monitoring and a variety of IDTheft products, but none include rental payment reporting. You can expect to pay nearly $30.00 per month for those services.
Although we report rental data to the bureaus every month, there are several factors that could impact timely reporting. Most residents see the addition of their tradeline the following month after sign up, however, it could take up to 90 days for your rental tradeline to appear.
Upon sign up, Resident-Link will report the last 3 months of rent payments to the bureaus. After three months of enrollment, Resident-Link will add up to 21 months of past rent payments for free.
In most cases, residents see an increase in their credit score. However, credit scores are complex and adding a new tradeline could lower the average age of your total accounts. This, in effect, could lower the ‘length’ of credit history, which is a factor in scoring and subsequently, could lower your credit score temporarily. As you pay your rent each month, you should see your score increase, assuming you are meeting all of your other financial obligations.
Moving from one unit to another in the same community is common. If we are actively reporting rent to the bureaus for a given unit and you move, the rental tradeline for the previous unit will be closed, and we will begin reporting a new rental tradeline for the new unit.