Can Cellphone Bills Help Build Credit?

How to Improve Your Credit Score With Your Cellphone Bill

Most credit scores only consider the information that's in your credit file. So, if you want to improve your credit scores with your cellhpone bill, you'll have to get the information into your credit file.

Phone carriers generally don't send your account or payment information to the bureaus. But you can use tools like Experian Boost^®ø to add eligible cellphone accounts and payments to your credit report.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Cellphone bills only affect scores based on the reports with the account. Your cellphone bills can only improve the credit scores that are based on your credit reports with the cellphone accounts. Most tools don't add your cellphone account to all three of your credit reports.
• Cellphone bills only affect certain credit scores. Most modern credit scoring models consider cellphone payments. But adding your cellphone bill to your credit report might not affect scores from some older models.
• Credit card issuers don't report your cellphone bills separately. Some credit cards come with free cellphone insurance, which can make using a card a good option. And many credit card issuers report your credit card account and payments to all three bureaus. However, card issuers won't separate your cellphone account and credit card account when reporting to the bureaus.

With Experian Boost, you can link eligible bank accounts and credit cards and Experian Boost will analyze the accounts for bill payments. It can add your cellphone account and payment history to your Experian credit report as a new account, so your cellphone bill payments can improve your credit scores.

Newly added information from Experian Boost affects the most commonly used credit scoring models, including the FICO^® Score^☉ 10 8, FICO^® Score 9, FICO^® Score 10, VantageScore^® 3 and VantageScore 4 models.

How to Sign Up for Experian Boost

Experian Boost is a free feature that comes with Experian accounts. In addition to cellphone bills, you can use Experian Boost to get credit for rent, insurance, utility and select streaming service payments.

To get started:

1. Create a free Experian account. Experian Boost is a feature that comes with a free or paid Experian account. You'll also receive free access to your Experian credit report, FICO^® Score and ongoing credit report and FICO^® Score tracking.
2. Go to the Experian Boost page. Once you're logged in, you can get to the Experian Boost feature by going to the Credit tab at the top of the page and selecting Experian Boost under tools.
3. Link your eligible bank or credit card account. Link the bank account or credit card account that you use to pay your cellphone bill. Experian uses bank-level encryption and a third-party service to link your accounts without storing your username or password.
4. Add your cellphone bills. Experian Boost will look through up to two years of account history for your eligible bill payments. You can choose which bills to add and can remove bills later. However, to qualify, you have to have made a bill payment in the last three months and made at least three payments in the last six months.

Once Experian Boost adds your accounts and payment history, it will show you how the new information affects your FICO^® Score 8 based on your Experian credit report.

What Happens When You Don't Pay Your Phone Bill?

Missing a phone bill can have several repercussions, but it might not hurt your credit scores right away.

• Experian Boost doesn't report late payments. Experian Boost only adds on-time payments to your credit report—it ignores late and missed payments. However, Experian may remove the cellphone payment history if there aren't any new payments for three months.
• Your carrier could charge you fees and suspend your service. Your phone carrier might charge you a late payment fee. Additionally, your service might be partially suspended, limiting your ability to make outgoing calls to non-emergency lines and send text messages. If you don't bring your account current, your line could be fully suspended or disconnected. There may be a fee to reactivate your account.
• Your carrier might send your account to collections. If you don't bring your account current, the phone carrier might send or sell your past-due account to collections. The collection agency could report the collection account to the credit bureaus, which can hurt your credit score even if your on-time payments were never reported to a credit bureau.

Why It's Important to Build Credit

Building your credit can be important because your credit history can affect your:

• Eligibility and offers on new credit accounts: Having good credit can help you qualify for credit cards and loans with more favorable terms, such as lower interest rates, fewer fees and higher credit limits or loan amounts.
• Home rental: Landlords and property management companies will often check your credit history and score before renting you an apartment or home.
• Security deposits: Phone and utility companies may consider your credit when deciding how much to require for security deposits.
• Employment: Some employers may review your credit history, but not credit scores, before offering you a job or promotion.
• Insurance premiums: In many states, insurance companies can consider your credit history and credit-based insurance scores when determining your eligibility for a new policy and your premiums.

Additional Ways to Build Credit

Adding your cellphone bills to your credit report isn't the only way to raise your credit scores. Making your current credit card and loan payments on time can help, as can paying down credit card balances.

You can also look into some of the more traditional ways to add new accounts to your credit reports:

• Apply for a new credit card. Credit cards will often be reported to all three credit bureaus. You can use a card to improve your credit without paying any interest or fees if you have a card without an annual fee and you pay off your statement balance every month.
• Open a secured credit card. If you're struggling to qualify for a credit card, a secured credit card is often much easier to get. However, you need to send the card issuer a refundable security deposit or set aside a security deposit in a connected savings account. The security deposit usually determines your card's credit limit, and the card issuer can keep the money if you stop paying your credit card balance.
• Become an authorized user. Rather than opening a card of your own, most credit card issuers let cardholders add an authorized user to their account. As an authorized user, you get a card with your name, and the card issuer may report the account and its activity to the credit bureaus under your name. As long as the primary cardholder manages their account well, your credit score could benefit. However, the primary cardholder remains in charge of the account.
• Consider a credit-builder loan. Credit-builder loans are secured personal loans that you can generally find from credit unions, small banks and online lenders. The lender often puts your loan proceeds in a locked savings account. It reports your loan and monthly payments to the bureaus to help you build credit, and releases the money once you pay off the loan. Just make sure the lender reports to all three credit bureaus for the most benefit.
• Apply with a cosigner. You might be able to get a loan with a creditworthy cosigner—someone who takes legal responsibility for the loan. But consider the arrangement carefully, as missing payments could also hurt the cosigner's credit.

These accounts give you the opportunity to build credit as the lenders and card issuers usually report them to all three credit bureaus. However, you still need to manage the accounts well to improve your credit.

Unlike with cellphone bills, creditors could report a late payment (a bill that's over 30 days past due) to the credit bureau. Even a single late payment can hurt your credit scores, and the late payment can stay in your credit history for up to seven years.

Learn more: How to Improve Your Credit Score

Explore All the Features That Come With Your Experian Account

The Experian Boost feature can be a great way to improve your credit scores by adding eligible monthly payments that you're already paying to your Experian credit report. If you don't have a credit report yet, you can start building credit with Experian Go™.

Your Experian account also comes with additional features that can help you manage your credit and finances:

• Free Experian credit report monitoring with real-time alerts
• Get your FICO 8 Score for free with ongoing monitoring
• A scan of the dark web for your personal information
• A people finder sites scan to see if your personal information is exposed
• Get matched with loan and credit card offers based on your credit profile
• Compare auto insurance quotes to see if you can save money and get help changing policies

The Experian Smart Money™ Digital Checking Account & Debit Card can help you build credit without debt by linking to Experian Boost, which gives you credit for eligible bill payments after three months of payments. See terms at experian.com/legal.