A PropTech supplier claims landlords and letting agents can now offer tenants a new service potentially boosting credit scores with Equifax and Experian by ‘reporting’ rent payments.
The product is available via the Tenant Shop referencing service.
Called MyCreditBooster, it provides verification of rental payments via open-source banking and the team behind it have been working with Experian and Equifax to include the reported data in credit rating calculations. The people behind the service claim that landlords benefit from tenants who choose to link their rent payments to their credit scores as this provides additional incentive to maintain on-time and in-full rental payments.
Colin Hall, chief commercial officer at Tenant Shop, says: “We’ve put a lot of thought into ensuring the service offers real value to tenants, landlords and letting agents. Whether a letting agent chooses to promote MyCreditBooster to their tenants as a standalone service, or as part of our referencing journey, they should quickly begin to see benefits.”
Want to comment on this story? Our focus is on providing a platform for you to share your insights and views and we welcome contributions.
If any post is considered to victimise, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals, then the post may be deleted and the individual immediately banned from posting in future.
Please help us by reporting comments you consider to be unduly offensive so we can review and take action if necessary. Thank you.
.jpg)
%20(002).png)
.png)
Join the conversation
Jump to latest comment and add your reply
This is significant. Reporting rent repayments to credit agencies is a lifeline to landlords in protecting our business and our own financial situation. If all rents repayments to credit agencies were mandatory then a lot of this Shelter GR and Acorn nonsense will be mostly obsolete. We as LL’s just wouldn’t take on new tenants with a bad record. Existing tenants would think twice about making a late payment or missing the payment to get an interest free loan. This would save a lot of wasted monies on eviction proceedings and of course lost profit. This would actually lead to a healthy competitive market with lower rents for the responsible tenant. The market would split. Those that report and are above board and those that don’t who invariably are not adhering to LL responsibilities or taxes. This needs to happen - Good news
Good morning Jahan, thank you so much for your positive feedback. We're pleased you see this as such a positive move for the industry. It will provide some much needed peace of mind to landlords and letting agencies alike. If you'd like any further information please reach out to us on 020 3985 3245 or at dynamicreferencing.uk/landlords
All the best and have a great day! Gemma @ Tenant Shop
Some people watch too many American programmes. Reach out is a physical act involving arms and requiring the 2 metre rule to be broken.
On the other hand, "contact" can be both done physically close up, or remotely by phone, emails, zoom etc. or even by Royal Mail in the UK.
The Queen's English is precious and shouldn't be bastardised by rebellious former Colonials.
Or we could say language evolves over time, bringing in words from all sorts of places. I've never considered 'reach out' to be a particularly American thing or all that bothersome.
There are far worse Americanisms that are far more worthy of scorn than 'reach out', I'd argue.
Then they need to be banned too!
I have been reporting rent payments to Experian via another company for nearly a year now. I think it’s a great tool for LL’s as it acts as a disincentive for tenants to miss rent payments. Also helps to boost tenants credit scores that pay on time. Glad Equifax are finally on board now too.
Who ultimately pays for the service - tenant or landlord? Nothing in this world is free!
End user consumer always pays.
For me, ANY increase in my outgoings will eventually be paid for the tenants.
Especially if Govt, or Councils cause the issue. And I add 15% for the admin. costs.
Good morning Marilyn, thanks for your comment. To confirm, MyCreditBooster is a subscription service set up by and paid for by the tenant. It's a very affordable service starting at £3.75 per month (based on an annual membership), or £5.00 per month, if the tenant chooses the monthly membership option. Therefore, there is no cost incurred to the landlord or letting agent for this benefit. The service has been introduced for tenants to help improve their credit scores, and also to prove themselves as a more reliable tenant. Therefore, it's a win win for both tenant and landlord.
So rent dodgers won't sign up and pay the monthly fee? That would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
How do rent dodgers get reported if they won't sign up for this scheme?
CreditLadder and also OpenBrix does actually do this for free by the way. It works!
Hi Adam, Yes you're right CreditLadder do offer such a service, however, like us, they do also charge a fee to report rental payments to both Equifax and Experian. They only offer a free service for either Equifax or Experian. I believe OpenBrix use CreditLadder for the same service. Our pricing model is slightly cheaper for an annual subscription. Best, Gemma @Tenant Shop
So could we report a rent dodger to Equifax on the first month's default on ( not ) paying rent when due and to Experian on the second FOC ?
Does that count as "either or " as we're only using one at any one time?
N P:
What exactly do you do? Very interesting.
Do you report if they default payments? Do you tell them you are going to do if they don't pay?
That would be a very nice problem for non-paying tenants. :-)
Do you have to go through "MyCreditBooster", or can you just tell Experian?
And add the CCJ as well - I love it.
Tenant Shop:
How does this work in practise? If a tenant doesn't pay their rent, does the landlord report it to you or Experian/Equifax?
It seems to be that this will only help good tenants improve their credit ratings - fine, but I'm more interested in protecting my own credit ratings and revenue streams and an extra means of trashing credit ratings of rent dodgers would be very helpful.
Perhaps the people getting free advertising who have responded to some above posts can clarify if their service will help as landlords need, by trashing rent dodgers' credit ratings?
If it's only of benefit to good paying tenants, why the free publicity on this site?
When it comes to a non paying tenant there is no other way than '' money claim online'' and the resulting CCJ
Hi Marilyn, The rent is reported through open banking to Experian and Equifax. The tenant has to complete an application with us first confirming the tenancy details such as the rent due date, the amount and the bank account name of the landlord or letting agent who the payment goes to. It's all automated, therefore there's no requirement for the landlord or letting agent to report a missed payment. If a tenant fails to pay their rent, or on time, this will be picked up through open banking and will affect their credit report. They're also obliged to contact us with any changes to their circumstances, or, again, this may affect their credit score. I hope that helps. Many thanks Gemma @ Tenant Shop
Hi Robert, Thanks for your comments. We appreciate the frustration. MyCreditBooster is there to help a tenants credit score. However, at the same time, if the tenant fails to pay their rent or late, then this could also have a negative effect on them. Whilst the service is of benefit to tenants, it also offers landlords and letting agents that added peace of mind that they are letting their properties out to good, reliable and trustworthy tenants. Whether a tenant chooses to use MyCreditBooster or another provider, undoubtedly the more tenants who get into this frame of mind, the better for landlords and letting agents alike.
I still think only the lowest risk tenants will use such a system.
We need weapons against the rogues, not those aspiring to better things.
Good news but this is NOT NEW. CreditLadder has been doing this for three years, plus OpenBrix also offers this.
There are others like Canopy, too, I believe.
It's a great idea, though, and more the merrier in terms of companies providing it.
I've never understand how rent - the biggest outgoing for a large proportion of people - has previously not been considered good enough for credit reports and improving a credit rating. Makes absolutely no sense.
It looks like serial rent dodgers will also be able to dodge such schemes, so ccj's will still be our best weapon,
Given a chance, of course they will....Every time.
BAS**RDS.......
Please login to comment