Have you ever wished that you had a team with credit experience on your side? With ExtraCredit, that’s basically what you get. Everything about ExtraCredit is built to offer you unmatched credit coverage for one low monthly fee.
ExtraCredit’s five features offer you complete credit coverage:
- Track It: Track your FICO® credit scores and credit reports
- Build It: Add rent and utility reporting to your credit reports
- Reward It: Get paid when you are approved for select offers from our partners
- Guard It: Protect your identity
- Restore It: Get an exclusive discount to one of the leaders in credit repair (not available in Oregon)
Let’s dive into everything you need to know about Build It.
Learn more about the other features >>
Build Your Credit Profile with Build It
Any time you pay a bill, you get credit for it, right? That’s actually not how it works. In order to affect your credit score, your bill payments need to be reported to the credit bureaus. Some bills are reported to all three of the major credit reporting agencies. Others are reported to just one or two. And some, like many rent and utility payments, aren’t reported at all. In fact, 42 million people in America pay rent and many aren’t getting credit for their on-time payment history because their payments aren’t reported.
That’s a little odd, sure, but why does it really matter? Here’s why: Payment history accounts for 35% of your credit score! Making full payments on time is one of the best ways to build and improve your credit score. If your rent and utility payments aren’t reported to the credit bureaus, you aren’t getting credit for those bill payments.
And that’s where Build It comes in. We think that you should get more than just brownie points for paying your rent and utilities on time—don’t you? By connecting your bank account to Build It, we can add new tradelines to your credit report so you can get credit for those payments.
- Rent Reporting: You may need your landlord’s permission to paint your room, but you don’t need it to get credit for paying your rent.
- Utility Reporting: Utility, gas, water, phone—ExtraCredit can get you credit for them all.
*Get a free trial when you sign up now!
Learn more about the importance of your payment history >>
Learn more about how to read your credit report >>
How Build It Works
There’s some sophisticated technology going on behind the scenes, but Build It is super easy to set up on your end. Simply input some info about your bank account and rental and we’ll do the rest. Want more details? Read on.
Rent Reporting
We’ve made it as easy as possible for you to get set up. To start, we’ll ask for the address of your rental, how much you pay, when it’s due, when you moved in, and your landlord’s name, email, and phone number. Once we have your rental information, you’ll be asked to link your financial institution to your ExtraCredit account. We won’t save your username or password or make any changes to your account—and the transfer of your information is encrypted end to end. Select your bank from a dropdown member and provide your login credentials for your bank account.[4]
And voila! We’ll securely connect to your account and identify qualifying rent and utility payments. In fact, we’ll look through your entire payment history so each qualifying previous monthly payment can be used to help build your credit profile retroactively, too.
This process can take up to seven business days, but once we’ve determined which payments qualify, we facilitate a connection with TransUnion and Equifax so that your payments are added to your credit reports. Depending on the credit bureau, it may take up to two months to see your rent payments as a tradeline on your credit report. On your Build It dashboard, you’ll see which months we found rent payments, how much was reported, and other details.
Utility Reporting
Once you’ve added your rental details, ExtraCredit will automatically scan your account for eligible utility payments. If any are found, you’ll be prompted to opt in to utility payment reporting. These payments need to be made from the same account that you pay your rent from. [VD6]
On your Build It dashboard, you’ll see how many electric, gas, phone, and water payments were found and how many have been reported, as well as the date and amount.
Note: For the time being, you need to have rent reporting set up in order to use the utility reporting feature in Build It, but we’re actively working on making this a separate feature that anyone can use!
Four Additional Features for Total Credit Coverage
We’re not the only company to offer rent and utility reporting. But we are the only company to combine it with total credit coverage through five incredible tools.
Track It
Free services may sound great, but you get what you pay for. Those services show you your “educational” credit score—which means your lenders don’t care about it. Track It on the other hand shows you 28 of your FICO® scores. But it isn’t just showing you random scores. It shows you the scores that different lenders see, like auto and home lenders. You also get your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus, plus your credit report card. Can your free service do that?
Learn More about Track It >>
Guard It
You might not give a lot of thought to your identity. But guess what? Criminals think about your identity a lot. In fact, they’re constantly thinking of new ways of stealing your identity. How can you possibly protect yourself? With Guard It, you don’t have to. We’ll keep an eye on things with our advanced dark web scans and monitoring. Plus, we’ll send you proactive security alerts. And on top of all that, we have $1 million identity theft insurance—because you can never be too careful.
Learn More about Guard It >>
Reward It
Here at Credit.com, we love to celebrate. So when you sign up for ExtraCredit, you’ll get an ExtraCredit debit card with five dollars already loaded on it. But there’s more. We’ll analyze your credit to see what types of offers are most appropriate for your credit type. Once we find some good matches for you, we’ll show you our top offers. And if you qualify, we’ll split the reward with you. You could get up to $2,500 on your debit card. Because qualifying for an offer is worth celebrating—and we want to celebrate with you.
Learn More about Reward It >>
Restore It
Nobody’s perfect, which means it’s unlikely you have a perfect credit report. Errors on your credit report aren’t uncommon—but what do you do about it? If you see an error on any of your credit reports, you can jump right over to Restore It, which offers an exclusive discount to one of the leaders in credit repair. You’ll have someone in your corner, working to repair any errors or inaccuracies that could be holding your score down.
Learn More about Restore It >>
FAQs
How much does ExtraCredit cost?
ExtraCredit costs $24.99/month, and you can cancel anytime. For a limited time, you can sign up and get the first seven days free.
Can I report just my utilities?
Not at the moment. But it is something we’re hoping to include in the future! We’ll update our users when that time comes, so be on the lookout.
How long will it take for my payments to show up on my credit report?
Our system can take up to 7 business days to verify your information and locate your rent and utility payments. Once payments are verified, the system will send your payments for reporting to TransUnion and Equifax. All future payments are typically updated within 24 hours. Depending on the credit bureau, it may take about two months before you see the tradeline reported on your credit reports.
How can I update my rent information?
If you’ve moved, it’s easy to update your rental information. On your dashboard, click “I Moved, Now What?” in the lower section of the page. Follow the steps to stop your current reporting and add a new one! You’ll go through the same steps as before by adding your new rental information and linking your bank account. Note that doing this will close the previous tradeline and open a new tradeline on your reports.
Why is payment history so important?
Payment history takes up a huge chunk of your credit score at 35%. That’s why payment history, and paying your bills on-time, is so important! If you have a less-than-perfect payment history, or if your payment history is a bit thin, Build It could be especially helpful.
*Your 7 day trial will begin after agreeing to these terms and submitting your ExtraCredit® sign-up. After your trial period, your subscription will automatically continue on the same day every month as the day you started your trial membership. The free trial is available for new ExtraCredit customers only. The credit card you provided will be charged $24.99 (plus any applicable tax) on the next business day and monthly; after your trial period unless you cancel. You may cancel at any time by downgrading your service level in your settings or by contacting us at support@credit.com. Dishonored payments will result in an automatic downgrade to the free Credit.com product.
