A tradeline is financial information on an individual or business’s credit report. Essentially, it’s a record of activity that lending institutions like banks can use to determine your suitability for financial products like personal and home loans.
Many people with poor credit purchase seasoned tradelines to improve their credit scores and potentially improve their chances of obtaining more desirable lending terms. However, if you’re not familiar with how tradelines work, you might be at risk of making some of the following mistakes:
Not Checking a Company’s Authenticity
When you’re desperate to improve your credit score, you might purchase tradelines from the first company you find that promises to give you what you need. Always read at least one tradeline supply company review to learn more about your preferred company’s reputation with people who have already utilized their services. Failure to do your research might mean you pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars without any significant changes to your credit score.
Not Checking Your Account for Fraud Alerts
You might have found the perfect seasoned tradeline to improve your credit score and help you obtain competitive loans, but that doesn’t mean it will have any effect. New tradelines can’t be posted if there are credit freezes or fraud alerts on your account. Always check the status of your credit report before going ahead with a purchase. If you find any freezes or fraud alerts, you’ll need to contact all relevant credit bureaus to have them removed.
Purchasing Tradelines At the Last Minute
When you’re in a hurry to obtain a loan or finance for something you want, you might be tempted to purchase tradelines at the last minute. However, you’ll need to allow plenty of time for the purchasing process and for the tradelines to take effect.
It might take several business days for your chosen company to see your payment for the tradeline and several more days to add an authorized user. Credit card companies also have additional processing times. You might be waiting up to two weeks for a tradeline to be added and extra time for it to start impacting your credit score.
Buying the Cheapest Tradeline
There’s nothing wrong with trying to secure the best deal when purchasing anything, but trying to save money on tradelines might not be the best approach to take. The most affordable tradelines for sale won’t always be old enough for your needs, which can be problematic when trying to increase your accounts’ average age.
When you don’t achieve your desired results with a cheap tradeline, you might need to purchase more, causing you to spend more money than you would if you bought a high-quality tradeline in the beginning.
Not Fixing Your Credit Score in Other Ways
Tradelines can be an excellent way to improve your credit score enough to avoid applying for bad credit loans. However, you can take many other actions to impact your score, such as:
- Paying down your loans
- Paying your bills on time
- Disputing reporting errors
- Keeping your credit utilization rate low
Purchasing tradelines can be an excellent way for individuals and businesses to improve their credit scores. However, they are not guaranteed to be effective if you make some of the mistakes above.
Veeramachineni Lalitha
I am Finance Content Writer. I write Personal Finance, banking, investment, and insurance related content for top clients including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Edelweiss, ICICI BANK and IDFC FIRST Bank. My experience details : Linkedin