Experian Boost Review: Can It Really Increase Your Credit Score?

Credit scores are a fact of financial life. Your score determines what kind of interest rates you can get on loans and credit cards — or if you’ll even qualify at all!

If you’re looking for a way to boost your score, Experian Boost claims they can use your regular bills (including rent) to improve your situation.

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Overview of Experian Boost

Experian Boost is designed to help those with “thin” credit files (or poor credit) to beef up their credit history and improve their scores. 

Traditionally, regular payments like rent, insurance, utilities, and streaming services haven’t been included in the payment history portion of your credit file. As a result, they aren’t included in “regular” credit score calculations. 

But Experian Boost looks through your bank account information, identifies regular bills, and includes them in your Experian credit file. 

This information can potentially improve your Experian credit score, leading to better approval odds for financial products and services.

READ MORE: How to Check Your Credit Score for Free

How Experian Boost Works 

Experian Boost requires you to set up a free Experian account (no credit card required). 

Once you set up your account, Experian connects to your bank or credit card account and reviews your history. 

• Experian looks through two years’ worth of payment history.
• To qualify, you must have made at least three payments for the same bill in the last six months, with at least one payment in the last three months.
• Once the information is verified, the payment history for that item is added to your Experian credit file and used to calculate the Experian version of your FICO score.

What bills are eligible for Experian Boost?

When combing through your payment history, Experian Boost focuses on the following types of payments:

• Rent
• Phone (mobile and landline)
• Utilities
• Internet, cable, and satellite TV
• Insurance
• Video streaming services

However, it’s important to note that there are limitations on how the bills are “counted.” 

Rent payments are only included if made to certain property management companies or through specific platforms. 

Insurance payments are only included if you make them monthly, and health insurance premiums are excluded from consideration.

READ MORE: Make Your Rent Count for a Credit Boost

Pros and Cons of Experian Boost

While Experian Boost can help improve your credit score, it’s not a perfect system and might not be recognized by all lenders.

Pros

• It uses payments, like bills and rent, that aren’t usually included in credit score calculations to beef up your credit file.
• It’s a free service that includes access to your Experian credit report and Experian FICO score.
• Late payments from Boost payments are ignored, not impacting your FICO score.

Cons

• It only affects your Experian credit file, and therefore only the Experian version of your FICO score.
• Not all banks and bills are supported.
• Those with already good credit history aren’t likely to benefit from Experian Boost.

Who Should Get Experian Boost?

For the most part, you’re most likely to benefit from Experian Boost if you haven’t built much of a credit history. It can pad out your “thin” history if you’re relatively new to the credit game. 

It might also help if you have poor credit. Adding regularly paid bills might help you qualify for a loan or other financial products and services. 

But if you have a long-established credit history, and it’s at least good, you might not benefit from Experian Boost.

RELATED: Take Control of Your Finances With These 5 Smart Money Tips

Alternatives to Experian Boost

Experian Boost vs. TurboTenant

TurboTenant offers to report your rent to TransUnion. However, unlike Experian Boost, which just goes through your payment history, you must do the work of inviting your landlord to join. 

Experian Boost vs. UltraFICO

Rather than looking for specific payment information, UltraFICO, which FICO offers, connects to checking and savings accounts to identify healthy financial habits. This can help generate a FICO score if you don’t have enough information to qualify for a more traditional credit score. 

UltraFICO tracks items like cash on hand and a positive balance in your accounts. It offers it to lenders as an alternative way to help evaluate your credit. There’s no guarantee that lenders will use this version of your credit score, however.

Experian Boost vs. Grow Credit

Grow Credit is a debit Mastercard designed to help you grow your credit by using it to pay subscriptions. Your payments are reported to the three major bureaus.

The free version, however, only has a $17 spending limit for reporting. You need to pay a subscription fee of up to $12.99 per month if you want access to a higher limit for reporting purposes.

Is Experian Boost Worth It?

Experian Boost can be a free tool to bulk up your Experian credit file if you don’t have a long history. 

Additionally, if you’re trying to rebuild your credit, it might be able to help you qualify for some financial products and services by improving your score. 

But, because Experian Boost only affects your Experian score, you need to consider that it might not help you in every situation.

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