Where can I buy a tradeline? (A seller explains the options)

People ask me this constantly — where can I buy a tradeline? — and since I’m someone who actually sells them, both through brokers and directly on this site, I can give you a more honest breakdown than most pages you’ll find on this topic.

There are really only two routes: buying through a broker, or buying directly from a cardholder. Both are legitimate. The tradeoffs are mostly about price versus convenience, and which makes more sense depends on what you’re prioritizing.

Buying through a broker

Brokers are where most buyers start, and for good reason. They maintain an inventory of tradelines from multiple cardholders, handle the transaction logistics, and typically back their product with a posting guarantee — refund or replacement if a tradeline doesn’t show up on your report. That’s real value if you’re new to this and want someone else managing the process.

The catch is the markup. Brokers generally keep around 70% of what you pay; the cardholder whose history you’re actually renting gets the remaining 30%. You’re paying for the infrastructure and accountability, which isn’t nothing — but you should go in knowing the economics.

The brokers I’ve actually sold through — not ones I’ve just heard of, but ones I have real experience with as a cardholder on their platform:

Tradeline Supply Company is the largest and most established in the space. Wide inventory, competitive pricing, and they invest more in consumer education than anyone else I’ve come across. (When I first started selling through brokers, TSC had the most organized onboarding process of any platform I tried — which tells you something about how they run the customer side of things too.) If you’re new to this and want the most reputable entry point, this is it.

Boost Credit 101 offers a posting guarantee — if the tradeline doesn’t report to at least two bureaus within a set window, you’re entitled to a refund or a replacement. I’ve found them reliable and the guarantee is stated clearly, which matters in a space where some sellers are vague about what happens when something goes wrong.

Improve My Credit Fitness and Coast Tradelines are both solid, smaller operations. Less inventory than Tradeline Supply, but straightforward to work with and no nonsense about it.

What actually matters when picking a tradeline

Most buyers fixate on which issuer is on the card — “does it have to be Chase?”, “is Capital One okay?” — and for scoring purposes, it almost entirely doesn’t matter. Once the data hits your credit report, the issuer name is irrelevant. A $30,000, 10-year Chase card has the same scoring impact as a $30,000, 10-year Capital One card. What moves the needle is the credit limit, the account age, and the current utilization. Not the logo.

A couple of issuer-specific things that actually do matter:

Citi is notoriously unreliable about posting authorized users to the bureaus. It happens, but inconsistently enough that I’d confirm the refund policy upfront before buying any Citi tradeline. American Express is a different issue: since around 2015, Amex has reported authorized users with the date they were added as the account open date — not the original card’s open date. That means a 20-year-old Amex card you were added to yesterday shows up on your report as a 1-day-old account. Amex tradelines are worth considerably less than their brand prestige suggests, for exactly this reason.

Bank of America is worth flagging too — not for AU posting issues, but because BoA has a history of closing accounts they suspect are being used for tradeline selling. I had a $40,000-limit BoA card closed on me for this reason. (That one stung.) It’s mostly a seller’s problem, but it can bite buyers too if a card gets pulled between when you order and when it’s supposed to post. Worth asking about the broker’s policy if a card closes before posting.

Buying directly from a cardholder

The other option is cutting out the broker and buying straight from someone who sells their own tradelines — through their own site or by referral. The appeal is price: without a broker taking 70%, more of your payment goes to the cardholder, which often means a lower cost to you for the same quality tradeline. That’s the reason I set up direct sales on this site — I got tired of watching most of every buyer’s dollar go somewhere other than the cardholder they were actually buying from.

The tradeoff is that you’re taking on more counterparty risk. A broker is an intermediary with a reputation to protect and systems in place for when things go sideways. A direct seller is just a person. Do your due diligence: how long have they been selling, can they show a posting track record, and what happens if the tradeline doesn’t post? Answers to those questions tell you quickly whether you’re dealing with someone serious.

One thing to avoid entirely

If you’re researching tradelines, you’ll run into CPN pitches. “Credit Privacy Numbers” get sold as a way to start a fresh credit file — they’re not. CPNs are synthetic identity fraud and a federal crime. Not a loophole, not a gray area. People have been indicted for using them. If any seller mentions tradelines and CPNs in the same breath, close the tab.

Watch for specific score guarantees too. Any seller promising “add 100 points guaranteed” either doesn’t understand how credit scoring works or is counting on you not to. The effect of a tradeline depends on what’s already on your credit report — a well-chosen tradeline often helps, but outcomes vary, and no honest seller promises a specific number.

I sell tradelines directly through this site, without the broker markup, so more of what you pay goes to the card behind the tradeline. Here’s what I currently have listed. If you have questions about a specific card before buying, reach out — I’d rather answer them upfront than have you guess and pick the wrong one.

If you’re ready to move forward, here’s a full breakdown of how to purchase a tradeline and what to actually expect.

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