Personal blog on early retirement, selling tradelines, and analytics projects. I write about what I learn as I am learning it.
Every so often I run a coupon that brings any tradeline under $200 down to a flat $100. The code is 100TL — use it at checkout and the price drops automatically. I’ll explain the logic behind it, and what to actually look for when you’re picking a tradeline at that price. If you want to learn more about how to how to buy a tradeline, that post covers the process end to end.
People find my site searching for ways to monetize good credit, which is exactly how I found this business in the first place. I remember spending a surprising amount of time Googling “make money with good credit” before I stumbled onto a forum thread that mentioned selling authorized user tradelines. Once I understood the model, it made sense. You add someone as an authorized user on a card you already have, they get the benefit of your card’s history on their credit report for a couple of months, and you get paid for it. Nobody shares a physical card. If you’re wondering whether you can pay to be an authorized user on someone else’s account, the short answer is yes — and selling that slot is the other side of the same transaction.
Continue reading “Sell authorized user tradelines: what it’s actually like”
People ask me how to purchase a tradeline like it’s a complicated process. It isn’t, really — but the part most buyers get wrong isn’t the how, it’s the what. What you’re buying matters a lot more than where you buy it.
Continue reading “Purchase a Tradeline: What You’re Actually Buying”
Piggybacking credit companies all sell the same basic thing: they add you as an authorized user on someone else’s seasoned credit card so that card’s age and limit post to your credit report. I know this because I’m on the other side of that transaction — I sell authorized user tradelines from my own cards, both through brokers and directly here. So when I look at the companies advertising this, I’m not guessing at how they work; I’ve listed cards with several of them and watched how they treat buyers and sellers. This is the honest version of what you’re actually paying for and how to tell a real operation from one that’ll waste your money. If you want the mechanics first, here’s how piggybacking credit actually works from the inside.
Continue reading “Piggybacking credit companies: what to watch for”
At one point I had around ten hard inquiries on my credit report at the same time. That wasn’t recklessness — it was the side effect of opening new cards to season them for tradeline sales. But it made me think hard (no pun intended) about what inquiries actually do to a score, versus what people think they do. The answer is more nuanced than most posts let on. Related: does removing hard inquiries increase credit score — worth reading if this applies to you.
