Personal blog on early retirement, tradelines, and analytics projects. I write about what I learn as I am learning it.
At some point while reviewing your credit report, you’ll probably see a list of inquiries — some labeled “hard” and some labeled with terms like “informative research credit inquiry” or variations on that phrase. The hard ones you likely recognize: those are from credit applications. The informative research ones are different, and understanding what they are (and what they aren’t) is worth a few minutes.
Buyers ask me this pretty regularly: does Chase actually report authorized users? The short answer is yes — Chase reports adult authorized users to all three major credit bureaus. But there’s a nuance here that most posts miss entirely, and it matters depending on why you’re asking.
I get messages from buyers who are confused — sometimes panicked — when a tradeline they paid for disappears from their credit report. “It’s gone” is usually how they put it. What they don’t realize is that there are two completely different things that “tradeline deletion” can mean, and the path forward is totally different depending on which one they’re experiencing.
Continue reading “Tradeline Deletion: What It Means and What to Do”
Renting a tradeline and buying a tradeline mean the same thing — you’re paying to be added as an authorized user on someone else’s credit card for a billing cycle or two. The word “rent” captures it well: you’re borrowing the card’s history for a temporary period, your credit report reflects it while you’re on the account, and then you come off. No card access, no spending, no debt obligation on your end.
Whether it makes sense for you depends on what’s actually dragging your score down. Let me explain how it works and what to watch for.
Continue reading “Rent a Tradeline: How It Works and What It Costs”
People ask me about credit card approvals all the time, usually right after asking about tradelines. The questions are connected — someone working on their credit profile is often trying to qualify for a specific card, not just fix a number on a dashboard. So I’ve thought about the minimum income for a credit card more than the average person. Here’s what I actually know. Related: why did i get denied for a credit card — worth reading if this applies to you.
