Experian Boost is a service that helps consumers instantly raise their FICO score. When you sign up, you’ll receive credit for timely, phone, utility, and select streaming service payments. You don’t need good credit to use this feature, and it’s free to get started.
Should You Use Experian Boost?
It’s a personal decision, but Experian Boost is a tool designed to help you increase your credit score. Plus, there’s no fee or monthly obligation associated with the service, and you can discontinue your enrollment at any time.
How Does Experian Boost Work?
Payment history accounts for 35% of your FICO score. However, most credit-scoring models do not include utility, phone, and streaming service payments in their calculations. So, it’s impossible to improve your score with these accounts, even if you have a perfect payment history.
But Experian Boost affords you the luxury of adding these accounts to your credit profile to improve payment history. Even better, late payments aren’t factored into the scoring equation, so your credit score won’t be affected if you fail to pay on time (unless the delinquency is ongoing and the accounts are converted to collections).
Here’s a breakdown of how Experian Boost works:
- Step 1- Connect your bank account(s) used to pay monthly bills.
- Step 2- Select the accounts and corresponding positive payment history you’d like Experian to add to your credit file.
- Step 3 – View the results of your boost right away.
How Exactly Can Experian Boost Help You?
Regardless of your current credit rating, Experian Boost can help you with your credit score with minimal effort. If you have little to no credit, the payment history will add positive history to your profile to strengthen your credit health right away. But if you have less than perfect credit, you could also benefit as positive payment history can help offset the negative marks in your credit report.
Is Experian Boost Legit?
Experian Boost has helped millions of consumers throughout the US improve their credit scores. To date, the free service has boosted credit scores by over 74,650,000 points, and this figure continues to climb by the minute. Most users who enroll in the program see an average increase of 12 points to their FICO Score 8 based on Experian data.
Not all consumers see improvements from Experian Boost, though it depends on your unique credit profile.
What Do You Need to Use Experian Boost?
Payments for utility and phone companies, including AT&T and Spectrum, qualify for use with Experian services. You can also get credit for payments for streaming services like Hulu, Disney+, HBO, and Netflix.
How Much Does Experian Boost Cost?
It’s free to use Experian Boost, and you’ll automatically have access to the service when you register for an Experian CreditWorks℠ Basic membership. This free membership also includes monthly Experian Credit Report and FICO Score updates, Experian credit monitoring, score tracking, and score alerts. You can disable Experian Boost, cancel your membership, or both at any time without incurring any fees or penalties.
How Do You Sign Up for Experian Boost?
It’s easy to sign up for Experian Boost. You can get started online or via the mobile app by enrolling in the Experian CreditWorks℠ Basic membership program. There’s no cost to create an account, and you’ll need to provide your first and last name, current address, email address, and password you’d like to use to access the dashboard.
Once your account is open, you’ll be asked to connect your bank account(s). Experian will analyze transactions to identify qualifying payments you can use. You will be asked to confirm these accounts before moving forward and can disconnect your account(s) at any time if you want to stop using Experian Boost.
FAQs About How Experian Boost Works
Below are some frequently asked questions about Experian Boost.
The feature is worth considering if you want to get credit for on-time payments and give your Experian credit score a boost. It won’t cost you anything, and the system works behind the scenes to do the work for you.
Experian Boost strengthens your payment history, which is the most significant factor in the credit-scoring calculation, by adding on-time payments like utility payments or phone bills and selected streaming-service accounts. In addition, negative information is excluded from your credit report, so your score won’t be impacted.
On average, Experian Boost users see a 12 point increase to their FICO® Score 8. However, be mindful that results vary by consumer, and some users don’t see an improvement in their score or approval odds for credit card and loan products. Furthermore, select lenders and creditors may not use the account information Experian Boost includes in your credit file.
Experian Boost needs access to your bank account to retrieve on-time payments for qualifying accounts. These include transactions associated with utility, phone, and qualifying streaming services.
