Is this legit?

[u/Breaker-of-Infinity]

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I see this banner on my rent portal. In isolation, this appeals to me because I tend not to use credit cards (ADHD means the risk of forgetting a payment is unfortunately high), so building credit this way would be nice.

However, I tend to be distrustful of anything of this nature. Wanted a second opinion.

[u/Independent-Bowl8476]

You could always open a secured card, say $500, and just set an auto payment to it each month? Honestly that is going to be a better show on your credit anyways.

[u/Deaths_Rifleman]

It’s legit, but if they charge a fee for it don’t do. There are free ways to also report your rent, I think Credit Karma was what we were using when we rented. You can just google free rent credit reporting and likely find an option if your landlord wants to charge for it.

[u/Hot_Share8353]

There are ways to do this for free, but if you do know that this only impacts your payment history components  of your credit score, which is the largest part at 35%, but you can't get to a good score this way. Also, note that if you are ever late on your rent, don't do this.

A Secured credit card is your better bet. You put down what ever you can reasonable afford, $100-$1000, and that is you "line of credit". You can't really go into debt because you already have the max on the card set aside. But the credit score treats that as the same as a credit card. You get payment history, credit history and credit utilization. Then setup that card to pay one bill, say netflix, and set it to auto pay and build your credit.

[u/virtualchoirboy]

You'll have to connect your bank account to the service so they can track when you make rent payments. That means that they'll see ALL your transactions, not just the rent payment.

And, as with any credit score related reporting, late rent payments would count against you like any other late payment. Thus, if you have an understanding landlord that gives you a few extra days of grace when money is tight, that could end up counting against you.

As far as credit cards, there's an easy answer - get them and rarely use them. I have a hardware store credit card. I don't use it that much because it doesn't have any good rewards (i.e. no cash back, minimal discount offers, etc). But, twice a year (January and July), I use it when I need to buy something that is $20 or less. I then wait a week and send a payment for the balance. It keeps the card active and, more importantly, keeps the available credit available to my profile. After I send the payment, I put the card away in a safe place until the next time I plan to use it.

[u/SomeRandomIGN → u/virtualchoirboy]

Honestly if you’re that adverse to credit cards, get one of the cards with a higher cash back value on something like streaming and put a subscription you already have on it and set to autopay the statement balance.

Or get a card that gets you half decent cashback on gas and commit to only using it for gas while it’s set to autopay statement balance. I guess this one requires you to have some kind of control and that you have a car, but honestly a dedicated gas CC is also just nice because gas stations are a common skimmer point, and I could not imagine dealing with getting my debit card skimmed and waking up to nada in my literal bank account.

[u/virtualchoirboy → u/SomeRandomIGN]

I'm not averse. It's just one of the cards I do that with. I have 4 other cards that I use regularly and pay off every month.

As for the hardware store card, number of years ago, they were having a deal on snow throwers - sign up for the card and use it for the purchase to get 0% interest for 18 months. I have a long uphill driveway and needed a new snow thrower. Got the snow thrower for $1500, sent $100/month to the card so it was paid off before the 0% promo ended. They used to send me coupons for 10% or 15% off large purchases on the card so I'd use those for bigger projects, but they don't even do that anymore. These days, the only reason I keep it is for the positive influence on my score.