What Is Experian Boost?
Quick Answer
Experian Boost® is a free feature that could improve your FICO Score® by adding household bill payments to your Experian credit report. Eligible accounts may include utility bills, cable, internet, streaming subscriptions, insurance and online rent payments.
Experian Boost®ø is a first-of-its-kind feature that helps consumers instantly improve their FICO® Score☉ by giving them credit for eligible on-time utility, phone, rent, insurance and certain streaming service payments. Experian Boost is good for people with little to no credit history as well as established borrowers looking to increase their credit scores. Here's what you need to know.
What Is Experian Boost?
Experian Boost is a free feature that lets you include your history of certain on-time household bill payments in your Experian credit file to help you build credit. Eligible accounts may include:
- Phone bills (mobile and landline)
- Utility bills (gas, water, electricity, solar)
- Insurance (excluding health insurance)
- Residential rent (if paid online)
- Internet, cable and satellite providers
- Video streaming subscriptions
- Trash collection services
These payments can be reliable indicators of responsible financial management and creditworthiness, but, because they are not considered debt payments, they are not traditionally reported to the consumer credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). Adding these payments to your Experian credit report allows them to contribute to your FICO® Scores based on Experian credit data.
Learn more: What Affects Your Credit Scores?
How Does Experian Boost Work?
Experian Boost works by giving you credit for the payments you're already making. Normally, utility, phone, insurance, streaming and rent payments do not factor into your credit scores. When you use Experian Boost, however, Experian uses your bank and credit card records to find on-time qualifying payments for these monthly bills. That gives you even more opportunity to improve your credit scores.
Once you verify the information and agree to add it to your credit file, you'll instantly receive an updated FICO® Score. The process takes about five minutes, and any change to your credit scores will happen immediately.
By adding these records to your credit file, Experian Boost helps you build positive payment history. Payment history is the most important factor in calculating your credit scores, so adding records of on-time payments could be very valuable. Keep in mind, Experian Boost only considers positive payment history on these accounts, so late payments will not lower your credit scores.
Tip: The length of your credit history also plays a role in your credit scores. Adding more accounts to your credit file with Experian Boost helps you build credit history by showing more evidence of active accounts and on-time payments.
Learn more: How to Improve Your Credit Score Fast
Who Can Benefit From Experian Boost?
The majority of people who use Experian Boost increase their FICO® Score instantly. Anyone can sign up for Experian Boost, but consumers with little to no credit and those with very poor to fair credit scores tend to benefit the most.
Most people get an instant increase in their FICO® Score with Experian Boost. Experian Boost can help improve your FICO® Score 3, 8, 9 and 10, as well as your VantageScore® 3 and 4.
As mentioned, certain payments have never before factored into your credit scores. Experian Boost is the first product to change that, potentially boosting your credit scores immediately if qualified on-time payments are found in your bank and credit card accounts.
Learn more: What Is a Thin Credit File?
How Much Does Experian Boost Cost?
Experian Boost is completely free. Once you sign up, you'll automatically be enrolled in a free Experian membership, which offers additional services such as free credit monitoring and a free FICO® Score. There is no additional charge to connect your bank and credit card accounts, and if you choose to disconnect your account, you can keep your Experian basic membership.
If you regularly pay a utility, telecom, rent, streaming or insurance (excluding health insurance) bill using your bank account or credit card, consider using Experian Boost to get credit for your past on-time payments and instantly raise your credit scores. You can always get your FICO® Score for free from Experian to stay on top of your credit and see how you may be able to improve your scores.
How to Sign Up for Experian Boost
Signing up for Experian Boost is easy and typically takes just a few minutes.
- To sign up for Experian Boost, you'll first need a free Experian account. Along with access to Experian Boost, the free subscription provides access to your Experian credit report, FICO® Score and other services that can help you maintain good credit health.
- On your account homepage, scroll down to Tools and click on Experian Boost.
- On the Experian Boost landing page, enter information on the checking or credit card account(s) you use to pay the bills you want added to your credit report. Use the encrypted form to enter the usernames and passwords you use to log in to those accounts' online dashboards.
- Experian Boost will identify eligible accounts it recognizes from the accounts' automatic payments and retrieve up to two years' worth of payment history for each.
- Experian Boost will prompt you to confirm that you want information for each identified account added to your Experian Boost list. As each approved account is added, Experian Boost will indicate the number of points your credit score has changed as a result.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Bottom Line
Experian Boost is a free feature that lets you get credit for responsible household bill payments by adding them to your Experian credit report for use in calculating credit scores. Signing up for Experian Boost is quick and easy and may yield an increase in your FICO® Score 8 based on Experian credit data.
Instantly raise your FICO® Score for free
Use Experian Boost® to get credit for the bills you already pay like utilities, mobile phone, video streaming services and now rent.
No credit card required
About the author
Stefan Lembo Stolba
Stefan Lembo-Stolba leads Experian Consumer Service's data research on Ask Experian, publishing insights based on Experian's credit data of over 220 million U.S. consumers.
Read more from Stefan Lembo