Can accounts that aren’t on my credit report affect my FICO score?
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I won’t be able to pay all my bills next month. Since my rent, cell phone and utility do not appear on my credit report I thought that it’s better to let these go late rather than my student & car loan or my credit card.
My main concern is not hurting my credit score, and so I wonder – can accounts that aren’t on my credit report affect my FICO score?
No. They can’t. However…
Your credit score reflects the data that’s on your credit report. If an account does not appear on your credit report – it doesn’t affect your credit score.
Since apartment rentals, utility, cellular, gym etc accounts do not appear on your credit report, your assumption that going late on any of these won’t affect your score is basically right.
That being said, you must keep in mind that while positive timely rental/utility/cellular payments aren’t reported to the credit bureaus, once you stop paying the situation changes:
- The cellular/cable/utility companies has the right to start reporting late payments to the credit bureaus.
- Even if they opt not to report to the credit bureaus, if you’re late couple of months in a row they usually write you off and sell your debt to the collection agencies. Most collection agencies DO report to the credit bureaus.
- If your debt isn’t sold, they’ll probably file a lawsuit against you and in most cases get a judgment against you.
- Landlords report late payments to tenant history bureaus (e.g. SafeRent), so next time you move you can expect your potential landlord to pull your tenant credit history and find out about your late payment.
- Even if your next potential landlord won’t pull your tenant history, he’s very likely to simply call your current landlord and find out about the late payments.
The best advice is before going late on any obligation, call the landlord, cellular or utility company and tell them of your situation – they may be willing to work something out with you until you get on your feet again.
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