The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice. See Lexington Law’s editorial disclosure for more information.
The bills that are most commonly included on your credit report are for credit cards and installment loans.
Your credit score is calculated using many factors—including balances and payments made for your bills. That said, the bills that are most commonly included on your credit report are for credit cards and installment loans, like a car payment or mortgage. Other bills, like utility payments or cell phone plans, usually aren’t listed on your credit report.
However, many bills can end up on your credit report if you fail to pay, and it is possible to get certain bills on your report if you want to improve your credit score by showing additional accounts in good standing.
Read on to learn more about what bills affect your credit score, what to do if you want more bills to show up on your credit report and how to monitor your credit report for accounts related to your bills.
Do bills affect your credit score?
In general, the bills that factor into your credit score are for your credit cards and loan payments. Other bill payments—including rent, cell phone plans, utilities or medical bills—are not typically included in your score.
Remember, your credit score is calculated with a scoring system like FICO® or VantageScore. These models look at all of the accounts listed on your credit reports to assign a score, which signals to lenders how risky it is to offer you new credit, like a credit card or a loan.
These scoring models can only work with information accessible on your credit reports, which are maintained by three bureaus—TransUnion®, Experian® and Equifax®. The three credit bureaus simply report the information that is provided to them by lenders.
Since utility companies, apartment complexes, cell phone companies and other businesses don’t generally report information about account balances and payments to the credit bureaus, those bills generally aren’t included in your credit score calculation.
How bills can negatively affect your credit score
Even though many bills don’t show up on your credit report each month, they may end up negatively affecting your score if you miss enough payments. Delinquent accounts—which are accounts no longer in good standing—could be sent to collections, which will almost certainly show up as a negative item on your credit report.
For example, an unpaid medical bill, an overdue cell phone payment or late rent could eventually end up on your credit report if you fail to pay what you owe. Since the original lender wants to recoup some of the money you owe them, they’ll work with a collection agency to try to get a payment from you.
A collection account on your credit report could lead to a significant drop in your credit score, so it’s important to make payments on time and in full for any bills you owe—not just credit cards and loans, but also bills for any utilities or services you use. If you’re struggling to make payments on your bills, it’s often helpful to reach out proactively to set up a payment plan, which may prevent your bill from being reported as a negative item on your credit report.
Many utility companies, cell phone providers and medical centers are able to negotiate costs or offer support for people in difficult financial situations. As a result, it’s generally in your best interest to try to make arrangements before your credit score takes a hit from a bill going to collections.
Ways to use bills to help your credit score
Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can use bill payments to potentially improve your credit score. If you’re currently making payments on your bills and have accounts in good standing, you may want to look at how a couple of programs could raise your credit score.
In general, lenders understand that on-time payments for bills are correlated with financial responsibility, so it may be possible in the future that more and more bill payments are reported to the credit bureaus. For now, however, the bulk of the credit score is composed of information about your credit cards and installment loans—but you can look at some of the services, which could help boost your score.
How to monitor your credit report for bills
If you make any bill payments—whether for credit cards, utilities or services—you’ll want to make sure that you’re monitoring your credit report on a regular basis. That way you’ll know what bills are affecting your credit score, and what else is affecting your score, too.
You can get a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus annually, and this report will include information about your accounts, balances and payment history.
When scanning your credit report, you’ll have the opportunity to look for any accounts that have been misreported—such as reflecting inaccurate information, or if there’s an account that doesn’t belong to you at all. Misleading negative items could unfairly lower your credit score.
If you’re struggling to get inaccurate negative information removed from your report or need help with your credit profile consider working with Lexington Law Firm, which includes a team of credit repair consultants. We’ll be able to help you review your report for accuracy and make a plan to ensure a fair and accurate credit report.
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