What You Need to Know About Buying Tradelines

Credit card scores impact our life decisions in many ways, and every once in a while, you might find yourself cash strapped and on the wrong side of the credit card score. In such a scenario, you may want to consider buying a tradeline.

What is a tradeline?

Suppose you have a relative or a friend with a good credit score; you can ask them to add you as an authorized user on their credit account. In such a case, we say you have acquired a tradeline, and you can use their excellent credit card score under your name.

Buying a tradeline

However, not every family member will be willing to add you to their account, plus it seems inappropriate. So most people prefer buying cheap tradelines from a third party agency.

A purchased tradeline is only valid for a short period, ranging from a month to a year, and could cost you up to thousands of dollars depending on the subscribed period and the seller. Additionally, when buying a tradeline, you don’t get access to the account’s line of credit.

Is buying tradelines legal?

Buying tradelines carries a ‘this is not right’ feeling. However, the entire process is a moving target when it comes to its legality. There are no regulations barring anyone from buying or selling a tradeline, for starters. Still, on its moral side, it might be viewed as deceptive by lenders, who mostly consider it to be fraudulent.

You might dismiss this as being too strict, but you present someone else’s information to these lenders. A tradeline decorates a borrower’s low credit score deceiving the lender to loan them money at a lower rate than what the borrower deserves. Apart from that, tradelines are entirely legal.

How do tradelines affect your credit score?

Tradelines can boost your credit card score in the following ways;

Payment history

Your credit card score can benefit from the on-time payment of tradeline fees. However, this is only viable as long as the cardholder makes timely payments.

Lowers the credit card utilization ratio

The credit card utilization ratio is the percentage of available credit you are using. Here is how this works. If you had a $1000 credit card limit on your account before buying a tradeline and a balance of $900, your utilization score will be 90%.

However, If you buy a $4000 tradeline, it will push your limit to $5000, consequently lowering your utilization ratio to 12% within the recommended region- below 30%.

Build a more extended credit history

The more extended your credit history, the better the credit card score. However, this is a time aspect of credit cards. It is almost impossible for the new credit card holders to crack unless you buy a tradeline; accepting a seasoned tradeline boosts your credit card’s age history.

Tradeline drawbacks

One limitation of tradelines is that the benefits fall off your card reports as soon as you cease being an authorized user. Therefore, a tradeline provides a temporary solution to your credit card score nightmare, and if you are lucky, it might buy you enough time to straighten your finances.

Endnote

Buying a tradeline might be a short term solution to your financial challenges, but care should be taken, as it exposes you to legal, financial, and identity risks. It is advisable to buy tradelines from a trustworthy tradeline third-party provider.