Transcription
Today I'm going to talk about Experian Boost because it's a very easy way that you can increase your credit score instantly and it's free. So, for most of us out there, it's at least worth looking into.
Now, it has been out for over a year, so it's not like it's something new to everyone. But they did offer a new feature that I've been noticing in some of their recent advertisements, and that's the main reason that I wanted to create this video today, so that we're up to date on everything Experian Boost.
So, one of the first questions you're probably asking is, what is Experian Boost? Now, the easiest way that I can describe this is that Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus out there, and they determine pretty much what your credit score is. So, Experian developed a new way of finding more data for you, and they call it Experian Boost.
Now, normally we have a lot of monthly bills that come out, but a lot of those monthly bills that are recurring aren't actually reported to the credit bureaus. So, what Experian Boost is able to do is able to go into your utilities, your cable, your internet, a bunch of different things that you pay every single month, and they're able to actually put those inside of your credit report and make it even better for you. And so, that is what Experian Boost is.
And then something else that I've personally noticed from all the advertisements that I've seen recently is that they now include streaming services, particularly Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and HBO. So, if you actually have any of those running every single month, then those can actually help your credit score just by using the Experian Boost. So, basically, if you've got different utility bills and telecom bills that are in your name that you have to pay for every single month, then those can actually help boost your score each and every one of them. So, for instance, water, gas, electric, phone, internet, cable, all those types of things can help boost your score.
Now, it's not guaranteed that the Experian Boost will find and count every single one of those, but they might. And now, because they've introduced Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Disney Plus, you can also get credit for actually having those streaming services that you would have paid for regardless. Now, honestly, if you don't have Netflix or something like that, I wouldn't go out of my way just to sign up in hopes that you're going to boost your credit score. Because what Experian says is that on average, you're going to boost your score by 13 points. So, nothing's really guaranteed here. You could go up one point, you could go up to as high as I've seen as 44 points. So, just keep that in mind. The boost isn't going to be that high.
And generally speaking, it's made for people with a thin credit score, meaning they don't have a lot of credit history or credit. So, in those cases, if you're newer to the credit world, the boost can definitely help you. But if you're extremely established and you have like an 800 credit score, it's probably not going to do much for you.
Okay, so the next question I want to answer is, how does Experian Boost work? And this is also very simple because you don't have to go through a third party to activate it or anything like that. You just have to go to Experian's main website, which is experian.com, and then find their Boost feature. And once you find that, you just sign up for it. It's free. Put in your credentials, and then you also have to add your bank account that is associated with those monthly payments. So, as long as those monthly payments are coming out of a certain checking account or multiple checking accounts, you'll need to add those.
And then you're going to have them run their boost. It happens very quickly. It's also encrypted and safe. So, they're not reading your bank account information. They're just reading the information that they need to see. And as soon as they do that, you can instantly increase your credit score by adding the boost.
Now, keep in mind that Experian Boost is only looking for positive payment history. And I don't know how long they're looking for, but it's probably between about three and six months. So, if you've had a Netflix bill for five months in a row, then it'll probably count as a positive towards your credit boost. Now, if you have anything negative on there, like for instance, if you missed or had a late payment on your utilities, that is not going to be affected because of the Experian Boost. So, don't worry about that. The Experian Boost is only going to help you. It's not going to hurt you.
And if you really are concerned, you can actually turn on and off the different types of bills that they find. So, for instance, if you don't want Netflix for some reason on your Experian Boost, then you can actually turn that off. And you'll always have access to be able to turn them on and off depending on what you want to do. So, when it comes to a negative impact on your credit score, you don't need to worry about Experian Boost doing that because, once again, they're only looking for positive payment history. So, they can at least try to get your credit score a little bit higher.
And I do want to make a note here that if you happen to make a lot of those specific payments on your credit card, then those are not going to help towards the boost because the boost is only attributed to the checking account that's linked. And so, if that bill isn't inside the checking account, then they're never going to see it, and you're never going to get credit. So, if you really want to get credit and you're paying Netflix on your credit card, then switch that over to your checking account. And basically, within three to six months, it will add on to the Experian Boost and hopefully boost your score.
I also want to mention that the Experian Boost is only added to the FICO 8 credit score model. So, what this basically means is that when you go out and you get a loan, 90% of the lenders out there do use the FICO 8 model. So, that's a good thing. But there are lenders that don't use that information. So, just keep in mind that just because you have a higher credit score from your boost doesn't mean that the lender is even going to read or care about any of that information.
And then, just remember that the boost is only coming from Experian. So, if you were looking for a mortgage and the lender wanted to look at your credit score from all three different credit bureaus, then obviously the other two bureaus wouldn't have the boost information because that's only coming from Experian specifically.
So, overall, if you want to increase your credit score and you do have those certain types of monthly bills that are coming out every month, then definitely try Experian Boost because, like I said, their program is free for the boost. And it also includes quite a few other features that can help you with your credit monitoring, and those are also free as well. Now, they do have a paid program that's $25 a month that offers quite a few other features. You can sign up for that if you want to. But as for the boost that we've been talking about, that is for sure free.
Now, if you just found this channel, I'm Jason with Honest Finance, and I make a lot of videos on different topics that'll give your life and your finances more value. So, feel free to subscribe if you're into this type of content. But thank you for watching this video. Have a great day.