Can I Report My Own Good Credit?

Instead of depending on lenders to report your good payment habits, you can report your own good credit -- with a catch. The only credit agencies likely to accept your self-reported payments are far less known and respected than the national credit bureaus. Thus, reporting your own payments is of questionable value.

Identification

You can report your own good credit, but usually only to an alternative agency. Unlike the national credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- alternative agencies accept almost anything they can verify, such as rent and personal loans. However, you must pay an alternative agency to perform this service. The national credit bureaus could verify good credit, but only if the account comes from a lender that already reports to the bureau and forgets to update it.

Disadvantage

Most lenders prefer the FICO scoring model to rate customers. You can find a lender to accept a score from an alternative agency, but this process likely takes longer than if you just use your traditional FICO score. If you go through the expense of paying an alternative agency to verify your data, it might just cost the same to get a card with typically low lending standards -- such as a retail card -- and bear the high interest rate until you can acquire a card with a lower interest rate.

Benefits

Reporting your own good credit to an alternative agency might be your only option for proving your creditworthiness. The traditional credit bureaus contain no information on 50 million people, because they do not report utilities or rent, according to the Fair Isaac Corporation. As of 2011, the major bureaus have plans to incorporate nontraditional data from alternative agencies into regular credit reports. The FICO Expansion model, for example, uses information from alternative agencies such as PRBC. If you have a poor regular FICO score, you can use alternative ratings to supplement it.

Tip

When you cannot obtain a conventional credit card, a secured account can report your own good credit to the national credit bureaus and improve your FICO score. Secured accounts require a security deposit, so they have the lowest standards of any card. Put bills on your account and pay it off every month. You won't see specific purchases on your secured account, but it will add good data if you pay at least the minimum every month.