How to Add a Primary Account to Your Credit Report

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not require lenders to report to the credit bureaus. This means that there is no legal method to force a lender that you have a primary account with to add it to your credit report. In some cases, a primary account may appear on some of the credit bureaus' reports but not all of them. Check your credit report with each of the three major reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion ) to detect whether the account shows up on one or more of them.

Instructions

1

Contact the credit bureau from which report the account in question is missing from. Ask why an account you hold isn't appearing on the report. Include copies of documentation supporting that you hold that account, such as recent bill statements, in your error report.

2

Wait for a response from the credit bureau. In some cases, the bureau itself may have made a mistake. For example,it may have reported that account as belonging to another person. In other cases, the report may not be showing up on a particular report because that company doesn't subscribe to that particular credit bureau. The creditor also has the option of not reporting the account at all.

3

Contact the customer service department of the creditor with which you hold the account not showing up on your credit report. Ask why it's not showing up on the report and request that it send the account information to a credit bureau. If you are in good standing with that creditor, its absence from your report can weaken your credit profile. The company may have made an error by not reporting your account.

4

Wait for a response from the account holder. Request any agreement that you make with them to report your account to the credit bureaus be in writing. Some smaller businesses may not wish to report accounts to the credit bureaus due to the expense and their relatively low volume of business.

5

Consider transferring the balance of your account to another company that reports to the bureaus regularly. Inform the company how you are contemplating this move to strengthen your negotiating position.

6

Submit a complaint to the FTC regarding the company's behavior if you would still like to try to persuade them to report the account to the credit bureaus. There is no law requiring that they report to the bureaus, but if you think that the creditor has treated you unfairly, the caseworkers at the FTC may be able to assist you.