Yet more than half of the people who apply for a credit card are turned down. Many because of poor credit history, many more because of no credit history. The enigma young people face is that they can't get credit anywhere without a credit history, so their first credit purchases invariably become overpriced jewelry or electronics, where the merchant makes a high enough profit on the half of the people who pay, to cover the losses on the half who don't. In many cases, when the young person discovers how badly they have been ripped off, they stop making payments. The merchant then reports their failure to pay against their credit and a nightmare financial cycle has been started in their lives.
Landlords often have an opportunity to help break that cycle.
As a credit grantor, landlords have the same opportunity to affect a persons credit report as Sears, a bank or anyone else. Your local rental housing association can make arrangements to compile the information in a format suitable to the big three credit data companies and transmit it electronically each and every month. It is a way for landlords to provide a very valuable service, particularly to young tenants, and a tremendous incentive for every tenant to pay on time. If you are not set up to report every month you can still report rent delinquency on a former tenant's credit report when you sign up with a collection agency like Debt Hunter . Copy all rent checks - When tenants pay their rent always photocopy their checks.