YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityOn-time rent and utility payments could start building your credit — and missed ones could hurt it.
Your Money
Right now most landlords and utility companies do not send payment records to credit bureaus. The bill would clear the way for them to do it, so bills you already pay could help your score.
If you owe a past-due balance and set up a payment plan, your gas or electric company could not report you as late while you keep up. The company decides whether you are keeping up.
The bill covers your payment record, good or bad. If a landlord or utility chooses to report, a late payment could reach the credit bureaus the same way an on-time one does.
Civil Liberties
Your gas or electric use can show when you are home and how you live. The bill lets companies report only how you paid and your service terms, such as deposits or shutoff rules.
The bill says these records may be shared even if another law would block it. It does not require your permission first, and it sets up no way to opt out.
Two parts of credit law let people sue a company that reports wrong information. Those parts would not cover this new kind of reporting, so enforcement would be left to government regulators.
Corporate Benefits
Companies that send these records would not face private lawsuits if they break the new rules. Government regulators could still act, but a consumer could not take them to court over it.
Transparency & Accountability
The Government Accountability Office, the agency that audits federal programs, would have to study how this reporting affects consumers. It would send that report to Congress within two years of the bill becoming law.
More about this bill
If you pay rent, gas, electric, or phone bills on time, that record usually never reaches your credit report. The bill would let landlords, utility companies, and phone companies send those payment records to credit bureaus. For renters with little or no credit history, months of on-time payments could start counting toward a credit score. The same rule covers missed payments, so falling behind could show up too. There is one guardrail for utility customers on payment plans. If you keep up with the plan, your gas or electric company could not mark you late. Companies could not be sued for breaking these new rules. A government watchdog would report to Congress on the effects within two years.
Congressional Summary
This bill allows for the reporting of certain positive consumer-credit information (such as the on-time payment of rent or utilities) to consumer reporting agencies.Specifically, a person or the Department of Housing and Urban Development may report information related to a consumer's performance in making payments either under a lease agreement for a dwelling or pursuant to a contract for a utility or telecommunications service. However, information about a consumer's usage of any utility or telecommunications service may be reported only to the extent that the information relates to payment by the consumer for such service or other terms of the provision of that service. Furthermore, an energy utility firm may not report a consumer's outstanding balance as late if the firm and the consumer have entered into a payment plan and the consumer is meeting the obligations of that plan.Specified provisions that establish civil liability with respect to furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies shall not apply to any violation of the bill.The Government Accountability Office must report on the consumer impact of such reporting.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-04-10
- Date Added
- 2026-04-02
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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