Tradelines can report for as long as 7 years or as short as 45 days. There are many factors that go into this:

• the degree of legal challenge activity at the credit bureaus
• how far away you live from the cardholder
• the type of authorized user tradeline you were added to

We see an average of a few months of solid reporting. Some more prominent cards stay on an average of 24 months. But, as we’ve written on other posts and pages, it almost doesn’t matter how long the tradelines stays on your report.

Examples of tradelines reporting duration:

Let’s say the tradelines stays on your report for 5 years. Well, the score increase, or positive impact, you received from the tradelines would not remain for 5 years. It would slowly go away over the course of a year or so. I always explain this back because it makes it easier to understand.

Let’s say you have a collection pop up on your report tomorrow. The recent reporting of that negative item is going to severely damage your credit and your credit score. Let’s call it a 150 point decrease from day one. Let’s further assume you just ignore it and do nothing. They’re (the collection agency) going to report again next month, the same information.

Your score decrease remains at 150.

Let’s say a few months go by and they stop “actively” reporting it (reporting every month). So, the collection is now 3 months old.

Your score decreases probably about 120 points.

Let’s say 24 months go by and they haven’t actively reported it.

You’re probably sitting on a 50 to 75 point decrease.

Let’s say it’s 5 years old.

That might represent a 25 point decrease.

Please note, these are all made up numbers just to explain how stuff works, conceptually.

Another look at the examples:

Now, let’s take that idea and reverse it. When we add a tradeline, you will see an instant increase in your credit score on day one. Since we are not “actively” reporting it (in other words, we’re not going to report the same data every month), it will be inactive.

It will remain on your report, it will just be inactive and time will go by since the last time it was active.

So, let’s say you got a 100 point increase on month 1, well, you might only have a 95 point increase on month 2. Then maybe a 65 point increase on month 3, a 50 point increase on month 4, a 10 point increase on month 12, etc.

So, while the question is important, the time it takes you to utilize the impact from your tradeline is much more important. For example, you wouldn’t want to boost your score 100 points on month 1, wait six months to find a home, another 2 months from offer to closing, etc., and then expect your score to be 100 points higher than it was.

Instead, you’d want to take advantage of the boost as soon as possible. This means, have your house picked out, have your finances in order, all preparations for the mortgage application… then add the tradelines and pull the trigger. This way, you receive maximum benefit from the tradeline.

Now, I wanted you to understand all that before I gave you an answer, which we think, is not useful to you. But, to answer the questions specifically, the answer is:

45 days to 7 years.

Matias Pintor

Matias is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of many companies that help people. He owns Superior Tradelines, LLC, which is one of the oldest and most reliable tradeline companies in the country.

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