Selling tradelines: an overview.

[ladislav]

Selling tradelines means: you have a credit card with a long history, no late payments, and then you add an authorized user to your credit card for a fee. Then, the authorized user will have his credit rating improve by being on your credit line.

So, some credit repair companies will pay you to have a user added to your credit card and have their name and SSN on record with credit reporting agencies. When you get the card for your authorized user, you are supposed to just shred it. This way, no one can use it.

Then, two months later, you have them removed. They basically piggy back off of your credit history.

This is apparently legal per se because there are many companies online that will send you people to add and even send you a w-9 form. Lots of people are doing it. There are boards online and tradeline dealers all over the Internet.

Pros: it's like a passive income and a sideline. These credit repair companies will pay from $70-$330 per authorized user depending on your credit card. Usually, they like cards with over $10K credit limit which are at least 2 years old. The older the better. On average, people make some $600-700 a month. In some cases, they make a lot more. It is possible to make a living if you have lots of cards.

Cons: you don't know who these people are, and some banks do not like this type of business at all. There is always the risk that they may just block your card. And also, you can list the card and no one will buy your tradeline. There is also the risk that the authorized user will report the credit card stolen and have a new one sent to their address. Apparently, it has happened.

You minimize the risk by not adding too many users.

However, it is an industry now which is part of the credit repair industry. You can just google "We Buy Tradelines" or " Tradelines for Sale". Lots of material will show up and lots of websites.

Last year, I made some $10,000. Not much, but it paid some bills.

The company I did it with was gfsgroup DOT org. They pay $200-250 per authorized user and do it within days.

Some notes:

If you use a mail box for your credit card such as with UPS or FedEx store, or AIM or Maiboxes, etc, it is better to set up an LLC and then receive all mail with that LLC in it. Then, your mailing address should have the LLC in it. Because sometimes those cc companies send the authorized user's card with that user's name on the envelope. Those mail box companies can only accept it if there is your name or company name on the envelope.

If you live in Mexico, sending any credit or debit card to Mexico is problematic. Can only be done by DHL. And the cards must have your name on them. I have not solved this problem yet.