What is the Experian Rental Exchange?
By Sam Kane · Last checked 13 October 2026
The Rental Exchange is Experian’s way of adding rent payments to renters’ credit files. Landlords, letting agents and rent reporting companies send rent records to Experian, and Experian adds them to each renter’s Experian credit file. Experian says reported rent counts in its credit score.
The short version
- It is run by Experian, set up with Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue Group.
- It puts rent on your Experian file. To add Equifax too, you can use a rent reporting company.
- Three kinds of sender take part: social landlords, large private landlords and letting agents, and rent reporting companies.
- You do not need your landlord to join if you use a rent reporting company that reads your bank account.
- Rent counts in your Experian score once it is reported.
- You can see it in the free Experian app or your free Experian statutory credit report.
How the Rental Exchange started
Your credit file, the record lenders check when you apply for credit, has long left rent out. Experian set up the Rental Exchange with Big Issue Invest to change that for renters. It is a way to make your biggest bill count on your credit file.
By 2018, Experian said rent data was already on the files of more than 1.2 million tenants.
Who reports rent to the Rental Exchange?
Experian names three routes.
| Who sends your rent | When it applies | Do you need to do anything? |
|---|---|---|
| Social housing providers | Councils, housing associations and other social landlords that have joined | Usually not. Ask your landlord if they take part |
| Private landlords and letting agents | Experian says those with more than 500 properties can report directly, and smaller ones through a partner | Ask your landlord or agent |
| Rent reporting companies | You sign up and connect the bank account you pay rent from | Yes, you sign up. Your landlord is not involved |
Experian says more than 200 social housing providers report to the Rental Exchange. Most private landlords are small, so most private renters will not have their rent reported unless they report it themselves.
If you rent from a council or housing association, read rent reporting for council and housing association tenants.
Does the Rental Exchange count in your Experian score?
Yes. Experian says its 1250 score includes rent payments reported to it, and that paying rent on time improves your score. Rent that is not reported does not count. Your score also depends on everything else on your file.
Each lender also decides how to use rent data, and some may not use it at all. Read does paying rent build credit? for more.
How can you see the Rental Exchange on your Experian file?
- Download the free Experian app or open a free Experian account. Experian says the app shows whether rent payments have been added to your report.
- Look for a rent or tenancy account at your address.
- Check the details. The address and payments should look right.
- Ask for your statutory credit report if you want a full list. It is free and shows every account on your Experian file.
If nothing shows, your rent is not being reported to Experian yet. Read how to see your rent on your credit report for the apps that read each agency’s file.
Does the Rental Exchange report to Equifax?
It is Experian’s own scheme, so it covers Experian. Rent reporting companies such as Report My Rent can add your rent at Equifax and TransUnion as well as Experian. A lender may check only one agency, so having your rent at all three means more lenders may see it.
How Report My Rent fits in
Report My Rent is a rent reporting company, the third route in the table. If you are new to it, read what rent reporting is. You connect your bank, read-only, we find your rent, you confirm it, and we report it to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion each month. Your landlord is not involved and does not need to agree.
Report My Rent is a Wollit product. Experian’s own guide names Wollit as one of the companies tenants can use to report their rent. Wollit sends our reports to Experian through the Rental Exchange, and to Equifax.
Each rent payment shows on your credit file at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion the month after you pay it. Past rent is not added, so your record builds from when you join.
Common questions
Who set up the Rental Exchange?
Experian, with Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue Group.
How do I know if my landlord reports to the Rental Exchange?
Check your Experian credit report for a rent account, or ask your landlord or letting agent.
Do I need my landlord’s permission to be in the Rental Exchange?
Not if you use a rent reporting company. Experian says you do not need your landlord’s permission to report your own rent. Read do you need your landlord’s permission?
My rent is already in the Rental Exchange. Is that enough?
It puts your rent on your Experian file. If you also want it on your Equifax file, where more lenders may see it, you can still use Report My Rent. The agencies remove the duplicate at Experian themselves.
What does Report My Rent report?
We report the rent payments we see in your bank account, and nothing else. We send them to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion each month.
Read next
Sources
- Experian, What is the Rental Exchange?
- Experian, Rent reporting: can paying rent build your credit score?, read 9 October 2026
- Experian, Rental Exchange for social housing providers
- Experian plc, Rental payments recognised in credit reports for the first time, 24 October 2018