TradeLine Solutions has introduced a way to help people with no credit (or poor credit) to improve their credit scores practically overnight... for a fee. They call it "Seasoned Primary Accounts", meaning that they'll tag the new borrower onto an existing (paid off) line of credit that has an original borrower with a stellar credit rating. Here's how it works according to TradeLine: - You are matched with an open credit account drawing near its closing. You’re added as a joint account user.
- The previous account holder is transferred off or to another account.
- The account stays open with your name still on it.
- You assume the credit history and own the account and when you pull your credit report this account shows up as your own account.
"A customer with a 550 credit score can come to us on Monday and walk into a bank by Friday with great credit to refinance or obtain a loan," Chief Executive Ted Stearns said in an interview with the LA Times. Apparently TradeLine has contracts with several banks regarding their "dormant" (paid off) accounts who have agreed to add TradeLine's customer names to these dormant accounts. It's unclear what the banks are being paid for this, or whether the original account holders will receive any payment for the use of their credit scores. My guess is that the banks get paid, and the original account holders do not. TradeLine says that the original borrower is protected from harm by transferring that account to a new account number, thereby keeping the new borrower's activity separate from theirs on the credit reporting systems. Is this legal? Hard to say! The LA Times asked the San Diego district attorney's office and the FBI and got this reply: "In general, using bogus information to get a loan is a crime. It is bank fraud if the institution duped is federally insured", according to the FBI, "or grand theft in other cases", according to the district attorney. Here's TradeLine's sales pitch: TradeLine Solutions is proud to be the only company offering Seasoned Primary Accounts to our customers including a Rapid Rescore! What does this mean? Now, a customer with a 550 credit score can come to us on Monday and walk into a bank by Friday with great credit ready to refinance or obtain a loan. How? By purchasing someone else's perfect credit history.
Stearns of TradeLine said it was "possible" that a TradeLine customer might run into legal trouble but added: "I would say that it is really hard to enforce the law." How do you know if your account has been tagged by TradeLine's new scheme? A big clue would be if you were sent a notice stating that your account number has changed for no apparent reason. And remember that they're targeting paid-off lines of credit that will be expiring soon, but are still active. | 
