Primary Tradelines: Advtanges, Distadvantages & Costs (2024)

If you’re looking to build credit and improve your credit history, primary tradelines are a must. But understanding what they are, how to add primary tradelines to your credit report, and how you avoid scams is a completely different task.

In this guide, we’re sharing everything you need to know about primary tradelines. So follow this guide and learn about adding primary tradelines to assets and improving your finances now.

Primary Tradelines Explained

If a credit reporting agency mentions tradelines, they’re referring to any credit account listed on your credit report. Tradelines can include:

• Credit cards
• Mortgages
• Auto loans
• Student loans

While tradelines can include different kinds of accounts, primary tradelines are the ones for which you are the primary account holder. Therefore, you hold the responsibility of making payments and keeping debts in good standing by making at least minimum payments for every cycle that repayment is due.

Adding primary tradelines to your credit report and keeping these lines of credit in good standing is the best way to build credit history and boost your credit score. A credit score is a reflection of how trustworthy you are with credit. So by properly handling credit as the sole responsible party, you show you would be trustworthy with other accounts.

However, adding primary tradelines often requires proof that you would be a reliable borrower. If you do not have a credit score and accounts to show, it can be difficult to prove you are responsible. Without a credit score, it becomes difficult to qualify for free primary tradelines.

The good news is that there are ways to start boosting your credit score today to get fast primary tradelines.

Authorized User Tradelines vs. Primary Tradelines

As noted, primary tradelines are credit accounts for which you are the main account holder. If you are not the account owner but added to the account in name, then the account will show up as an authorized user tradeline.

Being an authorized user on another person’s credit card account technically means that you have permission to use their account to make purchases.

However, you may be an authorized user and never touch or use the credit card in question. So why open an authorized user account?

The most common reason to have your name listed as an authorized user is that these tradelines can boost your credit. You don’t need to have a history of being an authorized user. It merely comes down to the account holder’s preference.

There are risks and benefits to authorized user accounts. The benefits to being an authorized user include:

• Builds and repairs credit history for people with no credit
• An extra boost to your credit when the primary account holder keeps their account in good standing
• Access to a line of credit without the responsibility of keeping the account in good standing

The main risk comes if you become an authorized user on an account with someone who handles credit poorly. If that card has too high a credit utilization rate, it could negatively impact your credit history or influence your credit utilization ratio. So make sure you trust the person to whom you are attaching your credit.

Free Primary Tradelines vs. Primary Tradelines for Sale

Free primary tradelines are available to everyone. Anytime you apply for a credit card, personal loan, or mortgage, you’ve opened free primary tradelines. They are free in the sense that you don’t need to purchase anything to have these accounts listed as tradelines. However, you will need to apply for them, and there’s no guarantee of a successful application.

While opening your own account is the safest way to get free primary tradelines, there are opportunities to find primary tradelines for sale. These accounts allow you to build credit. However, you want to ensure that they are free of fraud and legal before adding primary tradelines.

Finding primary tradelines for sale that are completely safe can be difficult because it involves taking over someone else’s account. When you purchase these accounts, ownership transfers from the original account owner to you.

Because it is complicated, primary tradelines for sale always come with strings attached. Some strings are safer than others, while some are completely fraudulent. We’ll walk you through what you need to know about each method of adding primary tradelines you’ve purchased.

How to Add Primary Tradelines to Your Credit Report

When looking at primary tradelines for sale, make sure you purchase from reputable tradeline companies that deal in primary tradelines. There are a couple of signs you can look for in a reputable company, such as:

• A long-standing company
• No alerts with the Better Business Bureau
• Large credit limit
• Legitimate business—contact information and a physical address are good signs
• Transparent about their purchasing options as there’s nothing to hide

If you find a brand-new company with a small credit limit or negative reviews, it’s most likely not safe to work with that company. We recommend you search for the most trusted companies before you purchase any tradelines for yourself.

Once you’ve found a company you trust, there are different options for purchasing primary tradelines for sale.

Make sure to read our Tradeline Supply company review if you are looking to purchase a tradeline.

Buying Accounts In Default

When someone has defaulted or is delinquent on a credit account, the lender will turn the account over to a collection agency. The person who opened the account no longer has any connection to the account. At this point, the account becomes available to transfer to a new owner.

Buying accounts in default is a legal way of acquiring primary tradelines. However, it’s not necessarily beneficial to you. If this account was in default, it obviously can’t have a great history.

So while you may have purchased the account in default to help your credit as the new owner, it may just end up hurting your score. It could take you years to recover. And in that amount of time, you could have built your own credit as an authorized user and started with a cleaner slate.

Paying for Annual Fees

If you can’t get free primary tradelines, there is another way to open a credit line legally. You can go to a business that will allow you to open a line of credit with their store.

This method allows you to begin a new, fresh credit account. And as long as they report to one of the three major credit bureaus, you can build a credit history.

If you don’t have anyone to help you work on your credit history by allowing you to be an authorized user, this may be one of the few options available for adding primary tradelines legally and safely.

But before you walk into any business to open a credit account, make sure you understand the risks and work hard to keep that account in good standing.

There are a few drawbacks to this method of adding primary tradelines. Those include:

• Hefty annual fees
• Negative impact on your credit score for initially opening a new account
• Account may only work at that business—if you never purchase items on that account, it can lead to a zero balance. Keeping accounts at a zero balance could hurt in the long run as the credit agency will consider it an inactive account.

Opening a Joint Account

Opening a joint account is perhaps the best option for how to add primary tradelines to your credit report without good credit.

It’s near impossible to find companies that sell fast primary tradelines, and banks may be very particular about the arrangement. Joint accounts let you access primary tradelines quickly and have accounts open in your name and the other account holder’s name.

So what’s the catch? Well, this may just be the hardest deal to find.

First, you need to open a joint account with someone who has a good credit history and is willing to help you. When you open a joint account with someone else, you and the other owner are responsible for keeping the account in good standing. You will need someone trustworthy and willing to entrust their credit rating to you.

When opening a joint account, it is best to find a close family member or friend.Once you have opened the account, the other person can remove themselves from the account, leaving you the sole owner. Once official, you now have your own account and primary tradelines on your report.

Now the joint account method isn’t without faults. In addition to being difficult to arrange, joint accounts come with some risks:

• Closed account—if you or the other account owner failed to make payments after becoming the sole owner, or if the bank does not allow one holder to remove themselves from the joint account, you may end up with a closed account. To avoid the penalties of a closed account, make sure your bank would allow you to take over ownership of the account.
• Exploitation—the other person may take advantage of the situation. If they refuse to remove themselves, they will have access to a credit account for which you are also responsible. That person could rack up debt and leave you to deal with the consequences.

Beware of companies who try to sell you this option, as this is most likely a fraudulent account. If you choose this route for fast primary tradelines, we recommend you work with a bank to ensure a safe deal.

To get fast primary tradelines through opening a joint account, make sure you have someone you can trust. Then, do your research on the bank. As long as they allow for joint accounts and for an account to continue after removing one of the owners, you should be able to use this method for fast primary tradelines.

Buying Authorized User Tradelines

As you can see, it is tough to buy fast primary tradelines for yourself. However, that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost!

As we demonstrated before, being an authorized user on an account is a great way to build your credit. And once you have built a good credit report, you can open your own fast primary tradelines based on your own merit.

However, not everyone has access to a family member or friend willing to let people piggyback off their credit. But if that’s the case for you, you’re in luck. Many companies act as liaisons between people with good credit looking for extra money and people eligible to serve as authorized users.

Through a reputable company, these primary tradelines for sale will pay out a commission to a good-standing credit cardholder. The original owner can reap the benefits of their good credit just by adding you as an authorized user to their account.

While you could set up an arrangement similar to this outside of a company, there are many benefits to working with a company. Companies will typically have various protections for you as a customer, including fallbacks like a money-back guarantee. You can also trust an established company more than any random person.

How Much Do Primary Tradelines Cost?

Buying authorized usertradelines for sale may cost anywhere from $150 to $4,000. That’s because the price will depend on several factors, including how old the account is and the credit limit on the account.

The older an account is, the more seasoned it is. Credit agencies view seasoned primary tradelines favorably because a long history shows that the owner has remained in good standing for a longer period. You’ll pay extra to have seasoned primary tradelines on your credit history.

If the account owner has a high credit limit and low balance, it means a better credit card utilization ratio for you. You’ll also see that reflected in the price of the primary tradelines for sale.

Are Primary Tradelines Legal?

Free primary tradelines are legal as they refer to credit accounts you own. These tradelines are not only legal but also necessary to maintain positive financial standing.

However, the question of legality truly comes down to how you obtained the account:

• Free primary tradelines based on accounts you opened yourself are completely legal.
• If you purchased primary tradelines for sale on accounts opened by someone else, legality is not guaranteed.

So you’ll need to do some thorough investigating to ensure this isn’t a scam or fraudulent.

How to Avoid Scams

If you are looking into how to add primary tradelines to your credit report, keep in mind all that we’ve told you about the drawbacks of each method of purchasing. If you see a deal that seems too good to be true, then it probably is!

We recommend that you only work with reputable tradeline companies and we recommend Trade. These companies have a history of positive reviews, a physical address, and larger credit limits. Only work with companies that are transparent about their operations.

Due diligence is essential because you don’t want to get involved in a serious scam for a fraudulent account. If you take over the account, you could end up liable for the illegal activities. So the lesson here is to vet every company and look for real reviews online.

Seasoned Primary Tradelines for Sale

Seasoned primary tradelines are accounts that have been open for longer periods. These are particularly valuable, which is why it’s unlikely that a company would ever sell you a valuable, seasoned account.

If companies are advertising seasoned primary tradelines, the chances are that either:

1. They took over this account illegally, which could mean trouble for you; or
2. The account is seasoned but with a negative payment history that will hurt your credit.

When you see a company advertising seasoned primary tradelines, run the other way to avoid getting mixed up in anything fraudulent or detrimental to your credit.

Primary Tradelines for CPNs

Some salespeople will claim that you can apply to fast primary tradelines using a credit privacy number, or CPN, rather than your social security number. However, this is one of the biggest warning signs when it comes to primary trading scams.

There is no proof CPNs are real. In actuality, these accounts are someone else’s social security number used to open up illegal free primary tradelines.

The FTC has explicitly stated that CPNs are only a credit repair scam. So you should never be adding primary tradelines through a CPN. Know that if you open free primary tradelines using a CPN from a company, you are committing identity theft, which could lead to jail time.

Buying Closed Accounts

A closed account opened by someone else is simply that: a closed account. There is nothing that you can do with it. So anyone who tries to sell you a closed account is selling you the hassle of trying to get a closed account off of your credit report.

How to Add Primary Tradelines to Your Credit Report

Whenever you open a credit account in your name, you immediately add primary tradelines to your credit report. So you don’t need to do anything to have it show up on your report in this situation.

When you purchase as an authorized user, you add the primary tradelines to your credit report. But do note that this isn’t a long-term bonus to your credit history.

Authorized user tradelines will generally be on your credit report for only a few months to half a year. So in that time of having good standing, you may want to take advantage and open your own fast primary tradelines.

Once you know how to add primary tradelines to your credit report by opening accounts in your name, take care of your accounts by:

• Maintaining an excellent utilization ratio
• Making payments on time
• Not keeping any zero balances

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary Tradelines

Opening your own, free primary tradelines is practically a requirement for healthy finances. From buying a car to paying for college, you’ll almost always need primary tradelines. But what about buying authorized user tradelines?

If you are interested in purchasing authorized user tradelines, check out the pros and cons of this practice before you buy.

Pros

• Build credit from scratch. Whether you’ve never had an account or you’re recovering from bankruptcy, being an authorized user can greatly help any credit score.
• Get better terms for free primary tradelines in the future. The better your credit score, the better terms will be on your future loans and cards. Use authorized user accounts to improve your score for future free primary tradelines to get the best possible deal.
• Improve your future. From buying a car to finding an apartment or house, you often need a good credit report to show you are a reliable person. If you need to improve your report to succeed, becoming an authorized user is a great way to do that.

Cons

• You are only buying to have it on your report, not to use the account for purchases. By purchasing authorized user tradelines, you will only reap the benefits on your report, but you will not make purchases with the account.
• Watch out for scams. Credit card scams are a booming industry. So to protect yourself, only work with companies that have a proven track record of happy customers, a large credit limit, and good standing.

Conclusion — Get Primary Tradelines

Everyone should have primary tradelines to have the best possible credit report. But for those who have trouble opening free primary tradelines, it may be necessary to purchase credit score boosts.

Hopefully, this guide told you everything you need to know about primary tradelines, how to make informed decisions when seeking tradelines, and whether they’re right for your financial situation.

We believe buying authorized user tradelines is the safest way to build credit, allowing you to open your own accounts. But as you seek options to buy primary tradelines for sale, remember to be on the lookout for scams. Avoid CPNs at all costs. Instead, chat with only the most reputable tradeline companies by doing research on their company history, recent reviews, and service details.