How to Raise Your Credit Score During a Pandemic — While Being a Couch Potato

Experian Boost will now reward you for watching Netflix. Expect others to follow.

By Howard Dvorkin, CPA for Debt.com

Starting now, you can shelter in place and watch your credit score take off. And if you own a business that relies on your personal credit score, this is good news in a bad-news economic climate.

Experian Boost, a free year-old service that’s helped millions of Americans improve their credit scores, recently announced that its members can add video streaming payment history to their Experian credit reports.

So if you pay for Netflix, Disney Plus, or any other streaming services — and if you pay your bills on time — that information will now be reflected in your payment history. That’s good news for quarantined Americans, who since March are watching more online subscription content than ever before. According to Neilsen, the measurement firm known for its TV rankings, online streaming is up 85 percent over this time last year.

“There is no doubt the pandemic has had an impact on the financial health of consumers,” says Jeff Softley, an executive with Experian Consumer Services. “By giving consumers greater control, Experian Boost and our new finance tools help consumers not only gain access to…