If you are one of the many people who need to improve their credit scores or repair their already bad credit, tapping seasoned trade lines is one of the strategies available in the market. Trade lines are any account included in your credit report including mortgage, credit card, car loans, computers, and even furniture payments. Any account with low balance and perfect payment history over a long period of time is called seasoned tradelines.

Also known as piggybacking mirroring, and shadowing, it is practiced by business investors to improve their credit scores. Now this tool is being offered to the public. Keep in mind, the credit score is composed of payment history, length of credit history, types of credit, credit history, and amount owed. This technique is to have people with seasoned lines of credit add you as an authorized user to their accounts for a fee. In the next report of credit card companies to different credit bureaus, your name is already included in the same line of credit. From bad credit or no credit, you will automatically get higher credit score! You need not get any credit card to access the account. Most parents use this method, of course free of charge, to help their children get a good line of credit.

There are few inexpensive seasoned trade line companies providing this service to the public. From their standpoint, it is a win-win settlement for both parties. The fee to get seasoned tradelines is based on your credit history and usually ranges from $500 to $2,000. The people and groups with outstanding line of credit are also compensated for allowing others to piggyback with them. Of course, these tradeline companies get more money since they acted as the middlemen to accomplish this task.

Admittedly, we all suffer some financial setbacks at one time or another resulting to bad credit. It will take years to improve this but there are some urgent things that cannot wait for another months or years. These are the times when this service plays a significant role. For the fee mentioned above, it will help people negotiate for lower interest rates and secure loans easier. Also, it opens better employment opportunities. Most companies and insurers view bad credit as a sign of irresponsibility and not worthy of trust. For the results to take effect, the average waiting time is 30 to 60 days. In some cases, it can take as long as 120 days.

This method is plagued by legal controversies. Privacy laws and the Fair Credit Report Act make it impossible for lenders to identify fraud from legitimate use. Financial experts admit this is technically legal but can be fraudulent in most cases. Credit score companies are taking some steps to halt the growing usage of this method. In fact, FICO already changed their scoring method by not considering "authorized users" to come up with the credit score. Eliminating this will have outright impact on many striving students who are using their parents' credit cards and for unemployed spouses relying on their partners.

For those who extend their good credit through seasoned trade lines, there is a possible downside. The other party might actually use the credit and refuse to pay for it. For this reason, it is important to carefully consider if you are interested to be a "donor" in this transaction.