House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

NEW!

Subscribe to receive notifications of new Co-Sponsorship Memos circulated

By Member | By Date | Keyword Search

House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	January 30, 2024 10:48 AM
From:	Representative Kristine C. Howard and Rep. Tarik Khan
To:	All House members
Subject:	Expanding Credit Access

Credit impacts our ability to obtain emergency loans, apply for employment, find housing, and get a vehicle loan, while lower credit leads to increased interest rates, costs, and so much more. Insufficient record of credit can lead to a total inability to rent an apartment or secure a loan, among many other obstacles. Many of the 26 million Americans who have an insufficient credit record because regular payment obligations (e.g. rent and utilities) that could easily be reported are only being reported when they’re negative. Being delinquent with these payments will often be factored into credit reports if the matter is referred to collection agencies, but the positives of a person’s payment history will not be, and therefore a person with a good payment history can be rendered invisible. To address this unfairness, we, in conjunction with Senator Dillon, will soon be introducing two bills designed to promote positive financial health by requiring that utility providers and most landlords offer their customers the option to have their payments reported to credit reporting agencies. By requiring that they offer this, their customers will be able to have their positive regular payments factored in to their credit reports, and either begin to undo negatives in their credit history or to begin to build a credit history. Please join us in co-sponsoring this important legislation.

---

Document #1

Description:

The first bill amends the Landlord Tenant Act to require landlords to offer tenants the option to have their timely rent payments reported to credit bureaus.  Rent reporting serves two main purposes, beneficial to both landlords and tenants. First, by creating an opt-in credit reporting opportunity for tenants, Pennsylvanians will be able to build their credit score with positive reporting.  Credit reporting currently occurs between lenders and homeowners with outstanding mortgages, and our bill would give renters the same opportunity. Furthermore, this bill stands to benefit landlords to create additional accountability measures, provides more detailed tenant histories when searching for new tenants, and comes at no cost to landlords.  Our legislation would only apply to landlords with 15 or more residentially leased units and would authorize the landlord to charge a small fee to cover the costs of reporting.

Document #2

Description:

The second bill requires utility providers to offer the option to customers to have their utility payments reported to major credit reporting entities.  This change would assist consumers by creating a positive impact on their credit score through reporting regular payments on their water, electric, phone, internet, heating and other utility bills to major credit bureaus.  The purpose of this legislation is to support the financial health of Pennsylvanians.  By requiring utility providers to offer opt-in credit reporting to customers, consumers are able to take control in an attempt to have a positive impact to their credit.