FAQs: RentTracking – Canopy

What is RentTracking?

RentTracking enables you to build your credit history by showing that you've paid your rent on time.

How do I set up RentTracking?

All you need to do is set up Open banking and a tenancy agreement in order to track your rent. You will need an active subscription in order to track your rent.

Details on subscriptions can be found here.

How to set up your RentTracking

Do I have to pay to set up RentTracking?

Our Standard package is completely free to use. Further subscription offers are available.

Canopy Subscriptions

I have paid my rent deposit together.

Not to worry, if your first transaction is exceptionally higher than your rent amount, we will prompt your to provide details of your deposit so we can correctly track only your rent payments moving forward.

Can I track my historic rental data?

Unfortunately, we cannot backdate any rent payments. We track all payments moving forward and start to report data to the credit referencing agencies 2 months after the date you have set up your RentTracking.

My tenancy details have changed

If you need to change your tenancy details, such as rental amount, payment date or tenancy address, you will need to stop RentTracking and set up again with the new details.

I have changed the bank account my rent comes from

If you have changed the bank account your future rent payments come from, you are not able to instantly switch the account. Instead, you will need to stop tracking your rent and ensure you connect the new bank account upon set up.

If you have made a rent payment from a different bank on one occasion, you will need to manually add this payment after the payment date. You can find the instructions for this process here.

What does Credit History mean?

Your credit history is a record of how you manage your money and use credit. It gives a detailed look at your current and past credit lines such as any credit card, loan or mortgage you may have. It keeps track of whether you’ve been keeping up with any agreed repayments and also reflects how diligent you have been in paying your bills.

If you’ve just turned 18, are new to the UK, or just haven’t had a credit card or a loan in the last few years, your credit history is likely to be fairly unsubstantial.

Your credit history has a significant influence on your credit score. For instance, you may have a lower credit score if your credit history shows records that may look negative, such as late payments and defaults.

Will tracking my rent harm my credit score?

As with any other type of credit, timely payments will have a positive impact on your credit score whilst showing late payments or defaults can harm your credit score. Be sure to pay your rent when it is due and RentTracking will work its magic for you.

Each of the Credit Reference Agencies in the UK works differently. For this reason, using RentTracking may have a slightly different impact on your credit history and your credit score. At any time, you can request a copy of your credit report from any of the Credit Reference Agencies and are also able to dispute anything that looks incorrect to you.

If you are struggling to pay for your rent, make sure to follow the Citizens Advice recommendations which can be found here.

How does it work?

When setting up RentTracking, you tell Canopy about your rent payments amount and frequency, as well as give access to the open banking data from the account you pay your rent from. Each month, this helps us identify your rent payments from within all of your transactions.

For each month where a rent payment is found, we will let the Credit Reference Agencies know that we have identified a rent payment for you. In time, this will appear in your credit record.

If however, we were unable to identify a rent payment for a given month, you will be asked to help us find the payment in question or to tell us the reason why it may not have been made. We will then pass that information on to the Credit Reference Agencies.

Why sign up for the RentTracking service?

By simply connecting your bank account and sharing your repeat rent payments you can sit back and watch your credit history improve.

RentTracking allows your rent to be tracked and contribute to your Experian credit report.

Renters can now benefit from paying rent on time and building a positive credit history. Canopy RentTracking is free to use* and is the best way to build a credit history without taking on new credit or loans.

*RentTracking is free to use on the CanopyGrow® Standard plan.

Why is my tracked rent data not showing on my credit report?

Be aware we wait to see evidence of rent paid consistently for a minimum of 2 months before we start reporting your rent payments to the credit referencing agencies.

After we start sending the data to the credit referencing agencies it can still take up to 6 months to appear on your credit profile.

We cannot guarantee that your score will change as each credit reference agency define their score from a lot of factors of which Rent Tracking is just one.