A tradeline is a term used by credit reporting agencies to describe credit accounts listed on a credit report. For each account reported by a business there is a separate tradeline. Each tradeline includes information about the creditor and their debt.

There are two main types of tradelines. Revolving tradelines like credit cards and lines of credit and installment tradelines or loans like mortgages, auto loans, student loans or personal loans.

Along with debt information each tradeline can include information such as;

• Lender's information
• Account type
• Account Number
• Status of account, i.e. Current, Past Due, Paid Off, etc.
• Opened Date
• Closed Date, if applicable
• Most recent activity
• Balance
• Loan original amount or  credit limit
• Scheduled payment and recent payment amount
• History of payments

This information allows other lenders and consumers to view all the relevant information about an individuals credit history in one place. 

This information is primarily used to calculate credit scores. A credit score is just one aspect of a potential customers creditworthiness. Lenders may also want to check the tradelines on an individuals credit report to get more information.

Checking on specific information on a tradeline can give a lender detailed information. For example, a lender might check to find out the length of time an account has been delinquent. They could also check if  credit scores have dipped because of a high utilization rate  which can help determine whether a potential customers is a credit risk by checking the balance versus the credit limit.

In order to report tradeline data to the credit bureaus you will need a data furnisher agreement with the credit bureau(s) you wish to report to. You will also need Metro 2® reporting software which is up-to-date with the Credit Reporting Resource Guide®, meets all credit reporting laws and regulations and is capable of accurately producing the Metro 2® format layout such as our M2R program.

Backing up your data in M2R is an important task that you should be doing on a regular basis.

Backing up your data in M2R allows you to restore your data in the event of data loss due to file corruption, hard drive issue, human error, etc.

M2R has an easy backup tool that allows you to back up all your important data in a few easy steps. Check out our tutorial here and set up your routine today.