Starting Thursday, Maryland Landlords Have to Offer to Put Your Rent on Your Credit Report. Whether It's Worth $10 a Month Depends on the Score.

If you rent in Maryland and pay on time, a law that starts Thursday makes your landlord offer to tell a credit bureau about it. That’s a good deal on paper. Whether it’s worth paying for depends on which credit score your next lender pulls.

The law is Chapter 773, and it takes effect October 1. A landlord who owns six or more rental units in Maryland has to put the option in your written lease: have your “complete and timely” rent payments reported to at least one credit bureau. Sign a new lease on or after October 1 and the offer comes with it. Already have a lease? Your landlord has until January 1, 2027 to send the offer, and has to repeat it every year after that.

Only good news travels this way. The law’s definition of positive rental payment history leaves out any month you paid late or short, and whether you pay the reporting fee can’t be reported either.

Here’s the catch. Your landlord can charge you for it, up to the lesser of their actual cost or $10 a month. That’s $120 a year to prove you did something you already do.

And the state’s own public notice leaves out a line the law spells out in plain text: it “applies only to a landlord that owns six or more residential rental units.” If your landlord owns a duplex and a triplex, that’s five units, and no offer is coming.

So is $120 worth it? That depends on who’s reading the file.

FICO says it has counted reported rent in every new model since 2014: FICO 9, FICO 10 and FICO 10T. FICO 8, which FICO itself calls “the most widely used version,” isn’t on that list. On the mortgage side, the Federal Housing Finance Agency says VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T factor in rent payment history, and lenders selling loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can now choose VantageScore 4.0 over Classic FICO. We covered what that switch means for renters trying to buy.

Translation: rent reporting pays off when your file is thin and your next application is going to a lender running one of the newer scores. FICO says reported rent “may be especially beneficial for people with a limited credit history.” If you’ve got ten years of cards and a paid-off car loan, a line of on-time rent barely moves you.

Your call, but here’s the lean. If you’re building credit or buying a house in the next two years, sign it, even at $10, and ask your lender which score it runs. If your file is already thick, skip the fee and keep the $120.

Before you sign, read the form. The law makes it list every bureau your rent will go to, plus the fee. One bureau is the minimum. If the fee is $10, ask what the service costs the landlord, because the cap is whichever is lower.

Check for a free route first. Experian Boost adds rent to your Experian file at no charge, but only rent you pay online to certain property managers or rent platforms. Cash, checks, Venmo and Zelle don’t count.

Two traps once you’re in. Miss the fee for 30 days and your landlord can stop reporting, and you’re locked out for six months. Opt out yourself and you wait six months to get back in. Put the fee on autopay if you sign.

Then pull your free reports a couple of months later and confirm the rent tradeline actually shows up. Our credit score tool and the credit cards hub cover what else moves the number.

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