Press release

Piñata Offers Free Program to Help Millions of Renters Build Credit

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Sponsored by Businesswire

Piñata, the leading membership program for renters, today announced a free credit-building service to all eligible renters in the U.S. The first-of-its-kind program provides renters a unique opportunity to establish and increase their credit scores by simply paying their biggest monthly expense—their rent.

With more than 44 million renting households in the U.S. and 53 million Americans lacking a credit score, Piñata’s offering presents a novel opportunity for renters to directly establish credit or boost their credit score by simply verifying their complete, on-time payments in the Piñata app.

The program is available to all renters in the U.S.Users simply pay rent each month as they normally would, and then connect their bank account to Piñata’s secure platform. The app then verifies their payments and reports the data directly to one of the three major credit bureaus. Landlords can also sign up for Piñata’s program to give their tenants premium credit reporting to all three major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) as an amenity.

With nearly half of millennials spending a majority of their paycheck on rent, many renters are facing little credit building opportunities, especially when compared with homeowners, who build credit with their monthly mortgage. Piñata offers an easy solution to this problem by reporting rental payments to a credit bureau, which has been found to boost credit scores by 42 points.

“Building credit is a daunting task for renters, disproportionately including low-income and minority Americans, who haven’t had the same opportunity to build credit,” explains Piñata CEO Lily Liu. “With this extended offering, we’re not only looking to provide additional benefit to both renters, landlords and property management companies, but additionally aim to increase access to financial tools to populations that might otherwise not have them.”

This new offering complements Piñata’s existing rental rewards program, as the platform emerges as the de facto membership program for renters and landlords. The iOS and Android mobile app rewards renters for completing their payments on time with Piñata Cash and gift cards to spend at local businesses, as well as exclusive perks and special deals that can stretch their disposable income by over $4,500 a year.

Piñata’s credit building service is just the first of many exciting developments for the industry; the company plans to continue to expand their offerings throughout the rest of the year.

About Piñata

Piñata is the first membership program that stitches together an ecosystem of rewards, credit building and financial products all designed to make a renter’s life more rewarding and financially secure. In the near future, Piñata is rolling out a revolutionary suite of financial products and services to help renters build financial freedom. Landlords and property managers also utilize Piñata as a new amenity that incentivizes key renter behavior such as reducing late rent payments, reporting maintenance issues, and referring vacant units. Piñata’s co-founder and CEO, Lily Liu, is a celebrated tech entrepreneur who was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 and successfully exited her previous company, PublicStuff, to Acela, one of the leaders in the GovTech space. Piñata’s executive leadership team is a lineup of veteran technologists, strategists, creatives and financial specialists. Piñata’s investment group hails from some of the most successful names in real estate, private equity, and financial services.