 TITLE: What Is Seller Financing on a Home? CONTENT: Does Seller Financing Affect Your Credit?\n-----------------------------------------\nPayments made on a seller-financed loan may not show up on your credit report. Banks and other mortgage lenders normally report payment activity to credit bureaus, but a seller-lender might not. While this means an occasional late payment may not hurt your credit score, all your on-time payments won't help it as it would with a traditional mortgage.\nTo report activity to a credit bureau, a lender typically must operate as a business. If you're not sure whether your seller operates as such, you can ask them and also request that they report your payment activity to the credit bureaus if possible.\nWhile a seller might not report payment activity to credit bureaus, negative marks still may end up on your credit report if you default on the seller-financed mortgage. If you fall behind on payments, the seller-lender may pursue a court judgment against you or may turn over your account to a debt collector. In both cases, those moves may be shared with credit bureaus and appear on your credit report, damaging your credit score. END