Credit reporting (furnishing)
Whether a lender reports your payments to the bureaus — which decides if a loan can build or only damage credit.
What "credit reporting (furnishing)" means
"Furnishing" is when a lender reports your account to a credit bureau. It cuts two ways: a lender that furnishes on-time payments to the major bureaus can help you build credit; one that furnishes only to specialty bureaus — or only reports defaults — cannot help, and can still hurt.
Most tribal lenders don't report on-time payments to the big three, so paying one perfectly builds nothing, while a default can still reach your mainstream file through a collector. A few (like Spotloan) do report — check before assuming a loan will build credit.