How Payment Holding Works

The short version

When you buy an authorized-user tradeline on TradelineScore, you pay at checkout after availability is confirmed. Your payment enters a third-party payment and holding process instead of going directly to the seller. The seller’s payout is a separate, later step, subject to the order’s reporting, dispute and confirmation requirements.

Payment holding does not guarantee posting or credit outcomes.

Who holds the payment

Credit card, Zelle and broker-wallet payments for an order go through Confirmed Identity (Match Point Software LLC DBA Confirmed Identity), a third-party payment/holding provider separate from TradelineScore / Bosco Management LLC. Confirmed Identity’s role is payment holding; it does not perform TradelineScore’s identity or account reviews.

The exact path depends on how you pay:

• Zelle: your payment is received and held by Confirmed Identity while the order is processed.
• Credit card: your payment is first processed by a separate card processor, then forwarded to Confirmed Identity. Card payments may include a processing fee, disclosed at checkout.
• Broker wallet: paying for an order with wallet funds enters the same payment/holding flow.

There is no separate fee for the payment/holding process itself. Zelle payments carry no additional payment fee; the Zelle price after any applicable discount is what you pay.

An order, step by step

An illustrative timeline (example only – your own dates control, and conditions can change the outcome at any point)

In one example order: you reserve a line; once availability is confirmed you pay at checkout, and the payment enters the holding flow. Identity verification then completes, the cardholder operations team reviews the account, and the order is released to the cardholder, who adds you as an authorized user. Each of these steps takes its own time, and this example assigns no duration to any of them. The issuer reports on its own cycle; the line may appear at one bureau before another. If the line reports to at least two of the three major bureaus by your listing’s Final Reporting Date, posting can be confirmed through buyer or broker confirmation or credit-report evidence. If the order’s Dispute Period then passes with no qualifying reported issue unresolved, the seller is paid under the current process. If the line has not posted by the Final Reporting Date and you report it within your Dispute Period, the payment stays on hold while the claim is reviewed, and a qualifying claim ends in a full refund for that line. Not every order reaches payout on this path – a condition can fail at any point. Every order’s real dates come from its own listing, receipt and order portal, not from this example.

Paying and getting paid are different events

This separation is the point of payment holding: your money is not handed to the seller before the service is checked. It describes how the process is designed for current orders; it is not a statement about how every past order was handled.

Added as an authorized user is not the same as posted

• Added: the cardholder has added you to the account. That is an action between the cardholder and the issuer.
• Reported: the account appears on one of your credit reports. An account can be added without appearing yet, and it may appear at one bureau before another.
• Posted under the policy standard: the purchased line reports to at least two of the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) by your listing’s Final Reporting Date. TradelineScore does not promise which two bureaus. The Posting Guarantee Policy defines when a refund remedy applies; it is not a promise that any line will post.

The dates on your order, and what each one does

What payment holding does, and what it does not do

If something goes wrong

Contact support with your order number as soon as you believe a line has not posted. For an initial nonposting issue, report it within your order’s Dispute Period, on any channel – portal, email, phone or text. The first documented report counts.

If the line has not posted by the Final Reporting Date and your claim qualifies after review under the Posting Guarantee Policy and Refund Policy, you are entitled to a full refund for the affected line or service, including its share of any card-processing fee that was charged. A replacement may be offered, but it is optional and can never replace, restrict or delay a qualifying refund. For orders with several lines, only the affected line is refunded unless every line qualifies. Promotional wallet credit used on a refunded line returns to your promotional balance; it is not converted to cash.

If nonposting is first reported after the Dispute Period, TradelineScore still investigates and works toward a fair resolution case by case, but a full refund is not automatically guaranteed.

A different situation is a line that posts but is removed early, or a service that materially fails before the agreed Removal Date for reasons outside your control. That protection runs through the Removal Date, not the Dispute Period.

Timing matters relative to the seller’s payout. Before seller payment, the funds are still in the holding flow and stay on hold while the issue is investigated. After seller payment, a qualifying problem – for example an early removal covered through the Removal Date – is still handled under the same policies, and seller payment does not cancel a qualifying buyer refund right. Under the Refund Policy, if the funds are still with the payment provider, the refund is processed through the provider; if TradelineScore has already received the funds, TradelineScore processes the refund, generally to the original payment method where possible.

Before you buy: a short checklist

• Read the listing’s details, price and any disclosed card-processing fee. Zelle carries no additional payment fee.
• Note the listing’s own Reporting Window and Final Reporting Date before paying.
• Complete identity verification promptly – an order is released to the cardholder only after it passes.
• After purchase, save your receipt and order details, including the scheduled Removal Date and your order’s Dispute Period (ask support if it is not shown).
• Check your own credit reports as the window runs (brokers: check your clients’ lines) and tell TradelineScore what you see, especially if something looks wrong.

Frequently asked questions

The policies behind this article

This article explains the process in plain language. The formal terms that govern an order:

Escrow: Payments & Posting
Posting Guarantee Policy
Refund Policy
Risk Disclosure

For general guidance on buying through any online marketplace, the FTC’s advice is a useful external reference: Buying From an Online Marketplace. It is general consumer guidance, not an evaluation of TradelineScore.

Review your order terms before you pay

Payment holding separates your payment from the seller’s payout, and the policies linked above define the remedies when a claim qualifies.

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