How do I Get a Credit Report for Renting a House?

Credit health is a crucial part of financial health. If you want to have access to low-cost loans and home financing, you need to stay on top of your credit score and payment history. Fortunately, in the United States--after the passage of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)--all citizens are entitled to free credit reports. You can use this credit report to determine your creditworthiness. This could help you when you look for places to rent.

Instructions

1

Collect all of your current account statements--including any bank account information. Annual Credit Report is the government-mandated site for free credit reports. However, to access these reports, you must answer some very specific questions about your accounts.

2

Log on to annualcreditreport.com. Choose the credit report you wish to view. There are three main credit bureaus--TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. You can get a free copy of each, if you wish, but you must obtain them one at a time.

3

Review and answer the security questions. There will likely be about ten questions. These questions will deal with current account balances, payments, names of lenders, last payments and total credit line. You must answer all of these questions accurately.

4

Review your answers. You could get locked out of your report if the system recognizes inaccurate answers. Submit the form. Your credit report will populate on the next screen. (You must pay for a FICO credit score. This is not free. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Scores over 700 are excellent; scores below 600 are poor.)

5

Review the credit report for inaccuracies or fraud. Contact the credit bureau if you find any erroneous information.

6

Look at the credit report and FICO score as a potential landlord would and use it as a tool for persuading the landlord that you are a good risk. A landlord is essentially looking for financial responsibility--which will likely indicate your ability and willingness to pay rent on time. Things that may give a landlord pause are: a trend of delinquencies on any account (especially secured accounts like car loans), public records (judgments, tax liens or medical liens) and any accounts in collections.

7

Make sure that you have documentation or sound reasoning to support any negative marks on your credit report. A landlord may be willing to rent to you--even with credit problems--if you can reasonably explain the negative marks on your report. This reasoning will be legitimized with paperwork--unemployment checks, disability statements or letters from doctors.