I need to show my credit score to rent. How do I get a print-out?

July 5, 2022 1:37 PM

I have my TransUnion report, but it does not show the score. Their site gives my score, but there is no name attached, it could belong to anybody. For renting, don't I need BOTH on 1 piece of paper and still need to keep privacy?
posted by ebesan to Work & Money (7 answers total)

In my experience, the landlord/rental agency has done the credit check based on information that I've provided. I've never had to provide the score myself. It seems that it would be too easy to fake it if you're just giving them something that's printed out. What exactly is are you being asked to provide? Can you ask them for clarification?
posted by number9dream at 1:57 PM on July 5, 2022 [12 favorites]

When I had to do this (renting in San Francisco -- it's common there, at least it was in 2014), it was a separate product to get a "credit report with score" -- I had to sign up for a paid Experian account to get the report with score included, which I saved as a PDF and cancelled the account immediately afterwards.
posted by j.edwards at 2:34 PM on July 5, 2022

I was in this situation once - I just submitted both documents together, and no one ever questioned it or had any problem with it. There's not actually very much downside to the landlord from this - if your score was wildly discordant with the report, they'd notice. And anyway, nothing would stop you from faking both if you were willing to fake one.
posted by kickingtheground at 2:39 PM on July 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

I've done this in SF and just printed out from the credit score site and I don't think the landlord looked to carefully at it, they saw the number they were looking for and rubber stamped me.
posted by radioamy at 2:54 PM on July 5, 2022 [3 favorites]

Seconding number9dream-- they usually credit check you with their own process.

Could you screenshot the account page with your score and name, and print that?
posted by blnkfrnk at 3:38 PM on July 5, 2022

Just send them the report and a screenshot of your credit score and ask if it's sufficient. If they wanted something airtight, they wouldn't have asked you to submit your own score in the first place.

Larger property management companies will subscribe to a background check service and look up your credit directly after you give them your SSN and consent. Smaller landlords can do this too but there's a process to verify that they are legally allowed to use the service, and more importantly it costs money every time you run a check. Smaller landlords also 1) are less likely to have a strict cutoff for scores and 2) have an easier time rejecting you for any other arbitrary reason if they decide they don't want to rent to you. My sense is that for mom-and-pops, the credit "check" is as often a gut check as much as it's looking for an actual number.

For my last apartment (landlady only owned the one building), the broker was like, just forward me a copy of your free credit report and we'll save everyone some money. It felt unnerving just handing all that information over (the Experian report included partial account numbers and a FICO score), but I don't think anything in there was an actual privacy concern. Also, we gave the broker a check for several thousand dollars literally twenty minutes after we met her for the first time on the sidewalk in front of Dunkin Donuts, so the credit report felt pretty small beans in comparison.
posted by yeahlikethat at 10:27 AM on July 6, 2022

Credit karma is free and shows multi agency scores.
posted by chasles at 5:09 AM on July 7, 2022