It wouldn't save any time, but it would save you $9. The first impression of your new tenant would be... what a cheapskate.

But... you would save $9.

Aren't the free reports basically just a score?

Credit Krama is free and gives the FICO Score and the Credit History, etc.

I ask the Prospective Tenants to get their own. The pages come numbered so I can tell if any are missing.

Rose,

If they are from my County or CA and most other states I can check on the Internet. I usually start with the Counties name "case records"- criminal - free, etc and can get it searching for these words. I can find evictions, DWI, ticket for talking on the cell phone- now I am in my counties case records showing my Tenant sued me last month! But I won, and paid nothing to her. I hate it showing there was a Court Hearing with my name.

Stop! Many want-a-be tenants find a service on line that for under $100, they will print up a phony credit report. The want-a-be applicant will bring you a copy of their "so called free annual credit report", with built in lies making their Fico score look like 720, while in fact it's really 550.

Since many of my tenants in my apartment complexes have wireless modems, I obtain their "key code" and have access with my laptop. Two months ago someone handed me their credit report they just ran because they didn't want a bunch of landlords running their report and then loosing Fico Points. Each time a landlord run a applicants credit report it can dig their Fico score by 10 points or so. I ran their report in secret while they were looking at my wonderful unit. The report came back with evictions, judgments, a bankruptcy, charge-offs and a Fico score under 400. Their free report said they had no bad items and a Fico score of 769.

I only except Credit Karma, that is dated within the last few days.

Wisconsin landlords are required to accept the free consumer credit reports from applicants applying for rentals. The report can be up to one month old.

I do like the convenience of having both credit and criminal on one report. I basically break even on the reports with the applications fee. I don't think I could survive in this business without good credit and criminal reports.

After I get a report on a prospect, I do also check the internet and other social media sites to see if there is any other information available.

Yeah, I'd never accept a free report that they printed out for me (except as a preliminary step). But how can they fake it if I run the report on my computer on my network?

Anyway, I haven't run a criminal report on anyone yet. I'm still sorting through all the places that will do that for me. Probably should just go thru MrLandlord... ;-)

I understand the convenience of getting credit history and criminal all in one report.

But I have not found Credit Karma being that out of date.

Twice lately I did some major financial things

SRose: So, are they just PRINTING their CreditKarma report and giving it to you? And you're just checking the page numbers to make sure it is all there?? How do you know they aren't just editing a file to LOOK like their CreditKarma report and handing you something they made up? It would be TRIVIAL to take their CreditKarma report, edit it, and THEN print it to hand to you.

I think people trying to save <$20 per applicant by allowing them to generate their own reports are crazy! It would be so simply for them to hand you a faked report.

Also, to note it, you are incorrect that CreditKarma gives a FICO score. It gives a score that THEY GENERATE THEMSELVES that is ROUGHLY BASED on TransUnion's formula. CreditKarma calls it a "TransUnion New Account Score". It is absolutely NOT the same as a FICO score. In my experience, the CreditKarma score scan vary quite a bit from an actual FICO score. That being said, I use the data from my reports, not the score itself, to make my decisions, so this isn't a huge deal to me -- but I just wanted to point it out since you seemed to be under the incorrect assumption that the number you saw was a FICO score. It isn't.

- John...

As a side benefit: Credit Karma is a great way to introduce tenants to a tool that can help teach them how to work on their finances.

The score aligns closely enough to FICO for me but we discovered that it does NOT list some major negatives - like a foreclosure! Not that I would ding a prospective tenant for a foreclosure, but we found that very odd. It shows the account as closed - but not how it was closed. And it said 'no negative remarks on file'. Is a foreclosure not a negative anymore at all?

Suzanne: A BIG part of your credit score is based on utilization percentage. So, if you don't have many cards, then putting $3,000 on a card with a $10,000 limit with a previous balance of $1,500 would mean that you suddenly went from a 15% utilization (which is considered "excellent") to a 45% utilization (which is considered "poor").

So, that wouldn't be a CreditKarma problem -- because ALL three of the credit bureaus would likely ding you in the very same way with such a purchase.

You want to keep total utilization between 1% and 20%.

- John...

I was told that increasing your credit limit was a good idea in order to lower your utilization. I did so, but didn't notice an improvement in my ratings.

SRose and Dave T, did you happen to see a similar discussion in another thread about using the credit report that a resident provides from companies like CreditKarma (even if you or they pull it or access it from your own computer). There was a important side note that John... shared in that discussion that should concern you. I've copied the note here:

"On a VERY IMPORTANT side note -- let's say that you need to DENY them because of something on their CreditKarma account. Are you able to easily generate the LEGALLY REQUIRED letter informing them that you've denied them based on something on their credit report along with the name and address of the agency that they can write to in order to get a free and complete copy of their credit report with instructions on how to request changes if anything is wrong?

THAT is something that you get from using a professional service to pull your own reports. That is something that you do NOT get if you have them print their own reports and/or log in as them to view it.

If you aren't providing those sorts of letters, then you are violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and could really get yourself into trouble. All because you wanted to save a few bucks and/or didn't want to bother with a fairly simple one-time inspection.

Again, this is a business. Treat it like one.

- John...

Thanks, Jeffrey! I meant to copy that over here too and forgot to do it earlier! I think it is a very important point that people forget about when going the "I just look at their free reports" route. Looking at their free reports does NOT remove you from having to follow the FCRA when it comes to denying based on something on their credit report from my interpretation of the law.

- John...

Jeffrey and John,

It's good to get registered and such before you need it. You pay the small fee and get the inspection done -- and then you can just let it sit and it won't cost you anything. Then, when you rarely need it, you're all set.

- John...