How to Write a Business Letter Requesting a Credit Check
If you hold a position in which you must regularly check the credit of applicants to evaluate them for approval, you must form an ongoing relationship with a credit screening agency. These agencies act as a middle man between credit bureaus and enquiring parties, such as you. Some credit screening companies may require you to write a formal letter of request in order to run a credit check.
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Instructions
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Use a standard business letter template from a word processing program such as Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect or OpenOffice Writer to create a quick fill-in-the-blank business letter. The order of a business letter is date, your address, screening company's address, greeting, body and signature. Because it is likely that you'll have to recreate the letter many times for each applicant, a template will allow you to simply enter in a few specific identifying details and then submit the letter in a matter of minutes.
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Identify your business in requesting the credit check first. Include your business name, type, location and reason for retrieving credit information for the individual. Fair Credit Reporting Act rules require that the requesting party has a legitimate or permissible purpose for seeking this private information about a consumer. Permissible purposes include evaluation for credit or another business-related transaction.
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Enter the name of the individual, Social Security number, address, phone number and any other information requested by the screening service to retrieve a credit check.
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Identify the exact type of credit information you need about the applicant. You can request a credit report history, the applicant's credit score or both.
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Explain that you have written authorization from the individual. Attach a copy of the signed authorization you received from the individual who permits you to run a credit check in his name.
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Provide your own email address, mailing address, phone number and fax number so that the screening service can forward you the information or contact you for additional verification regarding your request.
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Print and sign the letter before forwarding it to the screening company. Save this credit check business letter as a template. Insert information for each new applicant.
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