How to Do a Credit Check on Someone

Video Transcript

"This is financial adviser Patrick Munro on how to do a credit check on someone. If you are a person that's in business, typically, a landlord or someone that would need to make a decision to grant credit to another party, it is possible for you to pay a fee to become a member, merchant member of the various credit reporting agencies. There are three. The first one is Experian, the next one is TransUnion, and then the final one is Equifax. And these three agencies exist for your benefit as a credit granter. There are various questions that you can ask this individual such as length of time on the job. Do they have a criminal record? Various items that are fair to ask under the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act. And, once this information in the application by the person seeking credit are filled out, you can call these various bureaus and tell them what is on the application. And, based on that person's social security number, they'll come back to you with a credit score and if it is high enough, you then can grant the credit. If it is low, and you'll know the range that you're comfortable with, then you may deny the credit. This is Patrick Munro on how to do a credit check on someone."