Landlords and Property Managers require your Credit Report as a way of determining your worthiness as a renter. Yet, they do not report your payments to the Credit Bureaus. Credit reports therefore do not reflect whether or not a renter pays their rent, only how they deal with other debts. Yet, renters are shelling out an average of $20 every time they apply for a new home, for a report that's not at all pertinent. We need legislation forbidding Landlords and Property Managers from even asking for this information or being able to access it.
Insurance companies require your credit report and basically use it to determine the rate they will charge. The only thing insurance companies should be looking at is your driving record, and that should be the only thing determining your rate. We need legislation forbidding insurance companies from being able to access our credit reports.
Employers sometimes pull your Credit Report as a way of determining how responsible you are. Again, your credit history is irrelevant to how good an employee you are. You could be a stellar employee, and still have a bad credit report. You should not be denied employment based on your credit.
Lastly, anyone with $20 can pull your credit report these days, for any reason. This has led to an epidemic of ID theft. In some areas, it was found that people working for Property Management agencies were the actual culprits. In other cases, Human Resources workers were found guilty. How did they get access to the information they needed? Three guesses!
There needs to be a law specifically forbidding Landlords, Property Managers, Employers and Insurance companies from accessing credit reports.
