Credit reports contain information about a persons financial history and performance with credit grantors. A file is created when a person first borrows money or applies for credit. Companies that lend money or issue credit cards such as banks, finance companies, credit unions and retailers send information about their customers to credit reporting agencies.

Not all credit reports are the same. A basic credit file contains four types of information.

 

Personal information such as your name, aliases, verification of social insurance number, date of birth, address and employment information.
 

Credit information is information relating to any credit your prospective tenant might have such as; lines of credit, mortgages, loans with banks, retailers, credit card issuers and other lenders. This may include types of accounts, monthly payment amounts, manner of payments balances owing, amounts past due and NSF cheques.

Credit details are supplied by creditors with which your tenant has an account. Every piece of credit history information in a credit file is assigned a credit rating by the credit grantor. These evaluations are based on industry standards, the most common of which use a range from R 0 to R 9. R ratings is the standard credit rating system known as the "North American Standard Account Ratings"
 

Credit inquiries lists people who have inquired about your credit, such as lenders, credit reporting agencies, rental companies or any other authorized organization.

Credit inquiries show credit grantors when a person has applied for new credit which could result in additional debt. Lenders view multiple recent inquiries on a credit report as a sign that the person may be overextending themselves.

Public record information is any information on public record such as a collection (a debt that was not paid), bankruptcy, credit-related court judgment or secured loans which are backed by an asset.

Some credit files also contain Credit Scores:

A majority of lenders use credit scores as one method to estimate an applicant's credit risk.

Banks and other lending institutions frequently rely on credit scores to predict how much of a risk a person is based on credit their history.

Credit scores sometimes called Equifax, FICO or Beacon scores are an important factor in making a decision whether or not to offer credit. In general, higher scores are considered less of a credit risk. People with high credit scores are considered more likely to repay loans and credit cards more consistently than people with low scores. Equifax uses  a scale from 300 to 900.

Landlords also use credit scores is a risk predictor to help reduce the time and cost associated with tenant approvals and to predict the likelihood of delinquency.
 

CheckFirstOnline.com also provides you with Fraud Alerts at NO extra cost!

Safe Scan is an automated fraud screening tool that monitors irregularities and misuses 

of names, addresses, telephone numbers, social insurance numbers and more reducing the risk and cost of fraud.

Read more about why Landlords need to check credit.

Check your Tenants Credit Online