Do I need one credit bureau or all three? What is the difference?
There are three major credit bureaus. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The
vast majority of major credit reporters report good and bad credit to all
three. Some smaller companies may report to one only. Thus if they report to
say, Equifax, the information will not appear on the other two bureaus
reports. As a landlord you are typically not trying to research every possible
reported obligation of your potential tenants. You simply want to know if they
are or are not likely to pay their rent on time. We therefore only supply a
credit report from one credit bureau and price our service accordingly. (This
practice is followed by other companies providing credit reports to
landlords).
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I am turning someone down based on the credit report. What are my legal
obligations?
This is best explained here.
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Someone else's credit is being shown on my credit report.
Each Credit Bureaus search criteria is different, and each assigns importance
to search information differently. As you can see below, Social Security
numbers are not the most important factor. This means that someone ordering
(for example) a TransUnion report (not preferred by us) can easily get missed
up with someone at the same address and with the same last name. For this
reason it is important to always add Jr., Sr. II etc. if applicable to your
credit report order.
 | Equifax – Last Name, First Name, Address, SSN |
| TransUnion – Zip Code, Address, Last Name, First Name, SSN, AKA/Alias |
| Experian – Last Name, First Name, SSN, Address |