Credit Rating and Renting an Apt.

[TPage]

What is the name of your state?I live in California and I need to move to another apartment. I'm a little worried about the credit check process. I don't think I have terrible credit, but I was really overdue on a credit card payment about 2 years ago. I know that's not all they look at, but I'm sure there are other things going against me. My question is: How good does your credit need to be to be approved? Can it just be average or passing? Does anyone how useful that MyFico website is? They offer a product that provides you with all three major credit bureau's credit scores for abotu $45. Worth it? Any advice would be appreciated. I'm a novice at all this.

 

[cmorris]

MyFico will give you your scores. However, if you want to dispute items, you need reports from the actual bureuas (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).

While not familiar with the apartments in Cali, every apartment I or my family have spoken with will only be concerned about unpaid accounts or currently late payments. My brother in law has terrible credit with unpaid chargeoffs but he and my sister are getting an apartment in Myrtle Beach (a nice one). They just had to pay a higher deposit. One I spoke with said they overlooked medical and student loans.

I imagine there is no hard and fast rule. It will be up to the apartment complex.

 

[Who's Liable?]

MyFICO gives you a credit score for ALL three credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax...

Some people buy all three, and some only get one or two... The cost of $45.00 is about the same across the board. Most people agree that getting all three from My FICO is better than buying each one idividually from the 3 Credit Bureaus...

You can dispute items in your credit report on MyFICO by clicking on the "dispute" button the Credit Bureaus provide on the site... Please note that MyFICO does not dispute the items, but sends you to the Credit Bureaus web site...

In your case, if you are only wanting to get an apartment, you really only need one... I would go for Equifax, as I tend to see that they report the most activity... This can be either good or bad depending on your history...

While having a good credit score will certainly help you, you really need to make sure that you were never evicted from past rental units, and all your previous LLs' can give you a good review...