TransUnion SmartMove

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Dear BP nation,

It has been the common practice of "landlords" to feel entitled to a prospective tenant's Social Security number (SS#). In light of data breaches and identity theft, efforts to screen a tennant must be tempered with a person's right to privacy. It should come to no surprise that a SS# is the equivalent of a skeleton key to a person's finances. Should that SS# fall into the wrong hands, a theif along with a person's name and date of birth can steal a person's identity and cause all sorts of harm.

Proactive tenants can in liue of providing a SS# use an offering such as TransUnion SmartMove, or 3-Bureau Credit Report and FICO to satisfy the Lessor that the Tennant is a viable risk.

The whole idea is to maintain a Lessee's privacy by keeping the SS# and or bank account information private.

TransUnion SmartMove - https://www.mysmartmove.com

3-Bureau Credit Report and FICO - http://www.experian.com/consumer-products/experian...

Does any Lessor, with a single story unit in a queit area in Southern California, use either of these services in liue of asking for a SS#?

If so please provide your contact information I may have the right tenant for you.

[Kev Russel]

one thing I can tell you... SmartMove is worthless if you have to evict someone. TransUnion SmartMove will not store the application on their site but for a very limited time. Make sure to put forward a full written or online application for your own records... I currently cannot proceed in a lawsuit against a tenant because SmartMove does not have their social security number or birthday... So, I will have big problems if the judge likely requires it to evict, as the eviction forms require. I can't even get an armed service members' confirmation; also crucial to evict.

[Tookie Nemchak]

I’ve just learned this the hard way. Smartmove has become a hinderance when trying to evict. No records on file and no SS# for collection and credit reporting

[Niki C.]

I never thought about it and i used cozy to pull tenant credit report but i do have their ID, maybe next time i need to have a copy of their ssn too.

[Sabrina H.]

Head's up to anyone looking to use SmartMove. I'm having an issue with a tenant at move-out and in digging further on my own, I found that she had an eviction 6yrs ago under a different last name. I would have thought SmartMove as an arm of TransUnion would have caught this, but was just informed by their customer service that they only do a check based on name and where previously lived, NOT by social security number. If I had known that, I would have just done a deeper dig online myself! Won't waste my time running any checks with them again!!