Credit check worries

[Jim McConnell]

I have a potential tenant who turned in an application for my SFR. On the surface they appear to meet my requirements.....except for the credit...they have none, the response came back as N/A! Apparently they pay for everything with cash. Although I'm leery of that fact I just don't want to discard them automatically, any thoughts? Is this a huge red flag? I have never had this come up before as it's always been either good or bad. Thanks in advance

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Jim McConnell:

I have a potential tenant who turned in an application for my SFR. On the surface they appear to meet my requirements.....except for the credit...they have none, the response came back as N/A! Apparently they pay for everything with cash. Although I'm leery of that fact I just don't want to discard them automatically, any thoughts? Is this a huge red flag? I have never had this come up before as it's always been either good or bad.

Thanks in advance

 If they were identify thieves, as others have suggested, you'd see a bunch of warnings on the credit report that the SSN and/or surname and/or DOB do not line up with the SSN (a social security number tells you the decade when they were born, so if you use a dead person's SSN...). I'm assuming you'd have mentioned that if you did see that.

"Alternative credit" would be things like extra thorough landlord references, asking to show that they've paid their cell phones on time for 12 months, etc. These things can show someone is responsible, but since you aren't borrowing money, technically it is not "credit" and does not appear on a credit report.

It's actually quite disappointing how our society, and my industry as well, frowns on folks that are averse to consumer debt. I'm seeing an increasing number of millennials with thin credit, and having to tell them to do stupid things like open credit cards they don't need just so they can generate a FICO score.