I am also in the low income market, and still check credit. Our applicants rarely have a score at all – we almost always see “file not scored because subject does not have sufficient credit”. We expect applicants to have poor or no credit. We run the credit report to verify addresses and to see what types of debts they have. Addresses sometimes come back with odd date ranges or in odd sequential order; the dates are only captured when the applicant applies for credit. We look for evidence of an address not disclosed due to not wanting us to talk to that landlord. We also review the list, age, and amounts of unpaid debt. Medical, auto, and rent to own debit are less problematic than utility companies or what could potentially be a landlord. Agree that any credit screening option that requires the applicants to provide permission (and sometimes even pay the fee) via e-mail doesn’t work with low income populations. . They either don’t have e-mail or have too many technical difficulties to process the request. We use aaacredit.net. They require a one page questionnaire signed by the applicant, which we’ve incorporated into our application process. For about $30 each, they return credit reports within hours.
