How can you pass a rental credit check?

To have a good chance of passing a rental credit check, you need a score of 600 or higher and few, if any, negative remarks on your credit report, such as late payments, outstanding debts, or evictions. If you do have negative information on your report, provide a letter explaining how your finances have recovered.

Landlords check your credit to determine what type of renter you’ll be. A credit score below 600 and lots of late payments on your credit report can signal to landlords that you’re not responsible with your financial obligations and you may not pay the rent on time. However, there are steps you can take to help you pass the rental credit check and improve your odds of being approved for an apartment.

6 Tips for Passing a Rental Credit Check

1. Review Your Credit Report

Reviewing your credit report before a potential landlord does allows you to catch and fix any errors that may prevent you from getting approved for an apartment. You can view your TransUnion credit report with a free WalletHub account and get your Experian and Equifax credit reports directly from those credit bureaus or from AnnualCreditReport.com.

Once you have your credit reports, check for things like:

• On-time payments erroneously marked as late
• Evictions, collection accounts, or bankruptcy filings that are not yours
• Collection accounts that are marked as unpaid but were paid
• Collection accounts or late payments that are over seven years old

If you find any of these items, dispute them with the credit bureaus right away. If a landlord has to perform a credit check before you can get the information corrected, tell them there is an error on your credit report that you are in the process of getting fixed and offer to provide proof that the information is inaccurate.

2. Explain Negative Information on Your Credit Report

If you have negative information on your credit report that is accurate and not more than seven years old, there is no way to remove it. The best thing you can do is be honest with potential landlords and describe what led to the negative remarks on your report. Explain how your situation has changed since then and why those past mistakes will not happen again.

3. Pay Your Bills on Time & Get Credit for It

Your payment history has the biggest impact on your credit score. When you pay your bills on time, positive information gets added to your credit report, boosting your credit score and showing landlords that you are responsible with financial obligations.

Some bills that you pay, such as your electric, water, and phone bills, are not automatically reported to the credit bureaus. However, you can use WalletHub’s credit builder tool to report on-time rent, electric, water, phone, and gas payments to improve your credit history and increase your odds of passing a credit check.

4. Pay Down Debt

Having a lot of outstanding debt on your credit report can be a red flag for landlords. It may indicate to them that you have to reserve a significant portion of your income for debt payments, reducing how much money you can use for rent. If you pay down some of your debt, you will free up more of your income for rent payments and increase your odds of being approved for an apartment.

5. Provide References

References can provide positive information about you that is not listed on a credit report. You should use someone who can speak about your finances and how you are as a renter, such as a current or previous landlord. They can talk about how conscientious you are about paying the rent on time, how you kept your apartment clean, and your good relationship with neighbors. The positive feedback from previous landlords can help potential landlords look past your prior credit mistakes.

6. Get a Co-Signer or Guarantor

If you think your credit is not good enough to get approved for an apartment, consider getting a co-signer or guarantor with a good credit score. They will have to meet the landlord’s income requirements and will be responsible for making the rent payments if you can’t. This helps assure the landlord that the rent will be paid and increases your odds of being approved for an apartment.

What to Do If You Fail the Rental Credit Check

If you fail a rental credit check for an apartment, there are things you can do to make your credit less of a factor. These include placing a large security deposit and paying for a couple of months of rent in advance. It’s also a good idea to make sure your income is at least three times the amount of rent (the threshold landlords typically look for).

Finally, remember that your credit is not the only thing landlords check. They also tend to look at your rental history. To learn more, check out WalletHub’s guide on how to check your rental history report.