Is it normal to pay for a credit check to apply for a rental? I'm not sure this is legit, but it seems to be.

Submitted by foxxytroxxy t3_zyeppb in personalfinance

I've been trying for about two days with poor wifi to apply for an apartment. The guy said I have to have a credit check done, so I did that, and I had to use my credit card. I looked up the credit score site and it appeared to be legit; however, the guy said an application is supposed to pop up after you do the credit check, and that didn't happen. So he sent me another link (in an email), for a different but similar credit score checking site. Checked it out, everywhere said it was legit, so I got the free trial, etc.

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Thing is, I've done this a handful of times now and I'm concerned about the number of credit score sites I'll have to cancel my subscription to. I don't really want to do this anymore without at least some verification that this is a somewhat normal thing to do. Is it?

Is it normal for a credit check website to also be used to apply for an apartment? Dude says to complete the credit check, then after a minute or so a popup should show prompting me to the application. Does that sound normal to you guys?

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Thanks

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Comments

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theoriginalharbinger t1_j25esv7 wrote

Nope. In some states you have to pay an application fee, but the prospective ll is the one that should be running the credit check, not the tenant.

Might help if you named the site and the state you're in.

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foxxytroxxy OP t1_j25igfu wrote

It's Hawaii, but the credit sites are pretty generic, like "checkfreescore"

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[deleted] t1_j25k7y1 wrote

Have you even visited this place in person? That would take me from 99.999% sure it's a scam to about 98%, but I don't like this at all.

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foxxytroxxy OP t1_j25wewr wrote

I've looked into the websites and I can cancel all of the subscriptions, which I'm doing right now. They're all "free trial" sort of sites with the first payment being $1, then a $30 monthly subscription.

I thought it might be a scam as well, but that's something about Hawaii is a lot of people set up rentals kind of precariously. I had thought it was just a verification strategy so that dude didn't have to pay for it. I looked up the websites and everywhere says that they are legitimate, though.

Anyway I'm not trying this guy anymore, it does seem kind of sketchy

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[deleted] t1_j26gme1 wrote

This is 100% a scam and this dude probably just made a couple hundred dollars from all your free trial sign ups

"Cost per action marketing" isn't as popular as it used to be, and they've had to get more creative, but this is a good way to do it and the credit report people still pay wild money for each sign up. Even for free trials.

I figured this was a scam anyway - I didn't see this one coming. Next time, don't do ANYTHING until you see the place in person.

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foxxytroxxy OP t1_j27gwam wrote

But he made the money from the companies, or from me? The "free trial" thing made me think I just had to cancel the subscriptions. I'm alright with the lost time, just hoping I didn't lose my money. I think one of the things said it was a dollar at signup. Hopefully *I* didn't lose all that money?

And, thanks. Duly noted. Will not do in the future.

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