Every time someone applies for an apartment, most landlords or their respective property managers will run the applicant’s credit report. When someone is looking at several different apartment locations that can equate to several hard credit inquiries which can lower the overall credit score. In Los Angeles, there is a movement to consider what is being termed as a “reusable” credit report. Essentially, the applicant can be subject to just one hard credit inquiry for say 30 days and then property managers and landlords will not be able to pull it again during that period.
There are some obvious good and yet cautionary points about a reusable credit report. Such a reporting system may help preserve the credit score of an applicant and save on application fees required to cover the cost of such a pull. It is yet unclear how the system would protect against fraud or if it will be a subscription that landlords will still have to pay for access. The program seems to be in the proposal stage right now, but what do you think? And while you are thinking about that, why not ask if this would be acceptable in a more wide scale application for cars, houses, personal loans, etc. Your thoughts?