Can you run a credit check on someone without their permission

Q: Can anyone run a credit report on someone else?

The only way you can legally pull someone elses credit report is if you have whats referred to as Permissible Purpose. Permissible Purpose is a term straight from the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it defines the conditions under which a credit reporting agency may furnish a credit report.

Q: Can your credit be pulled without your permission?

Now, the good news is that lenders cant just access your credit report without your consent. The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that only businesses with a legitimate reason to check your credit report can do so, and generally, you have to consent in writing to having your credit report pulled.

Table of Contents Show

The FCRA limits who can pull your credit report. Here are some common scenarios when someone improperly requests your report.
When Pulling a Credit Report Is Allowed and Not Allowed
What Are Permissible Purposes for Pulling a Credit Report?
What Are Impermissible Purposes for Pulling a Credit Report?
Remedies for FCRA Violations
Talk to a Lawyer
Permissible purposes for credit report inquiry
Pulling your credit report without permission
Monitor your credit report
Can you do a credit check on someone without them knowing?
Can anyone run a credit report on someone else?
How can I tell if someone ran a credit check on me?
Can your credit be pulled without your permission?

The FCRA limits who can pull your credit report. Here are some common scenarios when someone improperly requests your report.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and some state credit reporting laws set forth the basic rules that protect your credit information. These laws allow only certain entities to gain access to your credit report in specific situations. They also restrict how your credit information can be used.

You might think that your credit reports are relatively private, so you could be surprised to learn that more than just your bank or creditors can get access to them. The FCRA and some state laws allow a fairly large class of people and businesses to pull your credit reports if you have a current or potential relationship with them. These include the following:

landlords
utility companies
employers, and
insurance companies.

Sometimes, though, individuals and businesses pull your report when they have no legal basis to do so, which is called having an "impermissible purpose."

When Pulling a Credit Report Is Allowed and Not Allowed

Just because the FCRA allows creditors, employers, landlords, and others to pull your credit reports doesn't give them, or anyone else, an open license to do so. In all instances, that entity must have what's called a "permissible purpose." If it doesn't, then that entity must have your permission before pulling a report.

What Are Permissible Purposes for Pulling a Credit Report?

The FCRA lists permissible purposes for pulling a credit report, which includes the following:

when you apply for credit, or when a creditor is reviewing or taking collection action on your existing account
when a potential creditor or insurer intends to extend you offers of credit or insurance (limited use)
when you apply for insurance
employment-related purposes (hiring and firing), only when you give that employer permission to do so
when a court or federal grand jury orders it
when you apply for certain government benefits or licenses that require a review of your financial background, and
when you initiate a business transaction, and there is a "legitimate business need" for your credit report that relates to that deal. (15 U.S.C. § 1681b).

What Are Impermissible Purposes for Pulling a Credit Report?

If the person requesting your credit report doesn't have one of the "permissible purposes," then your credit report is off-limits. Period. If your neighbor, ex-girlfriend, co-worker, relative, or a complete stranger pulls your credit report, you can be pretty sure that they probably violated the FCRA. Where it gets tricky, though, is when a potential creditor, employer, landlord, or another person that you have some colorable relationship with overreaches and grabs your report without having a permissible purpose.

Here are some common scenarios when an individual or other entity pulls your report without an impermissible purpose:

An employer pulls your credit report without asking your permission.
Someone looking to sue you for a non-credit account or for an involuntary debt—such as car towing and impound fees or breach of a real estate purchase agreement—your credit report to find out if you have assets it can collect against.
Your creditor pulls your credit report after you discharged that debt in bankruptcy.
A tax collector, unless you have a payment agreement already in place or the information was subpoenaed. It is unclear if a tax collector can pull your credit report once it has obtained a tax lien, however.
Someone requests your report to use it as evidence against you in a divorce, criminal, personal injury, or other non-credit lawsuit or proceeding.
A landlord attempting to collect past-due rent unless the landlord has obtained a judgment against you.
A credit card company pulls your report, but you were only an authorized user—not an obligor—that account.

Remedies for FCRA Violations

If you believe that somebody wrongfully pulled your credit report, you might be able to sue them in state or federal court for damages. Your state's laws may also offer additional relief and remedies.

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Summary

The Fair Credit Reporting Act lays out what the “permissionable purposes” are for someone to look up your credit report.

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Your credit report is a sensitive document. It serves as a barometer for the state of your finances and how well you handle them, and it includes input such as how much credit is available to you as well as information on your home mortgage and other debts.

Considering the sort of input the report contains, not everyone should be able to tap into this information, which they could use to their advantage when dealing with you.

That’s why the Fair Credit Reporting Act has laid out certain “permissible purposes” that detail the circumstances under which someone can gain access to your credit report.

See related: Which credit bureaus do card issuers use to check your credit?

Permissible purposes for credit report inquiry

The FCRA clearly states the situations under which a credit bureau should release your credit report to someone. These include:

If you give written permission
Under a court order
When a lender is considering you for a loan or reviewing or collecting on your account
For employment purposes (the agency should also provide a summary of a consumer’s rights with the report, and usually, the prospective employer will have notified you and gotten your written authorization to pull the report)
For insurance underwriting purposes or for a current insurer
To weigh on your eligibility for a government license that legally requires a determination of how financially responsible you are
To lenders or servicers looking to invest in a loan you’ve taken out or gauging whether you will pay off a loan (such as a mortgage) before it is due
When a business wants to review your account to decide if you continue to meet its terms or when there is a legitimate business reason relating to a transaction you’ve undertaken
When an “executive department” or agency looks into your credit report relating to the issuance of government-sponsored travel charge cards that are billed to individuals
When a state or local child support agency – or government official authorized by the agency – asks for it to make a decision regarding someone’s ability to make child support payments

See related: Free credit reports – How to get the actual free one

Pulling your credit report without permission

In some cases, a “soft pull” of your credit does not require your express permission. For instance, a lender looking to extend credit to you might make an inquiry to preapprove you – or you might have received offers for preapproved credit cards even though you didn’t apply for them. These soft inquiries do not have an impact on your credit score.

Not all inquiries are so innocuous, however, and people might make attempts to get hold of your credit report by hook or by crook.

The Raleigh, North Carolina-based law office of Maginnis Howard explains in an online posting that if you are going through a divorce, for instance, it would be to your spouse’s advantage to learn more about your real financial situation. They could use a private investigator with contacts at businesses that don’t have adequate controls to ensure that a credit pull request is being legitimately initiated for a consumer.

Debt collectors pursuing a debt discharged in bankruptcy are also not entitled to pull up your credit report. And insurance companies cannot access your credit report to determine your financial position when examining a claim so that they can negotiate it to their benefit. In addition, car dealerships are notorious for skirting the law to look into your credit.

See related: Hard inquiries vs. soft inquiries: What they are, how they affect your credit

Monitor your credit report

So, how do you know that someone has done an unauthorized check of your credit report?

When you look at your credit report, it will name those who initiated credit pulls – if you don’t recognize a name, look into it to find out if it was an authorized check. If it wasn’t, contact an attorney who will work with you to enforce your FCRA rights.

You could even be facing an identity theft issue if someone is looking to take out credit in your name. That’s why it is essential you stay on top of your credit reports and immediately report any errors.

See related: Credit report sample – How to read, understand a credit report

Editorial Disclaimer

The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective assessment of our writers and is not driven by advertising dollars. It has not been provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners.

Poonkulali Thangavelu is a senior staff reporter at CreditCards.com. She focuses on legislation and regulation, discerning how public and private policies impact card users. She has extensive journalism experience covering personal finance and business topics and likes to simplify such subjects to enable readers to make good decisions. Poonkulali is also the author of CreditCards.com's bi-weekly "Fine Print" column. Her career includes a stint doing consumer market research for global advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather.

Can you do a credit check on someone without them knowing?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has a strict limit on who can check your credit and under what circumstance. The law regulates credit reporting and ensures that only business entities with a specific, legitimate purpose, and not members of the general public, can check your credit without written permission.

Can anyone run a credit report on someone else?

The only way you can legally pull someone else's credit report is if you have what's referred to as Permissible Purpose. Permissible Purpose is a term straight from the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it defines the conditions under which a credit reporting agency may furnish a credit report.

How can I tell if someone ran a credit check on me?

All you have to do to verify a company checked your credit report is get a copy. Every time someone, including you, checks your credit history an inquiry is added instantly. Your personal credit report lists all of the inquiries, including some not seen by anyone else.

Can your credit be pulled without your permission?

Now, the good news is that lenders can't just access your credit report without your consent. The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that only businesses with a legitimate reason to check your credit report can do so, and generally, you have to consent in writing to having your credit report pulled.