Know your credit rating

One of the main gauges a Property Manager will use is your credit rating. Credit ratings are numerically scored up to 1000. They can vary slightly from company to company, but basically anything above 500 is a good start. The best rating I have seen is 840.

Many people have told me they have been turned down for houses they have applied for and do not know why – I then go on to look at their their credit rating and see they have a low score. When we get this report we can see a history of outstanding accounts, credit applications, debt collection etc.

There are other factors such as age and the number of times you have been credit checked which can affect your score.

I recently had a young couple with a low credit rating – but no infringements, late accounts or the likes. When I looked into it further he had applied to around 6 different companies for debt consolidation on their vehicles, trying to get a better interest rate – but did not realise that each application made his score lower.

If you are applying for rentals, know your credit score. If it is on the lower end know why, so you can discuss this with the person you applying for a house with.

There are free aps available and many tenants have told me they use one called Credit Simple – the good thing with this is that you can see what affects your score – I have had quite a few people not realise they have had an outstanding debt lowering their score, once they start paying it off they can see the score increase.

If your score is good put that forward also – a Property Manager likes to know that you are a person who understands their finances.



Credit Score is only one part of the picture when applying for a rental – but it is a major part – so understanding it can only be a good thing.