English
EspañolCan I run a credit check on my spouse (or another person)?
Thank you for reaching out to us. Although I am not specifically familiar with laws regarding credit, and I cannot provide legal advice, I hope that I can provide some helpful general information and referrals.
I reached out to someone who works with issues of credit to ask for some information about this topic. She gave me some information about the fact that a person has to have what is called a “permissible purpose” to run another person’s credit report. Permissible purpose is a term from the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it defines the conditions under which a credit reporting agency may furnish a credit report. You can read about the permissible purposes for why a credit reporting agency can issue a credit report here, if you go to page 12 of this document which discusses the fair credit reporting act: http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/031224fcra.pdf
In general, even if someone tries to order another person’s credit report, there are generally questions that are asked to authenticate his/her identity. These questions come directly from the person’s credit report, so it could be something along the lines of “Your credit report shows a mortgage loan opened in 2004, who is the lender?” So, this may prevent someone from getting another person’s credit report.
However, since this is not information that comes from the WomensLaw.org, you may want to confirm it with an attorney who deals with credit issues - here is a link for lawyers in STATE: LINK
