Consumer reporting, explained without the legalese

Straight answers on how consumer reports are built, who is allowed to pull one, how background screening stays compliant, and what a reputation score measures that a credit score never could. Written by the team that runs the reviews.

• Consumer reporting

  What a consumer reporting agency is, and what one owes you

  A consumer reporting agency assembles information about people and businesses and furnishes it to third parties for decisions about credit, employment, housing, insurance, and other permissible purposes. Here is how that works, and what the law requires.

  7 minRead
• Consumer reports

  Consumer reports: what is inside one and how to read it

  A consumer report is the document behind a hiring decision, a lease approval, or a credit line. Knowing how one is assembled is the difference between accepting a result and correcting it.

  6 minRead
• Screening

  Background checks and background screening, done compliantly

  Background screening decides who gets hired, housed, and trusted with responsibility. Run it wrong and you carry the legal exposure. Here is what a defensible check looks like.

  8 minRead
• Identity

  Identity verification and why every record depends on it

  Every record in a consumer file is only as good as the identity it is attached to. Get the match wrong and you have published someone else's history under a stranger's name.

  6 minRead
• Public records

  Public records: what they are, where they live, and their limits

  Public records are the raw material of consumer reporting. They are also messy, inconsistent between jurisdictions, and frequently out of date. Both things are true at once.

  7 minRead
• Scoring

  Reputation score vs credit score: two different questions

  A credit score answers one narrow question: how you have handled borrowed money. A reputation score asks a broader one: what does the verified record actually say about how you conduct yourself.

  7 minRead