Permissible purpose: What you should know

Due to the sensitive nature of credit reports, you must have permissible purpose to order and receive credit reports. Permissible purpose is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act, and the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax & TransUnion.

An Advantage Credit customer is allowed to order & receive credit reports to evaluate a consumer's creditworthiness for mortgage loans and certain other types of credit. Advantage does not serve detective agencies, investigative companies, bail bond companies, financial counseling firms, law firms, credit repair clinics, dating services, or any person who will not be the end user of the credit report. In other words, customers of credit reports must be end-customers and not resell or otherwise distribute the reports further.

In order to request a credit report on a borrower, the Advantage Credit customer must adhere to the following:

• Verify the identity of the consumer of each report
• Obtain written authorization from the consumer prior to accessing the credit file (see sample authorization form)
• Permit Advantage Credit to audit your procedures related to our Membership Agreement
• Understand that the three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax & TransUnion) may periodically audit you directly or via Advantage Credit regarding your compliance with the FCRA
• Maintain all credit information in strict confidence and disclose only to those whose duties reasonably relate to the legitimate business purpose for which the information is requested, except as otherwise required by law
• Certify that you will order credit reports for no other purpose except in connection with a mortgage loan or other approved application.
• Never order credit reports on yourself, your employees or any other person unless in specific connection with a mortgage loan.

Note regarding credit report accuracy: Credit reports are based on information obtained in good faith by Advantage Credit from one or more consumer credit reporting agencies. Advantage Credit is unable to guarantee the accuracy of any credit report's information. The three credit bureaus themselves obtain data from hundreds of thousands of creditors who report to them, and that data can be subject to errors by the credit grantors.

However, Advantage Credit does offer fast correction services for legitimate errors with approved documentation at the national bureau level, prompting a credit score recalculation in just 3-10 days. Visit our Accurate Credit™ product link for more information.

For more information on permissible purpose, contact us online or call our Legal Compliance department at 800-600-2510, option 9. You can also review the Membership Application for more details.