How Payroll Connectivity Improves Tenant Background Checks

Argyle’s direct-source data provides instant, accurate, and reliable tenant information while reducing costs and virtually eliminating manual reviews.

Tenant background checks have become ubiquitous in the rental property industry as a way for landlords and property managers to reduce risk. Much like credit reports, these screenings leverage data from a variety of sources—credit bureaus, lenders, debt collectors, landlords, utilities, housing courts, criminal records, etc.—any public record or credit reporting agency that can help build a consumer risk composite. While these resources are intended to form a quicker, better understanding of an individual's past, they are also riddled with errors that are often unreported to the renter themselves. In particularly egregious cases, an applicant may be dismayed to learn they’re deceased, at least according to their background screening.

Reports are error-prone

Last week the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued two reports detailing the inaccuracies and identified over 26,000 complaints that the CFPB alone has received regarding inaccurate and misleading information in consumers' records.

Most property owners and landlords use these reports to gain insight and a comprehensive understanding of who will be occupying their units. But many agencies that provide tenant background information prefer speed over accuracy. There is little incentive to ensure data is properly attributed, and most consumers never see these reports, meaning the information goes uncorrected.

Inaccurate information has real consequences, which can result in consumers being denied housing, as well as property owners wasting their time, money on purchasing reports, and income while properties go unrented.

How to get reliable tenant income and employment information

The solution is Argyle. With Argyle, you get verified income and employment data instantly. Argyle’s coverage of U.S. consumers is higher than the three largest credit bureaus, and our platform returns data on consumers at a rate that’s 4 to 5x better than all other providers. Unlike paper documents and credit reports, we return direct-source data in real-time, for utmost accuracy when you need it most.

Argyle can help you streamline your operations and drive staffing efficiencies while reducing your verification costs by up to 80%.

With Argyle, you get:

Coverage on 85% of U.S. consumers (100% with OCR document upload when needed)
80% lower verifications costs. Dramatically decreased costs compared to credit bureaus or manual workflows.
Reduced risk. Argyle eliminates reliance on paystubs and other paper documents which are easy to forge.
Direct-source data. Argyle offers real-time connectivity, ensuring that you are always working from true and accurate income and employment data.

Consumers also win by directly providing their payroll connectivity. The data is owned and permissioned by the consumer, meaning it belongs to them, and they have the ability to share to their accurate, verified information.