What credit score do you need to rent an apartment?

The cutoff belongs to the landlord

Mortgages have HUD and Fannie Mae writing minimum scores into rule books. Renting has nothing like that. Each landlord, or the screening company working for it, decides what it will accept, and nothing obliges it to publish the number. So "what score do I need to rent" has as many answers as there are buildings.

What can be said is how the decision is usually made. The CFPB studied the tenant screening business in 2022 and estimated that a majority of landlords use screening reports when they consider applicants. Those reports go well beyond a credit score. They can include your credit history and score, past rental payments, civil and criminal court records, and a proprietary risk score or a simple pass or fail flag. Some of those recommendations are tuned to the landlord's own criteria. In practice, the "score" that turns you down may not be your credit score at all, but a tenant score you have never seen.

That is why the most useful question to ask before paying an application fee is not about your number. Ask which screening company the landlord uses and what its criteria are. The CFPB found application fees typically run $40 to $59, and paying several of them on guesswork adds up fast.

What a screening report actually weighs

A credit score is built from loans and cards. A landlord wants to know whether you will pay rent, and that is the one thing credit files rarely show. Industry estimates cited by the CFPB put the share of renters with rent payments in their credit files at only 1.7% to 2.3%. The CFPB's report calls credit history "an inherently limited predictor" of whether someone will pay rent, and says there is no independent or publicly available evidence that screening reports reliably predict rental behavior at all.

None of that stops landlords from using them, so it is worth knowing where reports go wrong. The weak spot is court records. One study of 3.6 million eviction records, cited in the CFPB report, found 22% of state eviction cases were ambiguous or false records. A case that was dismissed, or one that belongs to someone with a similar name, can sink an application faster than a mediocre score.

The credit part works like any lender's check: late payments, collections and high card balances are what pull the picture down. If a collection is the problem, start with the guide on collections on a credit report, because a mistaken one can be disputed, while an accurate one can stay on the report for up to seven years.

A low score usually changes the terms

A low score does not always end in a flat no. Federal guidance names the alternatives. The FTC's rules for landlords list requiring a co-signer, requiring a larger deposit than another applicant would pay, and charging higher rent as examples of "adverse action" taken because of a report. The CFPB's report describes renters being charged add-on fees, extra security deposits and higher rent after a negative report. These are the trade-offs on the table when your score is weak:

• A co-signer or guarantor, who takes on the obligation if you do not pay.
• A larger security deposit, which is refundable under the terms of the lease.
• Higher rent, which you never get back and which adds up every month of the lease.

Of the three, higher rent is the worst deal for you, and a larger deposit is usually the best, because it is money parked rather than money spent. If a landlord offers a choice, take the deposit. If you know your score is weak, offering a co-signer or a bigger deposit up front can save you an application fee. Bring proof of on-time rent from your current landlord too: since screening reports rarely show it, it is the evidence most likely to be missing from your file.

If you are turned down, you are owed a notice

This is where renters have real rights, and they are easy to miss. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a landlord that denies you, asks for a co-signer, demands a bigger deposit or charges more rent because of a screening report must give you an adverse action notice. The FTC says that applies "even if the information in the report played only a small part in the overall decision."

The notice has to name the company that supplied the report, with its address and phone number, say that the company did not make the decision, and tell you about your right to a free copy of the report if you ask within 60 days and your right to dispute anything inaccurate. If a credit score was used, the notice has to include the score and the key factors that hurt it.

Ask for that copy every time. If it holds an error, dispute it with the company that produced it. The CFPB says the company generally has 30 days to investigate, sometimes 45, and some states set shorter deadlines. Fixing a wrong eviction record or a debt that is not yours helps with the next application too.

Where your score sits

With no official line, the honest way to read your number is by FICO's bands, because they are what most people mean by good or bad credit. Below 580 FICO calls a score Poor, and the trade-offs above are the ones to prepare for before you apply. From 580 to 669 is Fair: approval depends on the landlord and the rest of the report. From 670 FICO calls it Good. If an application fails at that level, read the court-record side of the screening report before blaming the score.

If you want rent to start counting, it has to be reported to a bureau first, and the score has to use it. myFICO says FICO Score 9 counts rental history when it appears on the report. Most people's files have none, which is exactly why the proof from your current landlord matters more than the number.