How do I know MyHomePassport will be accepted by letting agents and landlords?
The quality and detail of information in your passport more than equals any other form of tenant referencing in the UK. Letting agents and landlords will save time, costs and risk by accepting a MyHomePassport pre-qualified tenant.
Thousands of letting agents already use the trusted services of our parent company Inchora and fellow partner, Tenant Shop and unlike other referencing providers, our team will make a telephone call to any letting agent or landlord who you send your profile to when seeking viewings. We will explain the value of the passport and reassure them of your credentials.
How does MyHomePassport help me ‘rent ahead of the crowd’?
A standard rental process takes up a lot of time and cost even before an agent knows you are suitably qualified. MyHomePassport reverses the process allowing you to be fully pre-qualified before arranging viewings, so any letting agent or landlord will know they are not taking any risks.
Uniquely, MyHomePassport can use real time data to always ensure your personal information is valid and current. Our team make a telephone call to your agent or landlord when you first request a viewing, this gives us the opportunity to explain how MyHomePassport renters are very low risk due to the quality of data and ID verified referees.
If you choose the MyCreditBooster option (Rent Reporting), you will boost your credit score to the two main credit agencies (Equifax and Experian) by paying your rent in full and on time. Only renters who are confident in knowing they are reliable with their rent payments are likely to opt in to this system.
How can I secure viewings using my passport without revealing my sensitive data?
When you have a complete passport, and you are ready to view properties, you can trigger multiple emails to potential letting agents or landlords. The email will be sent from MyHomePassport and will include your contact email, your name, the property you are interested in, your affordable budget and the name / relationship of anyone you intend to co-rent with. It will also explain how credible your referencing information is but will not reveal your sensitive data.
MyHomePassport will also, and uniquely, make telephone contact with your letting agent or landlord to ensure that they understand your value as a fully pre-qualified renter to help you ‘rent ahead of the crowd’.
You can control access to your private information that is stored in your personal document ‘vault’ and should only do this when you decide to move forward with contracts.
You can email your profile to any letting agent or landlord once you have completed the qualification process, verifying your reports, references and documents etc. This means that they will be assured you are highly pre-qualified and allows them to contact you. If you decide you want to rent their property, you can then allow their access to your report, data, references and documents.
When do I need a guarantor?
If your affordability calculation (using our calculator in your login area) shows you cannot fully afford the property you want, you will need a guarantor – they will also need to pass the calculation.
If you are a student, first time renter or unemployed, you may also require a guarantor.
You can on-board your guarantor following links in the login area and they will also become ‘pre-qualified’. You will need to have a ‘deed of guarantee’ document signed by both parties to legalise the arrangement.
How can I boost my credit rating with Experian and Equifax?
If you know you are unlikely to default, miss part of the payment or miss the due date of your rental payment, then you should consider signing up to our link with Experian and Equifax, the two main credit agencies that determine your ‘creditworthiness’ to lenders. Mortgage repayments have always counted towards credit history and now this is available to people who pay rent. We all benefit from having a good credit history and a monthly boost just for paying your rent is a great facility.
When you register and login with us you will find a simple ‘MyCreditBooster’ sign-up procedure that allows your direct debit rental payments to be picked up via a safe digital link to TrueLayer who help us send this information to Experian and Equifax.
What is the benefit of MyCreditBooster and reporting my rental payments to both Equifax and Experian?
MyHomePassport uses TrueLayer and their open source banking system to report all your rental payments to both Experian and Equifax who will add each rent payment to your credit file. This is accessed by all lenders when they assess your credit rating and decide on things like loans, mortgages, car and other credit purchases.
Some use Experian and some use Equifax, which is why we report to both major credit agencies. We also record and build your payment history so that it can be verified for future rentals, we can also validate your income, for this reason MyCreditBooster includes MyHomePassport to use whenever you move.
Can I sign up to MyCreditBooster if I am already a tenant and don’t currently need a ‘Home Passport’?
Yes; you can subscribe to start rent reporting to both Experian and Equifax immediately to boost you credit files.
For only £3 per month you can start to build your payment history and this will feed into your MyHomePassport account so that you can use the full passport without further costs whenever and each time you move in the future.
Why do you not use my credit score?
A credit score is not relevant when assessing credibility as a renter, you are not receiving credit, and in fact you pay in advance to rent a property. Also, there are three different credit-scoring systems in the UK. Where in one case a score of 420 is good, in another it may be considered as poor.
What really matters is ID verification, a proven history of paying rent / responsibly looking after property and proving an absence of financial debt such as CCJs and insolvencies. You need to prove you are not on international watchlists or sanction lists. You need to prove you have not stolen someone’s identity or have fraudulent documents. You also need to prove you have the right to reside in the UK. It is about proving your trustworthiness.
MyHomePassport uses IDU data reports from LexisNexis which covers all the important credit/financial issues, ID verification, document authentication and many more anti- fraud checks. An IDU report is much more than a credit check and has it’s own scoring system designed to give a better indication of ‘trustworthiness’ rather than ‘creditworthiness’.
What if I get unexpected negative results?
You may well get an unexpected negative data report if you mistype any data that you input. Mis-spelling your name will mean that LexisNexis will not be able to match your ID with your address and other details, so you will fail. Please double check your input data before submitting.
If you receive data information that you disagree with, you can contact LexisNexis directly to challenge the data they, or the credit agencies hold on you.
If you feel that you made a mistake and you would like to resubmit for a second IDU report, you can choose the backup report option in your personal area. As this incurs charges for us, there is a fee of £3 for any further IDU report.
What is the score on my report and what does a ‘refer’ or red warning mean?
The scoring system on each IDU report reflects the amount of supporting evidence in all areas assessed. A pass of any score is set to be of a high enough standard to denote trustworthiness. Serious fraud alerts will cause a fail. Document authentication will create a separate pass / fail / refer result.
A ‘refer’ will flag up something that you will need to explain as mitigating circumstances – being honest with minor issues is always the best policy. We will not fail a whole report over a CCJ, but it may be flagged as a refer and will show with a red warning. Often letting agents and landlords will be comfortable with a minor financial issue occurring several years ago: you should be prepared to offer an explanation and evidence.
How do I use the LandlordVerifier?
Once your profile is fully completed, you can activate a LandlordVerifier from your login area, you only need their forename, surname and the rental property address with postcode.
There are many instances where renters have been victims of a sub-letting scam, where the ‘landlord’ is not the actual owner. In other cases, rooms have been let in unsafe and illegal conditions by someone other than the actual owner. This situation causes huge financial losses and even the threat of homelessness. If you respond to a private advert for a rental property, how do you know you are communicating with the rightful owner? How do you know exactly who you may be meeting to view the property? There are many great properties being privately advertised so you wouldn’t want to miss out on a genuine opportunity. This dilemma can be helped using your LandlordVerifier.
If you are keen to view a property or even put down a deposit and you are not 100% sure the owner is genuine you can run an instant check. All you need is the landlord’s name and the full rental property address. We make an instant digital connection to the land registry to confirm if the name and property match on the register. If this flags a no match, you would be advised to either seek further proof (a company belonging to the landlord may own the property – genuine landlords are happy to provide proof) and be cautious.
What is IDVT or digital analysis of ID documents?
IDVT (Identity Document Verification Technology) is an advanced system that analyses in forensic detail, the text, security patterns, codes and images in your ID documents. Our partners GBG IDscan, provide the best system in this area of ID technology. We help you authenticate your documents and ID to speed the rental process up and gain advantages.
Letting agents have a legal responsibility to carry out anti-money laundering checks and checks to ensure you are legally allowed to live in the UK, both tasks are time consuming and costly for them so they very much welcome this being done in advance.
Is there a limit to the frequency and amount of data I can order?
Yes; MyHomePassport and MyCreditBooster are both designed to help you rent ahead of the crowd when you move properties, therefore in normal circumstances you will need to access your data reports no more frequently than every 6 months – the minimum tenancy agreement. If you want to order your IDU report at any other time there is the option to use the backup system with a cost of £3 per report.