The FCRA, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act, is the piece of U.S. Federal Government legislation regulating the collection, circulation, and use of consumer information. In other words, it determines who can access your information and how that information can be used, with the goal of ensuring that the most accurate information is available.

The FCRA dictates that only Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) can be consulted when making employment, credit, or tenant screening decisions. These organizations are required to operate under two conditions: they must provide notice that they will be accessing your public or private records information, and must disclose who provided the information upon request. Examples of people who would require the services of a CRA are employers, landlords, and mortgage brokers, among others.

For additional information, you can inform yourself about the FCRA here.

How does the FCRA affect you?

BeenVerified.com is not a Consumer Reporting Agency. BeenVerified was created for the everyday consumer to have access to public records. Therefore, FCRA restricts how and why you can use the site, as the data available through public records can contain inaccuracies or gaps in digitized or available information. Scroll down to find examples of ways the information BeenVerified provides can and cannot not be used.

Do’s and don’ts of using BeenVerified

There are a host of reasons why you should use BeenVerified.com — you never know what you will find! Subscribers are encouraged to check out not only themselves, but friends and family. But there are more practical reasons why you should perform background searches: verifying an online date’s identity, check if an online buyer or seller isn’t just a scammer in disguise, find a lost relative, research your neighbors to know about those who live around you, find out the sale price of your neighbor's home, find a lost love, or discover someone’s current address or phone number.

However, there are restrictions to using the site. You are not authorized to consult the site for tenant or employment (office or household) screening. Similarly, it’s illegal to use BeenVerified to determine educational qualification and mortgage, credit check, and insurance eligibility. We forbid users to attempt to find information about persons under the age of 18 and business transaction initiated by an individual customer. Finally, the following will not be tolerated: harassing or contacting people against their wishes, stalking or spying, or stealing of another’s identity.

These are just a few of the ways BeenVerified should and shouldn’t be used. For other examples of common uses, please consult our Do’s And Don’ts page.

Alternative Services

If you are looking to access public information for a reason not authorized by BeenVerified, please consult a Consumer Reporting Agency instead. By way of example only, some such CRAs include:

For credit checks:

• TransUnion
• Equifax
• Experian

For Employment

• Sterling Infosystems
• Integrascan
• SentryLink

Note: BeenVerified has no affiliation with any of these services and recommends them as a courtesy.

Related Links

By using BeenVerified, you agree to our Terms of Service. To understand how BeenVerified protects the privacy of its users, please visit our Privacy FAQ. For any other questions, please contact us.