Cozy Credit and Background Checks?

Question

First off I love the Cozy.co management platform. I especially love the price. (FREE)

But I've consistently had issues with my tenants applying and paying for credit and background checks. 1 out of 3 will fail to process. Does anyone else have this problem? I'd like to keep using Cozy for screening, but this issue keeps coming up.

It's a major problem for Cozy, because this is one of the main ways they make money.

Does anyone know a workaround?

Peter McDonough · Answer

Ghost them, and if they press you, respond with, "Sorry, we selected an applicant who better met our screening criteria"

Zach Midwood · Answer

For anyone with Cozy experience:  when you have multiple applicants and potential tenants paying the $40 to run the credit and criminal background checks only one can get the apartment.  How do you handle the applicants who paid the $40 and did not get the apartment?  I assume some will ask for their money back so I am looking for a little guidance on how to handle this.  What has your experience been like?

Lucas Hall · Answer

Hi @Rob Drum

Thanks for clarifying.

Before any credit or background data can be given to anyone, Experian requires tools like Cozy to verify the tenant’s identity. It’s the same verification they would revive if they were working directly with Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax.

Experian provides Cozy with 3-4 multiple choice questions that only the tenant would know the answer to. Questions usually resemble “which street name have you resided?”, “In what year did you get a loan for 200k from Wells Fargo?”, or “how much is your monthly  auto loan payment to Toyota?”.

They need to answer these correctly, otherwise they will not pass the test. Most of the time, they guess at the answer, 2-3 times, and then get locked out for XX hours. Other times, the tenants have asked the Credit Bureaus to intentionally freeze their credit profile as a means of preventing Identity theft, or have signed up for some service that does this automatically (maybe Life Lock?).  They usually don’t realize that doing so makes it impossible for anyone, including themselves, to pull their credit.

Cozy has a series of very strong warnings to ensure that the tenant knows that if they fail to answer the ID verifications correctly multiple time, Experian will lock their account. But alas, many tenants are in a hurry and don’t take the time to read the warning and continue to guess at the answers.

There are other reasons why they wouldn’t be able to verify, like not having a SSN, misspelling their own name, or using an address that is not their own.  Or, it simply could be that they are trying to use someone else’s identity and they system is stopping them.

There’s a good help doc to send your potential applicants. It’s on helpdocs dot cozy dot co, and search for “Tips for verifying your identity with Experian”.

Plus, you could also have your tenants reach out to the Cozy support team f they are having trouble.

I hope that helps!

Rob Drum · Answer

@Lucas Hall

I looked back at the declined message. It says "unable to verify identity through Experian." Then they get locked out for 72 hours.

Mike O. · Answer

I have used cozy 3 times with no problems

Rob Drum · Answer

They are denied from doing their credit and background checks. It could definitely be an error on the tenants part, but it keeps happening.

@Todd Faulk You should totally sign up. Even with these issues I've been really impressed with their product, and recommended it to other landlords.

I want Cozy to get  paid because they provide soo much value to landlords. I was just curious if anyone else was having this issue.

Lucas Hall · Answer

Following.

Todd Faulk · Answer

@Rob Drum what do you mean "fail to process"?  Are you saying Cozy has not gotten back to you, they disappear from the system, they are denied somehow?   I am interested in your problem as I was about to sign up for this service when I saw your post.

It looks like other people have had problems with Cozy taking longer than expected to deliver a response. https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/560....  Sounds like they have a good customer service, I would send them a message.

If you need something immediately, there's always https://www.mysmartmove.com/.

Ned J. · Answer

I've done 8 through Cozy with 2 separate vacancies.....ALL went through with the only 1 taking a bit longer on the background check. That one took 6 days for some reason. Otherwise no issues