You are entitled to a copy of your own background check. Almost nobody asks.
This is the most underused right in American consumer law. You can demand a complete copy of your file from every background-screening company, it costs nothing, and virtually nobody does it.
Which is why most people discover an error in their background check only after a rejection — and frequently are never told the report was the reason.
Fair Chance
Make background-check companies report your record accurately — or not at all.
Everything on this page you can do yourself, free. We wrote it out in full for that reason.
The right you are using
FCRA § 609 entitles you to a full file disclosure from any consumer reporting agency. It is free once every twelve months, and free at any time if you have been denied employment or housing because of a report.
This is separate from your credit report. An employment background check is produced by a different company, from different data, and requesting one does not get you the other.
Who to ask
- Employment screening: Checkr, Sterling, HireRight, First Advantage, Accurate Background, Cisive, GoodHire.
- Employment and income verification: Equifax Workforce Solutions, which operates The Work Number — a database of payroll history most people do not know exists.
- Tenant screening, if you rent: CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, RealPage, TransUnion SmartMove.
- Upstream data suppliers: LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which feeds records into several downstream products.
Every agency holds its own database built from its own bulk purchases. A record cleared at one can be live at another, and you cannot know which agency an employer will use.
What to look for when it arrives
- 01Is any of it not yours?Wrong-person matches are common, especially with shared names and nearby dates of birth. This is the single most disputable category.
- 02Is any non-conviction information older than seven years?Arrests that led nowhere and dismissed charges are barred after seven years by § 605 — no court order needed to dispute them.
- 03Is any disposition recorded wrongly?Dismissals reported as convictions, charges reported without their reduction, or charges with no disposition at all. An entry that cannot be verified cannot stand.
- 04Is any expunged or sealed record still there?Unreportable under § 607(b). Dispute with a certified copy of the order.
- 05Are there duplicates?The same case reported multiple times makes a record read far worse than it is.
Then act on it
Every item above is independently disputable in writing, with a 30-day statutory deadline. Fixing an error before you apply is worth enormously more than disputing it after a rejection, when the job has already gone to someone else.
Common follow-ups
Will requesting my file flag me to employers?
No. A consumer-initiated file disclosure is not visible to employers and is not a 'hard inquiry' the way a credit pull can be.
How long does it take?
Typically two to four weeks per agency. Requesting from all of them at once rather than one at a time saves months.
What will they ask me for?
Enough to verify your identity, which is legitimate. Send the minimum they actually require, and be wary of any request for more identifying data than they already hold on you.
Related
- The most common problem we solveExpunged record still showing on a background check
- Automatic relief nobody tells you aboutClean Slate laws by state — automatic record sealing
- The instrumentHow an FCRA dispute works
- Fair-chance hiringBan the box and fair-chance hiring laws by state
General information about federal and state law, not legal advice. ScrubMyInfo is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Eligibility and procedure turn on the facts of your case.