Screening Tools · TransUnion SmartMove Review

TransUnion SmartMove: Cost, Coverage, and How It Compares to Full Tenant Screening

TransUnion SmartMove sells three per-applicant screening tiers. Here is exactly what each one returns, what it costs, how far back it looks, whether it is legitimate, where its coverage stops, and how it stacks up against full-service tenant screening in 2026.

TransUnion SmartMove is a per-applicant tenant screening product built for independent landlords who want credit, criminal, and eviction data without a monthly subscription. It is fast, it carries the TransUnion name, and for a lot of small landlords it is genuinely good enough. But a screening tool should be chosen on what it actually returns, not on brand recognition – and once you compare SmartMove line by line against a full-service report or a named alternative, real differences appear in eviction coverage, address history, and how many credit bureaus are pulled.

This comparison is deliberately even-handed. We walk through what a SmartMove report shows, what each pricing tier includes and who pays, the documented coverage gaps, how SmartMove sits next to alternatives like RentPrep and RentSpree, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act duties that stay with you no matter which service you pick. If you are new to the process, our step-by-step guide to how to screen tenants pairs naturally with everything below.

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Video: a plain-language walkthrough of SmartMove versus full-service tenant screening – what each report includes, what SmartMove misses, and how to choose.

Key Takeaways: SmartMove vs Tenant Screening

• SmartMove is TransUnion’s per-applicant screen – credit, criminal, eviction, and Income Insights, with no subscription and same-day turnaround for occasional landlords.
• Its biggest documented gap is criminal-data coverage – SmartMove returns criminal records in only 30 states, so 20 states and the District of Columbia, including California and New York, get no criminal data at all. Its eviction search is database-based rather than direct court-record, and has its own published gaps.
• Income Insights is an estimate, not verification, and the standard application does not collect rental history or landlord references – so you often add a step.
• Whatever tool you use, the FCRA duties stay with you – permissible purpose under 15 U.S.C. section 1681b and the adverse action notice under section 1681m are the landlord’s job, not the vendor’s, and written authorization is what proves the first of them.

What Is TransUnion SmartMove?

SmartMove is an online tenant screening service operated by TransUnion, one of the three nationwide consumer credit bureaus. It is aimed squarely at independent landlords and small property managers who screen a handful of applicants a year and do not want the overhead of a full commercial screening account. The landlord sends the applicant an invitation, the applicant enters their own information, and TransUnion returns a report – typically within minutes to the same day.

Because the data comes straight from a nationwide bureau, the credit information is current and drawn from the same file the major lenders see. That direct-from-the-source credit data, plus the recognizable TransUnion name, is the core of SmartMove’s appeal. What SmartMove is not is a full-workflow platform: it does not collect rental references, it does not verify income from documents, and it pulls a single bureau. Understanding that boundary is the whole point of this comparison.

Is TransUnion SmartMove Legit and Safe?

Yes. SmartMove is a genuine product of TransUnion, operated by TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc., which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists in its published list of consumer reporting companies. That listing is the short answer to the most-asked question about this service: it is not a lookalike site, and it is not a scam. It is a nationwide bureau’s rental-screening arm, regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act like any other consumer reporting agency.

Three specifics behind that answer, because “is it legit” usually means several different worries at once:

• The corporate entity is real and identifiable. Reports come from TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc., which maintains a Consumer Dispute Team at P.O. Box 800, Woodlyn, PA 19094, and a consumer line at 800-230-9376 (Option 4). A screening outfit you cannot write to is a warning sign; this one publishes an address in a federal regulator’s directory.
• The applicant’s data goes to TransUnion, not to the landlord. The applicant enters their own Social Security number directly into TransUnion’s system. The landlord never receives it. For an applicant, that is a meaningfully safer flow than emailing a completed paper application to a stranger.
• It is a soft inquiry. Being screened through SmartMove does not lower the applicant’s credit score, and it is not visible to other lenders as a credit-seeking event.

How Does SmartMove Work, Step by Step?

SmartMove is landlord-initiated but applicant-completed: you open the request, the applicant supplies their own data. That split shapes both its privacy advantage and its main friction point. The flow is short:

1. The landlord creates a free account and enters the rental details. There is no subscription and no per-seat license.
2. The landlord sends a screening request to the applicant by email. Nothing is pulled at this point – the report only generates once the applicant completes their half.
3. The applicant completes the application and identity check – entering their own Social Security number directly into TransUnion’s system and, where the landlord chose applicant-pays, paying the fee.
4. The landlord reviews the returned report – credit, ResidentScore, criminal search, eviction search, and any Income Insights – usually within minutes of the applicant finishing.

The upside of this design is that the applicant’s Social Security number never passes through the landlord’s hands, which reduces data-handling risk and reassures privacy-conscious applicants. The downside is control: the report cannot generate until the applicant completes their step, so a slow or hesitant applicant stalls the screen. Landlords who want to drive the process directly sometimes prefer a service that lets them pull the report without waiting on the applicant.

What Does a SmartMove Report Show?

A SmartMove report bundles several standard screening data points. Exactly which appear depends on the tier the landlord selects, but the full set includes:

• TransUnion credit report and ResidentScore – a rental-tuned score reported on a 350 to 850 scale that TransUnion says predicts eviction risk better than a generic credit score.
• National criminal search – a multi-jurisdiction criminal-records search, including a sex-offender registry check, subject to the coverage gaps noted below.
• Eviction search – housing-court and eviction records drawn from TransUnion’s eviction database.
• Income Insights – an estimate that flags whether an applicant’s stated income looks consistent with their credit behavior, offered on the higher tiers.
• Identity verification – Social Security number matching to confirm the applicant is who they claim to be.

What is not in the box matters as much as what is. SmartMove’s credit report treats evictions and bankruptcies as its rental-history signal, but the standard application does not gather prior-landlord references or a documented rental timeline, and it does not verify income from pay stubs or bank statements. If those matter to your decision, plan to run them separately – our guide to how to verify tenant income covers the document side, and our tenant credit guide explains how to read the score responsibly.

How Far Back Does a SmartMove Report Look?

Most negative items may be reported for seven years, and bankruptcies for ten, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act at 15 U.S.C. section 1681c. That federal ceiling applies to SmartMove because a SmartMove report is a consumer report. The practical lookback by data type:

• Credit delinquencies, collections, and charge-offs – seven years from the original delinquency.
• Bankruptcies – ten years from the date of entry of the order for relief.
• Civil judgments – seven years, or until the governing statute of limitations has run, whichever period is longer, under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(2). In practice the three nationwide credit bureaus have largely stopped carrying judgments under their own data standards. TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions is a specialty screening agency rather than one of those bureaus, so do not assume a SmartMove report follows the same practice. Paid tax liens run seven years.
• Evictions – the eviction-related report is drawn from a records database, and the seven-year rule applies to the filing.
• Criminal records – this is the one people get wrong. Records of arrest fall under the same section 1681c(a)(2) rule as civil judgments – seven years, or the governing statute of limitations, whichever is longer. There is no federal time limit at all on reporting a conviction. California (Civ. Code section 1786.18(a)(7)) and New York (GBL section 380-j(f)(1)(v)) cap conviction reporting at seven years by their own statutes, so how far back a criminal record may lawfully be reported – and used – depends on where your applicant is.

The distinction between what may be reported and what may be used matters more than the dates. A growing number of states and cities restrict how far back a landlord may look at criminal history at all, and require an individualized assessment rather than a blanket rule. Our tenant screening laws by state guide tracks those limits.

How to Read Your SmartMove Report

The report arrives as several sections, and the common mistake is to read only the score. Work through it in this order:

1. Start with the identity check, not the score. If the Social Security number match or address history looks wrong, everything downstream may belong to a different person. Mixed files – data belonging to a different person with a similar name – are among the most damaging errors in tenant screening, and they are invisible if you read only the score.
2. Read ResidentScore in its own range. It is reported on a 350 to 850 scale and is a rental-specific model, not a FICO score. A 620 ResidentScore and a 620 FICO are not the same statement. If your written criteria name a cutoff, name which score the cutoff refers to.
3. Read the credit report behind the score. A thin file and a damaged file produce similar scores for opposite reasons. Look at whether the derogatory items are rent-adjacent – prior landlord collections, utility collections – or unrelated medical debt.
4. Check the eviction section for jurisdiction, not just for hits. A clean eviction report from a county that reports poorly is weak evidence of anything.
5. Treat Income Insights as a flag, not a figure. It estimates whether stated income is consistent with credit behavior. It is not verification, and for a self-employed applicant it can be well off.
6. Apply the same criteria to every applicant, and write down the reason. The moment the report changes your decision, the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s adverse-action duty attaches.

How Much Does SmartMove Cost and Who Pays?

SmartMove sells three per-applicant packages with no monthly subscription – you pay only when you screen. As published on mysmartmove.com in August 2026, the tiers run from twenty-five dollars for SmartCheck Basic to forty dollars for SmartCheck Plus and forty-nine dollars for SmartCheck Premium, per screening, plus tax where applicable. TransUnion has adjusted these numbers over time and resellers price differently, so treat any figure as a snapshot and confirm the current price on mysmartmove.com before you quote it to an applicant.

What separates the tiers is how much of the report you get, not how good the data is – the credit file is the same TransUnion file at every level:

The fifteen-dollar step from Basic to Plus is the one worth paying. A screening report with no eviction search and no credit report is thin ground for a decision, and a prior eviction is one of the strongest predictors of a future one.

Two cost details are worth pinning down. First, SmartMove runs a soft credit inquiry, so screening does not lower the applicant’s credit score. Second, the landlord chooses who pays – you can absorb the fee or pass it to the applicant where state law allows an applicant-paid screening fee. Several states cap what you may charge an applicant for screening and require a receipt or refund of any unused portion, so check your jurisdiction; our tenant screening laws by state guide tracks those limits.

Where Does SmartMove Fall Short?

Every screening tool has boundaries; SmartMove’s are specific and worth knowing before you rely on it as your only source.

Criminal Records Are Returnable in Only 30 States

This is the most concrete limitation, and it is wider than the eight-jurisdiction figure that circulates in most reviews. SmartMove’s own coverage disclaimer (Rev. Date 1/14/2026) lists the states where criminal records are available to return, and there are exactly thirty: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

Everywhere else, the criminal search returns nothing. That is 20 states plus the District of Columbia: Alabama, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, and DC. Two of those matter far more than the rest by sheer volume: California and New York. If you rent in either state and you have been treating a clean SmartMove criminal section as a clean criminal record, it is not one – as of that disclaimer’s January 14, 2026 revision date there is no data to return.

Where there genuinely is no data, supplement with a search that reaches those courts – while respecting the local fair-chance and individualized-assessment rules that govern how criminal history may be used at all.

Database Eviction Search, Not Direct Court Records

SmartMove’s eviction search pulls from a commercial eviction database, and its coverage is published rather than merely variable. Per the same disclaimer (Rev. Date 8/12/2026), eviction records are not available at all in Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, South Dakota and Wyoming, and are limited in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Because a prior eviction is one of the strongest predictors of a future one, a service that queries court records directly, in addition to database sources, tends to give more complete coverage – especially for an applicant who has moved across states.

A Single Bureau, and an Estimate Instead of Verification

SmartMove pulls TransUnion only. A derogatory item that appears on Equifax or Experian but not TransUnion would be missed, so a multi-bureau option paints a fuller credit picture. Separately, Income Insights is an estimate, not verification – for a self-employed applicant or anyone with complex income it can be well off, and confirming real income still means reviewing pay stubs, bank statements, or tax returns. Our rental-application red flags guide shows how to catch the gaps an estimate can leave behind.

SmartMove vs Named Alternatives

A comparison query deserves real names, not just “the other guys.” SmartMove competes with a cluster of well-known services, each with a different center of gravity. The table below is a plain-language map, not an endorsement – features and pricing change, so verify current details with each provider.

The pattern is clear: SmartMove wins on speed, brand, and direct-bureau credit data; the alternatives win when you want human review, an end-to-end workflow, a different bureau, or a fuller data set. For a structured shortlist, our editors maintain a running best tenant screening service roundup.

SmartMove vs Full-Service Tenant Screening

Set against a full-service screen – the kind that pulls broader data and supports the adverse-action step – the differences line up cleanly.

Neither column is “right” in the abstract. The honest read is that SmartMove is optimized for the low-volume, low-complexity case, and a full-service screen earns its keep as the property value, the applicant risk, or the screening frequency climbs. Our overview of background check options and our tenant check guide lay out what a fuller report can add.

Which Should You Use, SmartMove or a Fuller Screen?

Match the tool to your situation rather than to the loudest brand. This grid maps common landlord profiles to the sensible choice.

Does SmartMove Keep You FCRA-Compliant?

This is the question that is easiest to get wrong. SmartMove is operated by TransUnion, an FCRA-regulated consumer reporting agency, so the reports it produces are consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. But using a compliant vendor does not transfer your duties to that vendor – the legal obligations of the Act rest on you, the decision-maker.

Three duties stay with the landlord no matter which service produces the report. You need a permissible purpose – the rental application the person actually submitted – under 15 U.S.C. section 1681b, specifically the business-transaction-initiated-by-the-consumer purpose at section 1681b(a)(3)(F). You should have the applicant’s written authorization before the report is pulled: the FCRA does not itself require it for tenant screening the way section 1681b(b) does for employment, but screening vendors’ terms generally require it, several states require it, and it is your evidence of permissible purpose if the pull is ever challenged. And if you take any adverse action based in whole or in part on the report – a denial, a higher deposit, a required cosigner – you must send an adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. section 1681m that names the reporting agency, states the agency did not make the decision, and tells the applicant they may get a free copy of the report and dispute inaccurate information under section 1681i. Our adverse action notice guide and the broader FCRA compliance guide for landlords walk through each step, and the Fair Housing Act guide covers the anti-discrimination rules that run alongside the FCRA.

SmartMove Report Errors, Disputes, and What an Applicant Can Do

Screening reports contain errors, and a landlord who understands the dispute path makes better decisions than one who treats the report as a verdict. Two duties sit on opposite sides of the same transaction.

If you are the landlord: when an applicant tells you an item is wrong, you are not obliged to investigate it yourself – the reinvestigation duty is the reporting agency’s. What you must do is send the adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. section 1681m if the report changed your decision, name TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions as the agency, state that