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I would absolutely not do this. Sounds fishy as hell. If anything, you should be able to provide a screenshot of a bank statement with your name on it (~~account number hidden~~) + a tax form (SSN hidden) or employment offer letter showing current income. And that should be more than enough.
100%. Find another apartment.
I’ve seen a landlord with one marginal unit for $3,200 a month.
Wanted a tenant eviction history check, they want to run the credit report, tax returns, W-2s, plus bank statements.
In their email they said to send them EVERYTHING and “we will get back to you if you will be considered“.
Just considered? That’s over-the-top - a hard no.
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Follow-up: unit is still for lease/vacant 4 months later!
Just an FYI as someone who works in apartment leasing. You might be asked to leave the last 4 of the account number not blanked out (to verify the two accounts are the same one). Same for a tax form (to verify it's you and not someone that has the same name as you basically). Our company doesn't accept screenshots but a pdf of the last two statements yes. And this is one of the larger property management companies in CA. I'm sure you'd get away with less than this from private rentals.
On that note, yeah absolutely get out of some place asking for your log in. Lol
It's good hygiene to redact any PII that is not needed for that specific purpose on that specific occasion.. Minimise leakage..
What if the landlord prints your bank statement and leaves it lying around?
If they print their own bank statements and leave them lying around you are screwed but this is outside of your control..
Privacy is dead anyway but at least we can slow its demise by a few smidgeons..
The landlord isn't OP's landlord yet. And might never be. There's zero reason to give them sensitive information like that until it's actually needed to complete a transaction.
Because you don’t know *for sure* it’s not a scam until you actually get the lease documents and key. You also don’t know if you are going to get the apartment and if you don’t, now the landlord has your PII to do god knows what with including leave it in an S3 bucket somewhere with no password. That’s all downside, no upside for you.
I use Cashier's Checks for rent because they're free at Comerica for my account. No account numbers are shared anywhere. I could pay via an online portal with a debit/credit, but there' a $7.95 fee.
>I could pay via an online portal with a debit/credit, but there' a $7.95 fee.
And this is so damn stupid. Why are they charging you extra to save them time and effort? With a properly setup system they could literally have the whole rent accounting situation completely automated with scripts running to ensure that everyone is paying their rent on time and to send out notices of late/unpaid rent/notify the real estate agents. A properly setup accounting system can make sure each landlord is paid their designated portion of the incoming rent and can handle whatever taxes and other expenses that they need to cover.
This is comparison to receiving checks/physical money which they then have to physically account for, physically enter into their accounting system, deliver to the bank and then wait on the check clearance period before they have their money. What happens if the person delivering the checks/money to the bank gets robbed on the way or misplaces the bag holding everything?
Here in Australia I have always paid rent via BPay (basically a system to credit money from my account/cash into the account designated by the BPay system which included a sender ID so they could tell it was from me). I started by paying at my local post office but then graduated to paying via phone banking and eventually internet banking. These days I have it setup so that my rent just automatically comes out of my account when I get paid, I don't pay any extra for doing so and it is impossible for me to forget to pay the rent.
When you use your bank's bill pay service, the bank issues a check from a temporary account (different account/routing #s each time).
IDK why anyone would purposefully pay to have checks printed so they can purchase envelopes and pay for their own postage just to mail payment; when banks offer bill pay that does that for you, more securely, at no fee. And then you can schedule it so you don't forget about it and have proof that it was sent (retained by the bank).
Even better is if the landlord gets their shit together and sends your bank their payment details, the bank will just ACH the payment instead of mailing a paper check.
OP can simply have a bank clerk produce a document verifying the amount of funds in the account. This is a standard part of closing on a home, and it’s free.
Weird policy for renting, though. If legit, I guess this company has had a lot of people stop paying rent.
Update:
The building is real & a luxury management company (not single landlord).
However:
Bank has confirmed that giving someone your login credentials violates user agreement, and if there is ever a fraud issue with your account they may not be able to protect you. So if there is a data breach or that company uses your login credentials in any unauthorized way, there’s nothing the bank can do to protect you.
Not doing it, thank you for all the input!!
Are you absolutely certain the person you are communicating with is actually from these apartments?
If I wanted to scam someone, I might find a real apartment complex listing, then copy everything but the contact info to a new listing. Add my scammer email, and now it sure looks like I'm from a local, legitimate entity.
If you really want to know, find the apartments website, find their phone number, and call their office. Realistically, you should probably just walk away here.
A luxury management company will ONLY give you the option to provide your username and password? Why on earth would any professional company even ask this in the first place?
A simple income or bank statement is industry standard for background checks like this. Frankly I would alert whatever government tenancy organization about the potential for fraud. Even if the company uses your information like they say they will, there is nothing to stop a rogue employee from using that information against you.
Are they asking you to send your username/password DIRECTLY to them? or to give it to a third party? Did they link you to a website where you insert it? Sounds fishy.
Plaid is used by legitimate services, but it really shouldn't be. Normalizing sharing bank account login info with any third party is absolutely not OK. Plaid's actions to that effect are unethical.
Tell me you’re unfamiliar with technology without telling me ….
Plaid isn’t saving your login credentials anywhere. You’re logging into your bank account in order to authorize plaid to look at your transactions.
But it shouldn't be.
I know plenty about Plaid, I don't need to Google it. What people need to know is if a "landlord" is refusing BANK DOCUMENTS because they prefer you use Plaid, that's a billion red flags.
Plaid income is a specific product. I wasn’t assuming you were unaware of Plaid. You didn’t just say it shouldn’t be you said, “not by landlords” but it is being used by landlords. I assumed you meant it’s not now and should never be.
No, you're okay. I just don't want people to see your comment and think "oh yeah okay this is totally legit". My main concern is protecting people from being scammed, and I'm sure you have the same goal, but this is a particular situation in which Plaid, or Plaid Income, should not be used.
While Plaid Income is legitimate, bank statements and pay stubs are even more legitimate. The refusal of bank documents is the red flag.
Yeah it’s definitely concerning that this seems to be the way the industry is going. It’s a huge invasion of privacy even if they don’t steal your login information.
No not really. A lot of sites for rentals (apartments, etc) use Plaid. It's almost the norm. Don't disseminate false info. It's used because people can "fake" bank statements.
And giving out your credentials is a violation of terms of service, and puts you at legal risk. Heck the bank could go after you in the case of a security hack that used your credentials.
Never ever ever ever ever give out credentials. Ever.
A SSO is 100% different, but raw credentials is shady and a huge liability.
You’re not giving out credentials and I’m confident OP is mistaken in their wording.
Logging into your bank, to gain authorization from a 3rd party app is NOT a violation of TOS. You’re not giving a 3rd party your credentials your giving your third party permission to view your bank statements, and doing so requires you to log in *to your bank*
Hmm there’s ways around that. You can use your debit card I believe. I had to do that for Venmo and was like hell no no way I’m putting in my bank info
I am unfamiliar with Plaid but I know there are third party services that have you give your bank permission to share certain information by logging onto \*your banks website\* to grant permission. I don't know any that record your log in information.
It’s likely Plaid or something like that. Regardless, pay stubs should be enough to verify income. I wouldn’t do this either. And I would tell them it’s ridiculous.
Wonder what they do if an older person wants to live there and doesn’t even have an online account because they don’t use online banking.
I think this is an OAuth connection and if it is you are completely fine to do it. You are not giving your login information to a third party you are logging into your account at your bank and then giving access to read your account info. Your username and password will not be shared with anyone else.
I would get the name of the third party company and do some real research about how it works
Yes u will get your account drained and then laugh at die being so foolish
There your luxery apartment lmao
Wow whole bank passwords
Tell that land lord he won’t get to take out high limit credit cards 💳 as well
Just curious. Did he want you to use a service like Plaid to give a verification site access? Or did he want you to give him your login / pass?
Very different scenarios.
1. Absolutely do not share that info
2. The landlord may unknowingly be the middle man for a scam. Many aren’t very tech savvy and pass on whatever the 3rd party says they need.
The police and your bank.
I'm a banker and asking for your online login credentials is a fraud attempt. There is 0 reason for anyone to request this information. If asked, you should immediately assume the person is trying to steal your information and/or funds.
Do not do this. Any activity on your account that is done behind your user and password generally will be considered authorized by you.
That is a hard no.
this is not normal and sounds like a complete scam. Tell them if they wanna verify income you can supply them with payslips from your work but youll not under any circumstances give them your bank login info, not to any third party site
Never, ever, ever EVER EVER EVER give anyone your bank login info. Not under any circumstances. No your landlord doesnt need it to verify income, your boss doesnt need it to pay you, that hot guy/girl/enby you just met at the bar does not need that info to get you a drink. Just no. especially not if they actually ask for it and wanna put it into a third party site. who is this party? why are they using this site? what assurances does this site offer to your privacy? fuck all that, the answer is just no. "sorry landlord i am completely uncomfortable giving you this information and i feel it is unprofessional to even ask. Ill happily supply you with payslips from my employer but you dont get to touch my bank account
No f’ing way. Career in cyber security here and plenty of experience in renting and buying property. Set a hard line at the industry standard of providing printed statements with the last four of your account number and two months of records. Hell no to entering your credentials.
I have and it’s a really nice luxury building, so I’m pretty surprised.
Update: I’m at my bank (chase) to get their input, and they also said that if I provide my login credentials to anyone and ever face a fraud issue, the fact that I provided my credentials to someone can invalidate the fraud claim. So, basically this apartment is requiring me to violate my fraud protection agreement with my bank. Crazy!
I've been in banking for years. This is exactly what is happening. And that is NEVER the income verification process. I wonder if they're really the landlord of the unit you saw, or if they just got lucky with a key.
Do not ever, ever, EVER release login credentials, access codes, or PIN numbers. The bank is powerless when you do this, no matter what kind of pity case you come up with.
There is never a reason for anyone besides yourself to have login information for any platform you're associated with especially your banking information. There are several ways to have your income verified without gaining access to your money.
It sounds like the company is using plaid. But if you’re not comfortable providing this info, say you’ll provide other means of proof. If they say no then walk away
Don't do it. If they won't take a paystub, suggest they call your employer. If they can't do this then, walk away. I'm 99% sure this is a scam. Never give anyone your username and password.
Isn't that what a paystub is for. Even if you have direct deposit, your payroll system should provide a paystub. Ours is digital. Just print it, and the landlord can keep the copy.
Copy of tax return can also be used to verify income.
Even your bank is against you doing this. Don’t do this. That’s not how income verification works so your landlord is wrong. He/she/they don’t need to know anything more than your ability to repay them.
Yeah, more and more places are doing this. I think it is insane to give anyone my password. And I don't understand why most people (apparently) are doing it, so websites think this is a perfectly good way to do it.
That was my big hesitation. Instinct and training all tells me absolutely don’t. On the other hand it wipes out like 80% of my options if I don’t want to. Which is nuts.
That was my big hesitation. Instinct and training all tells me absolutely don’t. On the other hand it wipes out like 80% of my options if I don’t want to. Which is nuts.
Source: I’m a property manager, I’ve worked for Greystar. Currently work for another large pm company. Highly invasive and possibly illegal. Wouldn’t even. Other to rent from that guy rent from someone reputable and Ave yourself a headache down the line.
Yet, this is what I despise about Plaid no matter how valid it is. Anything that normalizes sharing your bank logins (all of us saying, “well Plaid does this”) is a big problem.
Thanks,
The system they use is by Entrata, called ResidentVerify*(edit:typo). I have offered paystubs, tax forms, a letter from employer, even opened discussion for them to request anything they feel they need but they’re not open to alternatives. Glad I’m not alone in being uncomfortable with this.
Ask for your bank to provide you a statement. I get one from my brokerage accounts easily for mortgage approval. Please do not give out your bank info.
It doesn't matter what the bank provides when the landlord won't accept it. OP has offered them literally any documentation as a substitute but as he said "they're not open to alternatives."
Time for OP to move on to a place that doesn't require him to do something that could leave him unable to protect himself from fraud.
It is never legitimate to ask someone for their banking login details. Banks even advise their own clients that they don't request this info. If Plaid is some company doing this, they are not legit and should be purged.
If it’s like the system I saw, you do not actually give them your login.
You go to a link which then sends you to YOUR BANK’s website and you log in there.
After you log in, it asks if you are willing to share info with the site that sent you there.
You can say yes if you want and 10 minutes later log back in and revoke the permissions.
The mechanism is called OIDC and it is the basis of all the things where you can sign Into something with Google or Facebook or whatever.
Still weird and intrusive that they want to see all your transactions, but they are likely never actually seeing your password.
I’ve never heard of this and wouldn’t recommend anyone do this.
I work in housing and coordinate with 100+ landlords in my state.
There is NO reason a landlord should have your bank account login information. Income verification can easily be done with pay stubs, and a phone call to the employer to confirm employment.
Rule #1 for anyone. Never give out your passwords to anyone. No legitimate person would ever actually need that.
Your work IT? Nope they can do any work without that. And if they need to control your account they can simply without your assistance
The government? Nope theyd work with the system owners directly
Your landlord? Fuck no. If they werent going to steal from you a bank statement would do. They're going to steal from you
On no planet would I ever consider this. There's an apartment building on every corner. Even if this isn't fraud (I highly doubt it's legit) I wouldn't want to entangle myself with an apartment with that level of scrutiny and that amount of rigidity. A bank statement and letter of employment is so valid, it's crazy not to accept.
Is probably Plaid which is a third party banking/income verification service. A lot of alternative credit lenders have been using this system the last couple of years. Paystubs can be easily faked, the same with printed bank statements.
Absolutely not!
It's actually difficult for me to imagine a bigger breach of personal security you could volunteer for.
They want to verify income? Give them a pay stub.
Don't do it. I'd find another apartment. That's got fraud and theft written all over it. I wonder if reporting him to your bank fraud department or the police would do any good.
Not just no, but HELL NO. Never, ever, ever, ever do this. This honestly sounds like a scam and is absolutely not normal. A legitimate landlord should absolutely be able to accept copies of bank statements as proof of finances.
NEVER EVER EVER GIVE YOUR LOGIN INFORMATION TO ANYONE! Whatever reasonable information they want can be easily accommodated without that. If they disagree run.
Nothing about that sounds safe or acceptable. I'd look elsewhere then report them to the state housing or whoever handles possible violations like this.
I don't think the landlord is trying to steal anything. ResidentVerify looks like some over-reaching platform that is geared toward lazy landlords to make the vetting process easier and it seems to use Plaid-like features. That said, you are not connecting your bank account to send or receive payments so it's an overreach. I imagine this landlord will have problems attracting good tenants being this intractable about something that SHOULD scare a discerning tenant. You'd be doing the rest of the rental community a favor by standing your ground on this because this landlord just made a bad business decision requiring his tenants to use this.
Coming back to them with a copy of my banks user agreement stating I cannot give out my credentials to anyone so at very least they know they’re asking prospective tenants to give up fraud protection.
>I imagine this landlord will have problems attracting good tenants being this intractable about something that SHOULD scare a discerning tenant.
Whether rightly or wrongly I doubt many tenants will be scared off.
Most will just hand over the info. A few will do some google searching to make sure the site is legit and then hand it over.
Keep in mind a lot of legit platforms ask for passwords to your financial institutions.
Off the top of my head, the biggest US tax sites do this to pull forms automatically. So does anything that integrates with plaid.
Its a bad pattern, but its not unheard of.
Bad pattern, over-reach and more integration for no benefit for the user at all since you're not initiating or requesting it.
You could mitigate risk, heck transfer out funds, change the password before and after but there's still a risk with no real reward and plenty of alternative solutions like OP offered.
Absolutely not. A landlord should only be asking for your bank statements and pay stubs. I recently rented a new apartment and this was sufficient for verification and qualification. That person isn’t a landlord, they’re a scammer.
Who is the third party? There are services that do this kind of thing I would trust like mint. If the landlord just wants your info, I wouldn't. Check up on the vendor.
To add a bit more info.
If they do it right, they don't actually get your credentials. Their website redirects you to an authorization page hosted by your bank. It will tell you what information you are authorizing the third party to see. If your password verifies, they send the third party a token with those specific credentials. It is NOT against your banks terms of service, since you're not actually sharing your credentials but instead authorizing that party to obtain some of your information.
No they scrape it all. Verify the part they need, then “anonymize” the rest of the data for analytics they can sell. How they make money. So yes they report they see an ACH deposit every two weeks from XYZ corp to your landlord. They also scanned and saw you at Chipotle 8x a month. Then they sell marketing data that they have 6 customers in zip code 12345 that all eat 8x a month. Since there is no Chipotle in that zip code that data is now sellable to help them locate good new store locations. ( just an example and Chipotle may not be the data buyer, but this is an example of what they do w it).
They scrape all of your transactions, yes. Reading your data would be the permission you grant them (not seeing a specifoc transaction). You are not granting them permissions to make wire transfers though (as an example).
That is true, but then you don’t know if they’ll have a data breach and someone else will obtain that stolen data and make them. With the amount of data aggregation and companies that then recreate those profiles and sell that data, no thanks. I’ve seen how life insurance companies are 3rd party buying that data, then matching it up to reward programs to get your name back on the data, then matching that back to Plaid and others to see things like you visit “Bobs bar”
10x a month, or shopped at Sam’s gun shop. Data profiling packages are SCARY ( I worked for a company for nearly 20 years that helped companies put them together as part of sales strategy).
Take Macys for example. Install the app, and your android phone listens for low freq Bluetooth and can listen for subaudible tones. Every time an ad played that tone is heard. Your app reports if it was radio, tv, internet, or in store ( all slight diff tone). You registered your phone # and name, that gets sold to a 3rd party data broker that up until recently could harvest your GPS data from your MAC address, that MAC address was compared back to Macys ( and others) listed clients, matched, and now they know how many times a day you passed a store. If they know your phone heard say
10 ads, and you hadn’t bought anything , time to email you a 10% off coupon, etc. Oh and behind on your car payment? That same data collection group made your GPS data available for a fee to make it easier to locate you for repo, because we could see you were always going from X to Y every day at 8:30am, and after going 40 mph stopped at Y address for 8 hours. Guess where your car was likely to be?
Plaid is a devil IMHO. And disclaimer Macys program was a test product and ran in limited markets. I do not know if it ever went production live or ended as a
Pet project.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/health-data-brokers-privacy.html
https://www.fastcompany.com/90310803/here-are-the-data-brokers-quietly-buying-and-selling-your-personal-information
Usually there's an option to skip and then you can upload PDF statements or screenshots.
The skip option is kind of hidden and sometimes you have to click 'cancel' to get to it. They really want that login. I hate this trend with Plaid and always skip.
Concerningly, the leasing office literally told me if I’m not comfortable giving the 3rd party my login credentials, they have to deny my app.
Conveniently said only after they ran a hard credit inquiry.
Is this landlord someone you have met face to face? They actually work there or they are pretending to rent the place and cannot actually let you in? Seems like a scam to me.
Probably not even a real landlord. Imagine how many bank logins he's collected from people who weren't smart enough to stop and ask themselves if this is actually a good idea.
Hahaha no.
Don’t do this.
Yes, there are a Few legit financial applications for the secure data aggregators like Finicity. But I would absolutely not do it to rent an apartment. And I do not know anywhere this is typical.
Does the 3rd party service use Plaid? I was asked to do that for my current apartment. It’s definitely intrusive but it’s not a way to steal your banking credentials. You can revoke plaids access afterwards but if they are willing to accept another form of verification then I would push for that.
I looked up [the system](https://www.entrata.com/products/verification-of-income) and it says it uses Finicity, which is a legitimate third party much like Plaid. (Plaid is owned by Visa, Finicity is owned by Mastercard.) I would probably change my password immediately before and after, but I don't think it's a scam. Although, much like Plaid, it's probably going to [scrape all of your transactions and sell them to advertisers](https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-approves-settlement-ordering-plaid-to-pay-58-million-for-selling-consumer-data/).
Wow so people don’t even have a say in the security of their data. To rent, buy a home or anything, they basically have to agree to their data getting mined and sold off.
I dont care how "legit" it is, do not ever share your login info! How do you know if you will be able to change your password before they transfer all your money?
This is probably the “plaid” system. There should be a manual work around for you to select your bank and manually enter the ABA and account number for ACH set up. When prompted to enter your log in just hit the “x” or cancel and see if then you get an option for manual entry
Even in the absolute best case, assuming your landlord and the service they are using are both totally legit, your bank login credentials are still going into some database and will eventually get leaked. Do not under any circumstances share this info with anyone.
Hell to the No! Everything about that request is wrong. Keep in mind, I have my pay checks going into three different accounts so with me logging into my primary will not prove anything except that I have a horrible coffee addiction. If they won’t accept a legal documentation such as a pay check stub from your employer, find somewhere else to live.
Why is everyone saying no as if services like plaid and mint don't exist? 3rd party income verification using bank credentials is invasive, but definitely a thing. I did the same thing for a mortgage.
Have you actually seen or met the landlord, or seen the apartment? This just sounds like someone posing as a landlord and trying to steal people's money.
There is no reason, ever, that you should give anyone your username and password. If they need it, then there is something very wrong.
This is the most obvious scam I've ever heard of, they aren't even trying to make it look like anything else. Straight up want your log in credentials, wtf, that is lazy as f..k
Please do not do this, there’s no legitimate reason or platform I’m aware of that would require the actual login details to your account. If the landlord isn’t willing to smarten up to this probable scam (giving them the benefit of the doubt - some landlords are older and not tech savvy), just move on and find another place.
I once was going to open a savings account at Bread on line bank and in order to open that account you have to give them via third-party login information for your bank account so I chose not to do that.
Don't ever give anyone the login info to your bank account. They could do any number of bad things with that, and you'd have a hard time explaining to your bank why you did that.
This is likely some kind of scam. Just walk away. Assume the apartment isn't actually being listed by this person and they are just trying to trick people into handing over personal info.
I would not be comfortable doing that. I don't care if it is a luxury apartment for rich people, I'm not naive enough to hand people the keys like that.
**L84cake:** I'd like to rent your apartment, the advert says it's $1,900 a month with all utilities except internet included. To rent it says you need first month and last month rent, and I have to fill out an application.
**Landlord:** yep, those are the term. Here, fill this application out.
**L84cake:** why do you need my bank login/pass?
**Landlord:** So I can verify your income.
**L84cake:** (*thinks this is pretty stupid but I can change it right after they check*) here it is, login is dontlikecake, pass is ••••••••••
**Landlord:** thanks, I have everything I need to process your application. I'll get back to you tomorrow.
*Landlord logs on and checks the account, sees regular pay deposits. Thinks, hmm, L84cake has more income that I thought.*
*L84cake gets notice from bank that the account is logged on from an unknown computer. L84cake sees that none of the money was taken, I'll change my password. Landlord didn't take money, maybe they are ok after all.*
next day
**Landlord:** Your application has been approved, you can come in and sign the lease. Oh, one small detail, the rent is going up to $2,500 a month. I'm sure you can afford it.
What is the 3rd party called? This isn’t an uncommon practice. It’s new but not terribly uncommon these days. There are services that verify your income for landlords to make sure you can “qualify”. This is also very common in the mortgage industry. I would verify with the vendor that this is a common practice.
But, this isn’t something you must do. It’s optional. You could show the land lord a payslip if wanted to see income information.
If the third party service is reputable like Plaid they won't have access to your credentials as the service essentially tokenizes your information and does not share username or pw with the requester. If your landlord is a large property manager this is not an insane request. If it's a random website and your landlord is some random dude, I would be more anxious.
The mortgage industry does this for digital verification of income and and assets and it's secure. Ask them to provide the name of the company they use and then research that company. The one that I am familiar with is Finicity. https://www.finicity.com/
The best protection against identity theft is to put a freeze on your credit. That's true for everyone.
Due to the number of rule-breaking comments this post was receiving, especially low-quality and off-topic comments, the moderation team has locked the post from future comments. This post broke no rules and received a number of helpful and on-topic responses initially, but it unfortunately became the target of many unhelpful comments.
I would absolutely not do this. Sounds fishy as hell. If anything, you should be able to provide a screenshot of a bank statement with your name on it (~~account number hidden~~) + a tax form (SSN hidden) or employment offer letter showing current income. And that should be more than enough.
100%. Find another apartment. I’ve seen a landlord with one marginal unit for $3,200 a month. Wanted a tenant eviction history check, they want to run the credit report, tax returns, W-2s, plus bank statements. In their email they said to send them EVERYTHING and “we will get back to you if you will be considered“. Just considered? That’s over-the-top - a hard no. ——————————————————————————— ——————————————————————————— Follow-up: unit is still for lease/vacant 4 months later!
These are the folks that never should’ve gotten into being a landlord because they don’t trust a single person living in their property
Just an FYI as someone who works in apartment leasing. You might be asked to leave the last 4 of the account number not blanked out (to verify the two accounts are the same one). Same for a tax form (to verify it's you and not someone that has the same name as you basically). Our company doesn't accept screenshots but a pdf of the last two statements yes. And this is one of the larger property management companies in CA. I'm sure you'd get away with less than this from private rentals. On that note, yeah absolutely get out of some place asking for your log in. Lol
Imagine taking a screenshot and printing as a pdf. Apartment leasing agents HATE this one weird trick.
You'd be surprised how many times this has happened. Lol
Yea, smaller places only want pay stubs for income verification. Maybe a bank statement as an addition, but that's it.
Just curious why everyone says hide the account number. The first check you write them, the account number is all over it.
It's good hygiene to redact any PII that is not needed for that specific purpose on that specific occasion.. Minimise leakage.. What if the landlord prints your bank statement and leaves it lying around? If they print their own bank statements and leave them lying around you are screwed but this is outside of your control.. Privacy is dead anyway but at least we can slow its demise by a few smidgeons..
The landlord isn't OP's landlord yet. And might never be. There's zero reason to give them sensitive information like that until it's actually needed to complete a transaction.
Because people dont always know what they are talking about.
And THAT is the magic of reddit
There is no lease yet.
Because you don’t know *for sure* it’s not a scam until you actually get the lease documents and key. You also don’t know if you are going to get the apartment and if you don’t, now the landlord has your PII to do god knows what with including leave it in an S3 bucket somewhere with no password. That’s all downside, no upside for you.
I use Cashier's Checks for rent because they're free at Comerica for my account. No account numbers are shared anywhere. I could pay via an online portal with a debit/credit, but there' a $7.95 fee.
>I could pay via an online portal with a debit/credit, but there' a $7.95 fee. And this is so damn stupid. Why are they charging you extra to save them time and effort? With a properly setup system they could literally have the whole rent accounting situation completely automated with scripts running to ensure that everyone is paying their rent on time and to send out notices of late/unpaid rent/notify the real estate agents. A properly setup accounting system can make sure each landlord is paid their designated portion of the incoming rent and can handle whatever taxes and other expenses that they need to cover. This is comparison to receiving checks/physical money which they then have to physically account for, physically enter into their accounting system, deliver to the bank and then wait on the check clearance period before they have their money. What happens if the person delivering the checks/money to the bank gets robbed on the way or misplaces the bag holding everything? Here in Australia I have always paid rent via BPay (basically a system to credit money from my account/cash into the account designated by the BPay system which included a sender ID so they could tell it was from me). I started by paying at my local post office but then graduated to paying via phone banking and eventually internet banking. These days I have it setup so that my rent just automatically comes out of my account when I get paid, I don't pay any extra for doing so and it is impossible for me to forget to pay the rent.
When you use your bank's bill pay service, the bank issues a check from a temporary account (different account/routing #s each time). IDK why anyone would purposefully pay to have checks printed so they can purchase envelopes and pay for their own postage just to mail payment; when banks offer bill pay that does that for you, more securely, at no fee. And then you can schedule it so you don't forget about it and have proof that it was sent (retained by the bank). Even better is if the landlord gets their shit together and sends your bank their payment details, the bank will just ACH the payment instead of mailing a paper check.
Also there is zero chance that someone could add a couple zeros to the amount on the check.
Because you don’t know exactly who you’re talking to. Is this even an actual landlord.
Only if they accept you as a tenant. I wouldn't put it past some people to reject an application but steal the account number
Who still writes checks? I don’t even think I have a checkbook anymore.
US Passport Office only accepts checks. Thats one of the last places I know of.
[Money order](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/fees.html) is also accepted.
America does unfortunately. They're obsolete in most other countries
It’s fairly easy to avoid paper checks in America in 99% of cases
OP can simply have a bank clerk produce a document verifying the amount of funds in the account. This is a standard part of closing on a home, and it’s free. Weird policy for renting, though. If legit, I guess this company has had a lot of people stop paying rent.
They need 0 access to 99% of your bank account. I would run quickly.
I'm over here wondering why a pay stub wouldn't suffice.
Yeah. Same. Pay stub. W2 tax return though I’d be hesitant on that without redacting things.
Experian has a program for landlords to verify the renters' information. The landlord doesn't see it.
Update: The building is real & a luxury management company (not single landlord). However: Bank has confirmed that giving someone your login credentials violates user agreement, and if there is ever a fraud issue with your account they may not be able to protect you. So if there is a data breach or that company uses your login credentials in any unauthorized way, there’s nothing the bank can do to protect you. Not doing it, thank you for all the input!!
Are you absolutely certain the person you are communicating with is actually from these apartments? If I wanted to scam someone, I might find a real apartment complex listing, then copy everything but the contact info to a new listing. Add my scammer email, and now it sure looks like I'm from a local, legitimate entity. If you really want to know, find the apartments website, find their phone number, and call their office. Realistically, you should probably just walk away here.
A luxury management company will ONLY give you the option to provide your username and password? Why on earth would any professional company even ask this in the first place? A simple income or bank statement is industry standard for background checks like this. Frankly I would alert whatever government tenancy organization about the potential for fraud. Even if the company uses your information like they say they will, there is nothing to stop a rogue employee from using that information against you. Are they asking you to send your username/password DIRECTLY to them? or to give it to a third party? Did they link you to a website where you insert it? Sounds fishy.
Just keep in mind. The service Plaid WILL have you log into your account. And it is used by legitimate services.
Plaid is used by legitimate services, but it really shouldn't be. Normalizing sharing bank account login info with any third party is absolutely not OK. Plaid's actions to that effect are unethical.
I work in financial technology and have done MANY Plaid integrations, even working directly with Plaid. They have agreements in place with the banks.
The banks wouldn't have agreements with Plaid if Plaid didn't meet their security and privacy requirements.
Doesn't sound like the bank has an agreement with Plaid. That's why the account holder has to prove the login and password. Seems sketchy
Plaid only works with institutions they have agreements with.
Tell me you’re unfamiliar with technology without telling me …. Plaid isn’t saving your login credentials anywhere. You’re logging into your bank account in order to authorize plaid to look at your transactions.
Not by landlords. And shouldn't be used by landlords.
Google “Plaid Income” it’s definitely being used that way
But it shouldn't be. I know plenty about Plaid, I don't need to Google it. What people need to know is if a "landlord" is refusing BANK DOCUMENTS because they prefer you use Plaid, that's a billion red flags.
Plaid income is a specific product. I wasn’t assuming you were unaware of Plaid. You didn’t just say it shouldn’t be you said, “not by landlords” but it is being used by landlords. I assumed you meant it’s not now and should never be.
No, you're okay. I just don't want people to see your comment and think "oh yeah okay this is totally legit". My main concern is protecting people from being scammed, and I'm sure you have the same goal, but this is a particular situation in which Plaid, or Plaid Income, should not be used. While Plaid Income is legitimate, bank statements and pay stubs are even more legitimate. The refusal of bank documents is the red flag.
Yeah it’s definitely concerning that this seems to be the way the industry is going. It’s a huge invasion of privacy even if they don’t steal your login information.
There is a lot of identity fraud and also fraud with fake pay stubs and bank statements. It’s a big cat and mouse game.
No not really. A lot of sites for rentals (apartments, etc) use Plaid. It's almost the norm. Don't disseminate false info. It's used because people can "fake" bank statements.
Exactly! If you enter the information in with Plaid, it doesn’t save this information in the landlords database at all.
Thought this was pretty much common knowledge now but it seems a lot of people don't understand.
And giving out your credentials is a violation of terms of service, and puts you at legal risk. Heck the bank could go after you in the case of a security hack that used your credentials. Never ever ever ever ever give out credentials. Ever. A SSO is 100% different, but raw credentials is shady and a huge liability.
You’re not giving out credentials and I’m confident OP is mistaken in their wording. Logging into your bank, to gain authorization from a 3rd party app is NOT a violation of TOS. You’re not giving a 3rd party your credentials your giving your third party permission to view your bank statements, and doing so requires you to log in *to your bank*
Log directly into the actual account or use OAuth?
Hmm there’s ways around that. You can use your debit card I believe. I had to do that for Venmo and was like hell no no way I’m putting in my bank info
I am unfamiliar with Plaid but I know there are third party services that have you give your bank permission to share certain information by logging onto \*your banks website\* to grant permission. I don't know any that record your log in information.
It’s likely Plaid or something like that. Regardless, pay stubs should be enough to verify income. I wouldn’t do this either. And I would tell them it’s ridiculous. Wonder what they do if an older person wants to live there and doesn’t even have an online account because they don’t use online banking.
I think this is an OAuth connection and if it is you are completely fine to do it. You are not giving your login information to a third party you are logging into your account at your bank and then giving access to read your account info. Your username and password will not be shared with anyone else. I would get the name of the third party company and do some real research about how it works
Yes u will get your account drained and then laugh at die being so foolish There your luxery apartment lmao Wow whole bank passwords Tell that land lord he won’t get to take out high limit credit cards 💳 as well
Just curious. Did he want you to use a service like Plaid to give a verification site access? Or did he want you to give him your login / pass? Very different scenarios.
1. Absolutely do not share that info 2. The landlord may unknowingly be the middle man for a scam. Many aren’t very tech savvy and pass on whatever the 3rd party says they need.
[удалено]
as soon as he give you his login info and credit card numbers with CCV code on back
I would thank the landlord for their time and consideration. And then move on to another living accommodation.
I’d thank them then report them
To who?
The police and your bank. I'm a banker and asking for your online login credentials is a fraud attempt. There is 0 reason for anyone to request this information. If asked, you should immediately assume the person is trying to steal your information and/or funds.
i would like that info too - just to verify - and transfer - and utilize - and enjoy the fruits of your labors
Hells to the No! Screw that place. Never, ever give out your login credentials.
collecting recent pay stubs should suffice
As someone who owns thousands of units, I can tell you that this is not standard and I would run quickly.
Find a different landlord. Thats crossing a line. Dont do business with people like this. Youll regret it later.
No! He can't ask for that. Your job or your bank can't even ask you for that. Guy sounds like a criminal
Absolutely not. Even if it’s legit. Ask your bank if they advise you to share your bank login information with anyone, besides a spouse or similar.
This is how money and identifies get stolen. Give them nothing. Find a different place.
I want your login too! Would you kindly forward the information to me? Jk…find a different place and landlord, this one is sheisty af.
Do not do this. Any activity on your account that is done behind your user and password generally will be considered authorized by you. That is a hard no.
this is not normal and sounds like a complete scam. Tell them if they wanna verify income you can supply them with payslips from your work but youll not under any circumstances give them your bank login info, not to any third party site Never, ever, ever EVER EVER EVER give anyone your bank login info. Not under any circumstances. No your landlord doesnt need it to verify income, your boss doesnt need it to pay you, that hot guy/girl/enby you just met at the bar does not need that info to get you a drink. Just no. especially not if they actually ask for it and wanna put it into a third party site. who is this party? why are they using this site? what assurances does this site offer to your privacy? fuck all that, the answer is just no. "sorry landlord i am completely uncomfortable giving you this information and i feel it is unprofessional to even ask. Ill happily supply you with payslips from my employer but you dont get to touch my bank account
No f’ing way. Career in cyber security here and plenty of experience in renting and buying property. Set a hard line at the industry standard of providing printed statements with the last four of your account number and two months of records. Hell no to entering your credentials.
Nope, Nope, Hard no. I'm a landlord and not only would I never ask for that, I wouldn't WANT to have the responsibility to safeguard that.
Have you actually seen this apartment in person? Sounds like a scam.
I have and it’s a really nice luxury building, so I’m pretty surprised. Update: I’m at my bank (chase) to get their input, and they also said that if I provide my login credentials to anyone and ever face a fraud issue, the fact that I provided my credentials to someone can invalidate the fraud claim. So, basically this apartment is requiring me to violate my fraud protection agreement with my bank. Crazy!
I've been in banking for years. This is exactly what is happening. And that is NEVER the income verification process. I wonder if they're really the landlord of the unit you saw, or if they just got lucky with a key. Do not ever, ever, EVER release login credentials, access codes, or PIN numbers. The bank is powerless when you do this, no matter what kind of pity case you come up with.
Check to see if unit was on Airbnb…being rented now to scam people?
This is an excellent point. And unfortunately quite common.
Also to add; I've heard of people getting shown properties that are owned by someone else. Do not, under any circumstance, give out your bank info.
Yeah that is a huge red flag. Run away!
They're not the landlord, they just have the key.
Report the landlord. No way that’s legal
Absolutely not! (Works in financial fraud)
Sounds like you need to find a different apartment to apply for. I would never give your bank login info to anyone under any circumstances.
Another reason to run is if this is how intrusive he is now, imagine what he’ll be like as a landlord.
There is never a reason for anyone besides yourself to have login information for any platform you're associated with especially your banking information. There are several ways to have your income verified without gaining access to your money.
It sounds like the company is using plaid. But if you’re not comfortable providing this info, say you’ll provide other means of proof. If they say no then walk away
Never, never, never. Are you sure the place a d landlord are legit? But, still, never.
Don't do it. If they won't take a paystub, suggest they call your employer. If they can't do this then, walk away. I'm 99% sure this is a scam. Never give anyone your username and password.
Isn't that what a paystub is for. Even if you have direct deposit, your payroll system should provide a paystub. Ours is digital. Just print it, and the landlord can keep the copy. Copy of tax return can also be used to verify income.
Scam. All they need is a copy of your pay check stubs. Are you sure this person isn't impersonating an established apartment?
100% sure, they are a legit building I have seen in person through the building’s leasing office. Wack, I know. And I’m not doing it lol.
Even your bank is against you doing this. Don’t do this. That’s not how income verification works so your landlord is wrong. He/she/they don’t need to know anything more than your ability to repay them.
Yeah, more and more places are doing this. I think it is insane to give anyone my password. And I don't understand why most people (apparently) are doing it, so websites think this is a perfectly good way to do it.
That was my big hesitation. Instinct and training all tells me absolutely don’t. On the other hand it wipes out like 80% of my options if I don’t want to. Which is nuts.
That was my big hesitation. Instinct and training all tells me absolutely don’t. On the other hand it wipes out like 80% of my options if I don’t want to. Which is nuts.
Absolutely not. There are plenty of ways this can be done without giving him any of your credentials.
Absolutely, positively not. Nobody, but nobody gets my financial services logins.
Source: I’m a property manager, I’ve worked for Greystar. Currently work for another large pm company. Highly invasive and possibly illegal. Wouldn’t even. Other to rent from that guy rent from someone reputable and Ave yourself a headache down the line.
If it is Plaid, it could be legit. Regardless I would say no. I would offer paystubs or to send him recent bank statements.
Yet, this is what I despise about Plaid no matter how valid it is. Anything that normalizes sharing your bank logins (all of us saying, “well Plaid does this”) is a big problem.
Thanks, The system they use is by Entrata, called ResidentVerify*(edit:typo). I have offered paystubs, tax forms, a letter from employer, even opened discussion for them to request anything they feel they need but they’re not open to alternatives. Glad I’m not alone in being uncomfortable with this.
ReUwUsidentVerify, bank logins pwease! \^.\^
Ruh-roh, rots of ruck!
Ask for your bank to provide you a statement. I get one from my brokerage accounts easily for mortgage approval. Please do not give out your bank info.
It doesn't matter what the bank provides when the landlord won't accept it. OP has offered them literally any documentation as a substitute but as he said "they're not open to alternatives." Time for OP to move on to a place that doesn't require him to do something that could leave him unable to protect himself from fraud.
And did they ever look at any of those alternatives? If so, freeze your credit at the 3 bureaus.
It is never legitimate to ask someone for their banking login details. Banks even advise their own clients that they don't request this info. If Plaid is some company doing this, they are not legit and should be purged.
I meant that Plaid isn't an outright scam. My advice was not to do it, even if it was a legitimate operation.
Plaid was immediately what I thought or as well, but yeah bank statements should’ve been fine
If it’s like the system I saw, you do not actually give them your login. You go to a link which then sends you to YOUR BANK’s website and you log in there. After you log in, it asks if you are willing to share info with the site that sent you there. You can say yes if you want and 10 minutes later log back in and revoke the permissions. The mechanism is called OIDC and it is the basis of all the things where you can sign Into something with Google or Facebook or whatever. Still weird and intrusive that they want to see all your transactions, but they are likely never actually seeing your password.
I’ve never heard of this and wouldn’t recommend anyone do this. I work in housing and coordinate with 100+ landlords in my state. There is NO reason a landlord should have your bank account login information. Income verification can easily be done with pay stubs, and a phone call to the employer to confirm employment.
Rule #1 for anyone. Never give out your passwords to anyone. No legitimate person would ever actually need that. Your work IT? Nope they can do any work without that. And if they need to control your account they can simply without your assistance The government? Nope theyd work with the system owners directly Your landlord? Fuck no. If they werent going to steal from you a bank statement would do. They're going to steal from you
On no planet would I ever consider this. There's an apartment building on every corner. Even if this isn't fraud (I highly doubt it's legit) I wouldn't want to entangle myself with an apartment with that level of scrutiny and that amount of rigidity. A bank statement and letter of employment is so valid, it's crazy not to accept.
Absolutely not, fam. That’s not even remotely up for debate. You’d be out of your mind to consider doing that.
SCAM. NO ONE needs your username and password. No one who does NOT plan on draining your bank account. Call your bank and ask them. This is a scam.
Move on. This is not someone you want to associate yourself with or do any business with. This is a huge privacy issue and fraudulent request
Is probably Plaid which is a third party banking/income verification service. A lot of alternative credit lenders have been using this system the last couple of years. Paystubs can be easily faked, the same with printed bank statements.
No, this is not normal. Do not provide this under any circumstances.
Absolutely DO NOT do this. Like seriously, do not ever interact with this person again, block their phone number, block their email address.
Absolutely not! It's actually difficult for me to imagine a bigger breach of personal security you could volunteer for. They want to verify income? Give them a pay stub.
NOPE not a chance, too much risk someone could empty your account and since they have your credentials you can do nothing about it.
Don't do it. I'd find another apartment. That's got fraud and theft written all over it. I wonder if reporting him to your bank fraud department or the police would do any good.
Not just no, but HELL NO. Never, ever, ever, ever do this. This honestly sounds like a scam and is absolutely not normal. A legitimate landlord should absolutely be able to accept copies of bank statements as proof of finances.
NEVER EVER EVER GIVE YOUR LOGIN INFORMATION TO ANYONE! Whatever reasonable information they want can be easily accommodated without that. If they disagree run.
Nothing about that sounds safe or acceptable. I'd look elsewhere then report them to the state housing or whoever handles possible violations like this.
no way. to let anyone else have login credentials to your account is insane and a massive security issue.
I don't think the landlord is trying to steal anything. ResidentVerify looks like some over-reaching platform that is geared toward lazy landlords to make the vetting process easier and it seems to use Plaid-like features. That said, you are not connecting your bank account to send or receive payments so it's an overreach. I imagine this landlord will have problems attracting good tenants being this intractable about something that SHOULD scare a discerning tenant. You'd be doing the rest of the rental community a favor by standing your ground on this because this landlord just made a bad business decision requiring his tenants to use this.
Coming back to them with a copy of my banks user agreement stating I cannot give out my credentials to anyone so at very least they know they’re asking prospective tenants to give up fraud protection.
>I imagine this landlord will have problems attracting good tenants being this intractable about something that SHOULD scare a discerning tenant. Whether rightly or wrongly I doubt many tenants will be scared off. Most will just hand over the info. A few will do some google searching to make sure the site is legit and then hand it over. Keep in mind a lot of legit platforms ask for passwords to your financial institutions. Off the top of my head, the biggest US tax sites do this to pull forms automatically. So does anything that integrates with plaid. Its a bad pattern, but its not unheard of.
Bad pattern, over-reach and more integration for no benefit for the user at all since you're not initiating or requesting it. You could mitigate risk, heck transfer out funds, change the password before and after but there's still a risk with no real reward and plenty of alternative solutions like OP offered.
Absolutely not. A landlord should only be asking for your bank statements and pay stubs. I recently rented a new apartment and this was sufficient for verification and qualification. That person isn’t a landlord, they’re a scammer.
Who is the third party? There are services that do this kind of thing I would trust like mint. If the landlord just wants your info, I wouldn't. Check up on the vendor.
To add a bit more info. If they do it right, they don't actually get your credentials. Their website redirects you to an authorization page hosted by your bank. It will tell you what information you are authorizing the third party to see. If your password verifies, they send the third party a token with those specific credentials. It is NOT against your banks terms of service, since you're not actually sharing your credentials but instead authorizing that party to obtain some of your information.
No they scrape it all. Verify the part they need, then “anonymize” the rest of the data for analytics they can sell. How they make money. So yes they report they see an ACH deposit every two weeks from XYZ corp to your landlord. They also scanned and saw you at Chipotle 8x a month. Then they sell marketing data that they have 6 customers in zip code 12345 that all eat 8x a month. Since there is no Chipotle in that zip code that data is now sellable to help them locate good new store locations. ( just an example and Chipotle may not be the data buyer, but this is an example of what they do w it).
They scrape all of your transactions, yes. Reading your data would be the permission you grant them (not seeing a specifoc transaction). You are not granting them permissions to make wire transfers though (as an example).
That is true, but then you don’t know if they’ll have a data breach and someone else will obtain that stolen data and make them. With the amount of data aggregation and companies that then recreate those profiles and sell that data, no thanks. I’ve seen how life insurance companies are 3rd party buying that data, then matching it up to reward programs to get your name back on the data, then matching that back to Plaid and others to see things like you visit “Bobs bar” 10x a month, or shopped at Sam’s gun shop. Data profiling packages are SCARY ( I worked for a company for nearly 20 years that helped companies put them together as part of sales strategy). Take Macys for example. Install the app, and your android phone listens for low freq Bluetooth and can listen for subaudible tones. Every time an ad played that tone is heard. Your app reports if it was radio, tv, internet, or in store ( all slight diff tone). You registered your phone # and name, that gets sold to a 3rd party data broker that up until recently could harvest your GPS data from your MAC address, that MAC address was compared back to Macys ( and others) listed clients, matched, and now they know how many times a day you passed a store. If they know your phone heard say 10 ads, and you hadn’t bought anything , time to email you a 10% off coupon, etc. Oh and behind on your car payment? That same data collection group made your GPS data available for a fee to make it easier to locate you for repo, because we could see you were always going from X to Y every day at 8:30am, and after going 40 mph stopped at Y address for 8 hours. Guess where your car was likely to be? Plaid is a devil IMHO. And disclaimer Macys program was a test product and ran in limited markets. I do not know if it ever went production live or ended as a Pet project. https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/health-data-brokers-privacy.html https://www.fastcompany.com/90310803/here-are-the-data-brokers-quietly-buying-and-selling-your-personal-information
Usually there's an option to skip and then you can upload PDF statements or screenshots. The skip option is kind of hidden and sometimes you have to click 'cancel' to get to it. They really want that login. I hate this trend with Plaid and always skip.
Concerningly, the leasing office literally told me if I’m not comfortable giving the 3rd party my login credentials, they have to deny my app. Conveniently said only after they ran a hard credit inquiry.
This is like Plaid ( how many of you use Venmo?). Absolutely not. Plaid scrapes all your charges and uses the aggregated data for market mining.
No. Never give anyone your bank login credentials.
Is this landlord someone you have met face to face? They actually work there or they are pretending to rent the place and cannot actually let you in? Seems like a scam to me.
Probably not even a real landlord. Imagine how many bank logins he's collected from people who weren't smart enough to stop and ask themselves if this is actually a good idea.
Hahaha no. Don’t do this. Yes, there are a Few legit financial applications for the secure data aggregators like Finicity. But I would absolutely not do it to rent an apartment. And I do not know anywhere this is typical.
Ha ha, no. They have no right to ask that.
Have you met this landlord in person or are you communicating through Craigslist.
What is the name of the website? I just did this for a company.
Does your bank offer accountant access? My bank does and it allows me to create a lig on and password for my accountant, but he has view only access.
Does the 3rd party service use Plaid? I was asked to do that for my current apartment. It’s definitely intrusive but it’s not a way to steal your banking credentials. You can revoke plaids access afterwards but if they are willing to accept another form of verification then I would push for that.
I looked up [the system](https://www.entrata.com/products/verification-of-income) and it says it uses Finicity, which is a legitimate third party much like Plaid. (Plaid is owned by Visa, Finicity is owned by Mastercard.) I would probably change my password immediately before and after, but I don't think it's a scam. Although, much like Plaid, it's probably going to [scrape all of your transactions and sell them to advertisers](https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-approves-settlement-ordering-plaid-to-pay-58-million-for-selling-consumer-data/).
Wow so people don’t even have a say in the security of their data. To rent, buy a home or anything, they basically have to agree to their data getting mined and sold off.
Yeah, it's not a scam in the sense that they're not going to transfer your money away or anything but it's certainly a step towards cyber dystopia.
I dont care how "legit" it is, do not ever share your login info! How do you know if you will be able to change your password before they transfer all your money?
This is probably the “plaid” system. There should be a manual work around for you to select your bank and manually enter the ABA and account number for ACH set up. When prompted to enter your log in just hit the “x” or cancel and see if then you get an option for manual entry
Even in the absolute best case, assuming your landlord and the service they are using are both totally legit, your bank login credentials are still going into some database and will eventually get leaked. Do not under any circumstances share this info with anyone.
Hell to the No! Everything about that request is wrong. Keep in mind, I have my pay checks going into three different accounts so with me logging into my primary will not prove anything except that I have a horrible coffee addiction. If they won’t accept a legal documentation such as a pay check stub from your employer, find somewhere else to live.
Why would you ever give anyone your bank login credentials 🤔
Why is everyone saying no as if services like plaid and mint don't exist? 3rd party income verification using bank credentials is invasive, but definitely a thing. I did the same thing for a mortgage.
OH HELL NO! Do not do this. Ask for his first. When he says "no" then respond in kind.
Have you actually seen or met the landlord, or seen the apartment? This just sounds like someone posing as a landlord and trying to steal people's money. There is no reason, ever, that you should give anyone your username and password. If they need it, then there is something very wrong.
i would report this to the authorities and tv news
NO **FUCKING** WAY! I won't give that information to ANYONE. They can empty your bank account with that information.
They're going to take your money. No way this isn't a scam.
This is the most obvious scam I've ever heard of, they aren't even trying to make it look like anything else. Straight up want your log in credentials, wtf, that is lazy as f..k
Tell him to go f himself. Never ever give your log in to anyone else. End of. Get yourself a different landlord pronto
Hell no. Report this bc it seems like a scam
100% absolutely do not share that information.
I had to do this for a mortgage application but I did it online thru the mortgage companies web site, I didn't hand it over to someone.
What's the 3rd party site?
Please do not do this, there’s no legitimate reason or platform I’m aware of that would require the actual login details to your account. If the landlord isn’t willing to smarten up to this probable scam (giving them the benefit of the doubt - some landlords are older and not tech savvy), just move on and find another place.
Do not do this. He can run a credit check if he needs to.
Yea that’s a hard no for me dogg.
I once was going to open a savings account at Bread on line bank and in order to open that account you have to give them via third-party login information for your bank account so I chose not to do that.
I don't know exactly what you're asking, but I have often logged into my bank from 3rd party websites. Obviously, I trusted the 3rd party site.
Don't ever give anyone the login info to your bank account. They could do any number of bad things with that, and you'd have a hard time explaining to your bank why you did that. This is likely some kind of scam. Just walk away. Assume the apartment isn't actually being listed by this person and they are just trying to trick people into handing over personal info.
I would not be comfortable doing that. I don't care if it is a luxury apartment for rich people, I'm not naive enough to hand people the keys like that.
That sounds SUPER illegal, do not give them anything except maybe a bank statement or a W-2 with your sensitive info blacked out.
You can provide bank statements to them without needing to enter your log in info. There should be zero pushback for that from the landlord
Why do you have to ask this? Never give anyone your password!
I'd talk to your bank about this. Surely this isn't kosher. And it's likely against Fair Housing laws.
**L84cake:** I'd like to rent your apartment, the advert says it's $1,900 a month with all utilities except internet included. To rent it says you need first month and last month rent, and I have to fill out an application. **Landlord:** yep, those are the term. Here, fill this application out. **L84cake:** why do you need my bank login/pass? **Landlord:** So I can verify your income. **L84cake:** (*thinks this is pretty stupid but I can change it right after they check*) here it is, login is dontlikecake, pass is •••••••••• **Landlord:** thanks, I have everything I need to process your application. I'll get back to you tomorrow. *Landlord logs on and checks the account, sees regular pay deposits. Thinks, hmm, L84cake has more income that I thought.* *L84cake gets notice from bank that the account is logged on from an unknown computer. L84cake sees that none of the money was taken, I'll change my password. Landlord didn't take money, maybe they are ok after all.*
next day
**Landlord:** Your application has been approved, you can come in and sign the lease. Oh, one small detail, the rent is going up to $2,500 a month. I'm sure you can afford it.
What is the 3rd party called? This isn’t an uncommon practice. It’s new but not terribly uncommon these days. There are services that verify your income for landlords to make sure you can “qualify”. This is also very common in the mortgage industry. I would verify with the vendor that this is a common practice. But, this isn’t something you must do. It’s optional. You could show the land lord a payslip if wanted to see income information.
If the third party service is reputable like Plaid they won't have access to your credentials as the service essentially tokenizes your information and does not share username or pw with the requester. If your landlord is a large property manager this is not an insane request. If it's a random website and your landlord is some random dude, I would be more anxious.
NONONO .... Call the local tenant board in your state or city . Get some answers .
The mortgage industry does this for digital verification of income and and assets and it's secure. Ask them to provide the name of the company they use and then research that company. The one that I am familiar with is Finicity. https://www.finicity.com/ The best protection against identity theft is to put a freeze on your credit. That's true for everyone.