Electronic Consumer Credit Checks

AIMsi has the ability to electronically perform consumer credit checks. This can be very useful for retailers that require credit approval for Rent, Sales or Installment Contracts.

Credit checks can be performed using Experian, Trans Union or Equifax.

AIMsi allows you to setup up to three different levels of credit checking. If you require a higher credit score for your Sales Contracts vs. your Rent to Rent contracts you can establish a second level.

To run a credit check, go to menu option Customer/Credit Check/Credit Check. Select the customer. Select the type of credit being applied for. Click the Check Credit button. You will receive a message stating the customer has been approved, denied or must be approved by your credit department. One of three different receipts will print based on approval, denial or manual approval. The receipts can be customized in the System Comments program. You also have the ability to print a word document for customers that are denied. This can be setup in the Maintain Word Templates program.

To view a customer’s credit report, go to menu option Customer/Credit Check/View Credit Check. This will show the customers FICO score. You can right click in the grid to reprint the receipt or view the credit report. The credit report will be opened in your default HTML viewing client. (i.e. Internet Explorer) It is highly recommended that you secure out this program, as it will contain sensitive information. For security reasons, the FICO score and Credit Report are encrypted in the AIMsi database.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that you notify customers that you take adverse action against (i.e. denying them credit) on how they can obtain a copy of their credit report. You can setup a letter in Microsoft Word that can be printed from the Report Catalog/Customer/Credit Check Adverse Action Letters. The tags available are listed in TagIndex.doc in your templates folder. A sample “Adverse Action” letter (dtAdverseAction.dot) can also be found in the templates folder. The sample letter is not intended to be used by your store. You should make sure that the letter that you send meets the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The report Credit Check Delinquency Analysis will list delinquent rental contracts and show the number of contracts and the average credit score.

The report Credit Check Report will list credit checks by location and show credit check details for each customer.

Tri-Technical Systems Inc. recommends that you become familiar with the laws and procedures that you must follow when checking consumer credit.