If we have 2 unrelated loan applicants, can we pull one credit (joint) credit bureau or must we pull them separately? Does it matter if it is a real estate loan?

If they are applying for joint credit you should be pulling a joint report, the same as you would with married applicants.

Our online access to order credit reports requires:

Name, Address, Social, DAB

For a joint report it thens asks for name and SSN only. Wouldn't it be strange to order a "joint" report for joint applicants not at the same address?

How do you do one for a parent and adult child if the child has their own apartment? I'm new to loans and learning. thanks

Recently the FDIC began citing banks for pulling joint credit for married applicants and separate credit reports for unmarried applicants. The unmarried applicants charge was higher and therefore is a fair lending violation based on marital status. You're treating one set of borrowers differently than the other.

Many banks began doing one of three things: 1) Pulling joint credit bureaus for all loans when there is more than one borrower; 2) pulling individual credit bureaus on every loan; 3) continuing to pull credit the same way as previously performed; however not charging the customer for the credit bureau reports.

Hope this helps. While you might not be in an FDIC regulated institution I'm sure other regulators are also reviewing this process.