We do not charge an application fee. A credit check fee is required to submit your application, and it is a direct third-party cost of reviewing your credit and criminal history.
The fee is taken as a temporary hold on your credit or debit card and is charged only when we actually run your report. If another applicant group is being reviewed ahead of you, your card is not charged until we reach your application.
If your application involves a cosigner
Either of you can pay — it makes no difference to us who does. Most often the cosigner pays the fee for both themselves and the applicant, simply because it moves things along. That is a convenience, not a requirement: if the applicant would rather pay their own fee, just let us know at leasing@fullcirclevt.com.
Only one fee per applicant is ever charged, at the direct cost of running that report. Reports are run one at a time, and the applicant’s is run first, because what it shows determines whether a cosigner is the right route at all. We never charge for a report we do not run.
Why we review both
A cosigner takes on legal responsibility for the rent, so we assess them the way we assess anyone who will be responsible for paying it. A cosigner is additional security rather than a substitute, so your own file is still reviewed and every applicant is measured against the same standard. The one exception is an applicant with no credit history at all, where the cosigner’s file is the one we can assess and the one we use.
We are not able to accept credit reports supplied directly by applicants. Our screening includes identity verification and a criminal history review, and we need to run those ourselves to be confident they are complete.
If you decide to withdraw your application, please email leasing@fullcirclevt.com straight away. The credit check fee is non-refundable once we have begun processing.
