How to Do a Background Check on Yourself

To run a background check on yourself, pull your credit reports, search court and criminal records, then see what a stranger can find about you online. It takes a few steps because no single source holds everything. Doing it before a job, a rental or a date means you hear about problems first.

• Credit report: free every week from AnnualCreditReport.com
• Court and criminal records: state by state, plus PACER for federal cases
• Public footprint: a Deepscanner report in about 2 minutes
• Errors: you have the right to dispute them
• Not a screening report: Deepscanner is not an FCRA background check

How do you do a background check on yourself?

You work through four sources in order, because each one covers something the others miss.

1. Your credit reports. They show accounts, loans and collections under your name.
2. Court records. Check the state and county courts where you have lived.
3. Your state's criminal history request. Most states let you ask for your own record.
4. Your public footprint. This is what strangers find with a quick search.

The first three are official but slow. Each one is separate, and none of them talk to each other. The fourth is where a Deepscanner report saves you the most time, because it pulls addresses, phone numbers, relatives and social profiles into one report instead of ten searches.

Start with the records that carry the most weight, then finish with what any stranger can see. Set aside an afternoon for the official routes.

Can you run a background check on yourself?

Yes. Nothing stops you from looking up your own records, and many people do it before they apply for anything important.

There are two different things people mean by this. One is a formal screening report, the kind an employer or landlord orders through a screening company. The other is a look at what is publicly findable about you. Deepscanner does the second. It is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so its report is not an employment or tenant screening check. A formal check comes from a screening company, and you can ask that company for a copy of what it holds on you.

People run one for a few reasons.

• Before a job search: so an old record or a wrong match does not surprise you in an interview.
• Before a rental application: landlords often look at your history first.
• Before a date: the other person may search for you too.
• For peace of mind: to see which addresses and phone numbers are public.

Finding a problem early gives you time to fix it. Finding it in the middle of an application does not.

What shows up on a background check?

It depends on who runs it and which sources they use, but these are the common items.

• Identity: name, aliases, age and past addresses
• Court records: criminal cases, civil cases, bankruptcies
• Credit history: only in checks that are allowed to include it
• Work and school: employment and education history
• Licenses: professional licenses and any actions against them

A public footprint report adds the things a screening company usually leaves out, such as social and dating profiles, usernames, photos and web mentions. A Deepscanner report can include all of those, plus phone numbers, emails, relatives and data-breach exposure. Criminal records and the sex offender check are paid add-ons.

How do you get your credit report for free?

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com, the only site authorized to fill free credit report orders. The 3 nationwide credit bureaus now let you check your report from each one every week for free.

Read it for accounts you do not recognize, wrong addresses and collections you never heard of. These are common signs of a mix-up or identity theft. Know the limit, though. A credit report does not include criminal or court records, so it only covers one part of the picture.

How do you get a copy of your criminal record?

Every state runs its own process, and that is the main friction. Most states have a state police or state bureau that lets you request your own criminal history, often with an ID check, fingerprints or a small fee.

• Search your state's name plus "criminal history request" and use the official state agency page.
• Repeat it for each state where you have lived, since one state does not see another's records.
• Expect to wait. Some states answer in days, others take weeks.

Many state and county court websites also let you search case records by name. Each site has its own layout and its own gaps, so a clean result in one place does not prove a clean record everywhere.

What is PACER?

PACER stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. It is the federal courts' online system for searching appellate, district and bankruptcy court cases.

You need an account to use it. It charges per page, with a cap per document, and it waives fees when you stay under a small quarterly total. It only covers federal courts, so a state traffic case, a local civil suit or a county arrest will not appear there. Cases from before 1999 are generally paper-only, which means a request to the court.

Each official route answers one question well. Put them together, then add a footprint report to see the public side.

How far back does a background check go?

Many screening companies look back 7 years, but the real answer depends on your state and the type of record. Federal law limits how long some items, such as arrests that did not lead to a conviction, can be reported. Some states set shorter limits, and convictions can be reported for longer in many places.

This is why your own copy matters. Old records can appear in one place and be gone in another.

Do background checks show arrests?

They can. Some checks include arrests, charges and convictions, and others limit what they report. Your state may restrict what an employer can use, and sealed or expunged records should not appear.

A common problem is a record that belongs to someone else. People who share your name, or who share a birth year, sometimes end up merged into your file. Check every case against your date of birth and past addresses. If a record is not yours, note the case number, since you will need it when you dispute it.

How do you dispute a background check?

Tell the screening company in writing, and include proof that the record is wrong. Under the FCRA you can dispute inaccurate information, and the company must investigate. Send the same dispute to the source, such as the court or the credit bureau.

1. Get your copy of the report from the company that ran it.
2. Mark each error and attach ID, court papers or other proof.
3. Send it in writing and keep a copy.
4. Follow up and ask for the corrected report.

For records you cannot dispute, like a real old case, ask a court clerk or a local legal aid office whether sealing or expungement is possible in your state. To reduce what strangers find on people search sites, you also have the option to ask each site to remove your listing. Removing your info from people search sites is a request-by-request job, and a fresh report afterward shows whether it actually worked.

Deepscanner is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Do not use it to make decisions about employment, housing, credit, insurance or tenant screening.