While your nosy neighbor isn’t allowed to look up your credit score, almost any business with a legitimate purpose can. So what makes a credit inquiry legitimate as opposed to a neighbor’s snooping?

The rules that govern who can look at your scores are spelled out clearly in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Someone who wants to see your score must have an acceptable business or financial reason to do so. People who are evaluating whether you qualify for credit cards, loans, insurance policies, jobs, or housing rentals all have a “legitimate” reason for looking at your credit score. For those situations, a credit score is vital in determining whether you are a good candidate or not – their businesses depend on this information to know you are consistent, trustworthy, and dependable with money. What this means is that any company that stands to gain from looking at your score is entitled to do so.

In most of these situations, though, a person must first authorize the company to obtain their credit score. If you don’t want your loan adviser to look at your credit score, then he won’t be able to. The only caveat is that if you refuse, you probably won’t be getting that loan…