Answer: This is a smart thing to be cautious about — connecting banking access to any third-party service deserves some due diligence first. A few concrete things to check:

Look for clear company information. A legitimate service should have a real, findable business — an "About" page, verifiable contact information, and ideally some history or press coverage, not just a landing page with no company details behind it.

Check how they access your bank data. Reputable services typically use licensed financial data aggregators (the same category of technology many budgeting apps use) rather than asking you to hand over your raw banking username and password directly. If a service asks for your actual bank login credentials rather than using a secure connection method, that's a red flag.

Read the privacy policy, specifically. It should clearly state what data is collected, how it's used, and whether it's shared with anyone else. Vague or missing privacy documentation is worth treating as a warning sign.

Confirm which bureaus they actually report to. A legitimate service will be specific and transparent about this (Equifax, TransUnion, or both) rather than vague marketing language about "building your credit" without specifics.

Look for independent reviews, not just testimonials on their own site — check for mentions on Reddit, Trustpilot, or similar third-party platforms.

Established services like TenantPay are worth using as a reference point for what a legitimate provider's transparency should look like — clear information about what's reported, to which bureaus, and how payment verification actually works. Whichever provider you consider, it's reasonable to expect that same level of clarity before connecting any financial account.