Verifying Your Identity and Understanding the Trust Badge

Identity verification is a one-time government-ID scan and selfie check — not a background/credit check — that confirms you are who you say you are and earns you a visible Trust Badge landlords can see.

Verify your identity →

The one-time fee

Verification normally costs a one-time $5 fee, charged securely through Stripe before the ID scan starts. Platinum includes identity verification. Screening-credit purchases do not waive the fee.

• Add Platinum for this role ($5/month) — identity is included, or
• Pay the $5 Verify fee once for a Trust Badge only.

If Platinum or a prior Verify payment already covers you, the app skips straight to the ID scan. Otherwise, you'll see a Stripe payment form first — once payment succeeds, the scan session starts automatically.

How the ID scan works

Verification runs in a secure hosted flow — VerticalRent never sees or stores your ID photos. The process differs slightly by device:

• On a phone— you're redirected straight into the hosted verification flow in your mobile browser.
• On a desktop or laptop— a QR code appears on screen. Scan it with your phone's camera, complete the ID scan and selfie on your phone, then come back to your computer and click "I Completed Verification — Check My Status".

The scan itself takes about two minutes and includes:

• Government ID scan and verification (driver's license, passport, state ID, or national ID from 220+ countries — the ID must not be expired)
• A live selfie for face matching against the ID
• Anti-deepfake liveness detection
• Proof-of-address verification

Checking your status

While your scan is processing, the app automatically checks your status every few seconds — you don't need to keep refreshing. If you completed the scan on your phone, come back to your computer (or the tab where you started) and click "I Completed Verification — Check My Status" to refresh immediately. Once verified, you'll see a celebration screen and your Trust Badge activates right away.

What it unlocks

Verify-only is a Trust Badge. It does not unlock criminal or eviction self-screening — those stay behind Platinum. You can still apply, pay rent, and run the free 6-month rental history report without verifying.

Identity is required before you order a criminal or eviction report on yourself:

• Verify for $5 once — Trust Badge after verification succeeds, or
• Platinum at $5/month — Trust Badge included, plus pick criminal/eviction and 1 report/month

The Trust Badge

Once verified, a Trust Badge appears next to your name on applications and messages — giving landlords a quick, credible signal that you are who you say you are, separate from your screening results. Verification is permanent: you never need to re-verify unless suspicious activity is flagged on your account.