Settings, Screening Credits, Roommate Finder, Messages, and My Network
A tour of every renter tool outside your main dashboard flow — account and profile settings, security, saved payment methods, notification preferences, screening credits, the Roommate Finder, direct messaging, and My Network.
Account settings
The Account tab covers your identity, contact details, and account-level actions:
- Identity verification banner — shows whether you're verified, and when. If you're not yet verified, Choose Platinum — $5/mo and Verify for $5 sit side by side: Verify-only is a Trust Badge. Platinum includes identity plus criminal/eviction self-screening. You can still apply, pay rent, and run the free 6-month rental history report without verifying.
- Legal name and phone number — the phone hint notes that a 10-digit US number helps bank verification prefill your identity.
- Email address — shown read-only; you'll need to contact support to change it.
- Renter details (private — used on rental applications, never shown on your public profile): Employer Name, Monthly Income, and Employment Status (Employed, Self-Employed, Student, Retired, or Other).
- Change Password — sends a password-reset link to your email; there is no in-page password field.
- Delete Account — permanently closes your account. Your login and personal details are removed immediately; records the law requires VerticalRent to keep (leases, payments, screening reports) are retained per the Privacy Policy. Deletion requires typing a confirmation phrase and re-authenticating, and can be blocked if you have things like active leases or open balances that need to be resolved first.
Public profile
The Profile tab controls what other users see about you across VerticalRent (Messages, My Network, and your Roommate Finder listing all reuse this same profile):
- Profile photo — JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF, up to 5 MB.
- Display name — shown instead of your legal name in public-facing contexts.
- Handle — your
@handle, checked for availability as you type. - Bio — a short public introduction.
- Profile visibility — Public or Members only.
Roommate-specific preferences (budget, lifestyle, move-in date, etc.) are managed separately on the Roommate Finder page, covered below.
Security
The Security tab manages two-factor authentication (MFA): whether you're currently enrolled and when, how many backup codes you have remaining, whether you're in a grace period before MFA is required, and a button to regenerate a fresh set of backup codes (which immediately invalidates the old ones). If you aren't enrolled yet, a link takes you to MFA setup.
Saved payment methods
Cards you save during checkout for a screening report appear here, showing the card brand, last 4 digits, expiration date, and whether it's a debit card or has expired. You can remove a saved card at any time. Card details are tokenized and stored by Stripe — VerticalRent never sees or stores your full card number.
Notification preferences
Each toggle controls whether you get an email for that category of event. In-app notifications always stay on so you keep a history inside VerticalRent regardless of your email settings. The groups are:
- Application status updates — submitted, approved, or denied.
- Rent payment reminders — late rent and payment confirmations.
- Maintenance updates — when a request is assigned or completed.
- Lease updates — when a lease is signed or nearing expiration.
- Screening reports — when a background or rental history report is ready, fails, or a dispute is received.
- New messages — when a landlord or connection messages you.
- New listings and roommate matches — new rentals or roommates in your preferred areas.
- Connection requests — when someone wants to connect with you on VerticalRent.
Screening credits
Screening Credits pay for extra reports you run on yourself. Criminal and eviction need identity verification. Credits cover them after you verify. Rental history is free once every 6 months. Purchased credits never expire.
- Rental history is free once every few months (the page shows exactly how many months are left in your free window); outside that window it uses 1 credit.
- Criminal and eviction reports each use 1 credit after you have Platinum, priced at $5.00 pay-as-you-go.
Credits are sold in four bundles, all at the same $5/credit base rate with volume discounts:
- Pay As You Go — 1 credit for $5.00 ($5.00/credit).
- Starter Pack — 10 credits for $45.00 ($4.50/credit, 10% off).
- Value Pack — 100 credits for $400.00 ($4.00/credit, 20% off).
- Portfolio Pack — 500 credits for $1,750.00 ($3.50/credit, 30% off).
Below the bundles, a Recent activity table lists your last 15 credit transactions — purchases (positive amounts, green) and report usage (negative amounts, red) with a date and description for each.
Roommate Finder — your profile
Creating a roommate profile lets other renters discover and message you. It reuses your public profile (photo, display name, bio) from the Profile settings tab above, plus roommate-specific fields:
- Your situation — I have a room available, Looking for a room, or Either works.
- Current location — city and state you live in now.
- Occupation — free text, up to 80 characters.
- Interests & hobbies — pick up to 8 from a fixed list (Cooking, Gaming, Fitness, Music, Movies, Reading, Travel, Hiking, Sports, Art, Photography, Yoga, Remote Work, Gardening, Coffee, Dogs, Cats).
- Budget — minimum and maximum monthly rent you're comfortable with.
- Target move-in date and preferred areas — a comma-separated list of cities.
- Lifestyle preferences — work schedule (Remote / In-office / Hybrid), smoking (smoker or non-smoker), pets (pet-friendly or no pets), daily schedule (Early Bird / Night Owl / Flexible), a 1–5 cleanliness scale, and how often you have guests (Rarely / Sometimes / Often).
- Roommate finder visibility — a toggle that controls whether your profile is public on the roommate finder or hidden from search. When visible, a Preview link opens your live public listing.
Roommate Finder — browsing and matching
The public Roommate Finder (linked from your profile page) lets anyone search and filter listed profiles by city/area, minimum and maximum budget, move-in month, and situation (Has a Room / Looking for a Room / Open to Either). Each result card shows the person's avatar, occupation, current location, situation badge, budget range, move-in date, bio, preferred areas, interests, and lifestyle badges (non-smoker/smoker, pet-friendly/no pets, schedule, work schedule).
Two actions are available on each profile card:
- Match Score (2 credits) — runs an AI comparison between your roommate profile and theirs, returning a 0–100 compatibility score plus a short list of reasons. This charges 2 AI credits from your own balance; if you don't have enough, you'll be prompted to buy more.
- Send Message — this doesn't open a chat directly. It sends the other person a connection request with a default opening note ("Hi — I found your profile on the roommate finder."). If you're already connected, it takes you straight to Messages instead; if a request is already pending, you're told it's awaiting a response. Guests without an account are prompted to sign up first.
No signed-in matching algorithm beyond Match Score
Messages
Messages lists your conversations on the left (searchable by name), with unread counts on each thread and a total unread badge. Opening a thread shows the full history grouped by day, with a text box that sends on Enter (Shift+Enter for a new line) and polls for new messages every 5 seconds while it's open.
You can't start a new conversation from Messages
My Network
My Network is where you build and manage connections with landlords, other renters, service professionals, and agents. It has three tabs:
- Connections — everyone you're currently connected to, each with a Message button and a way to remove the connection.
- Sent — connection requests you've sent that are still pending, with a cancel option.
- Discover People — search by name, email, or business name, and optionally filter by role (Landlord, Renter, Service Pro, Agent). Each result shows a Connect button (or the current connection status) and a link to view their full profile.
If someone sends you a request, it appears in a banner at the top of the page with Accept and Decline buttons — you don't need to visit the Discover tab to respond. Once a connection is accepted (by either side), a Message button appears, linking straight into that conversation in Messages. Connection requests sent from the Roommate Finder use this same system, so an accepted roommate connection also unlocks messaging.
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