What are third-party fees?
During the course of research on your applicants, we may need to access data from sources that charge an additional fee for us to access their data.
There are several types of organizations that tend to charge these fees, including (but not limited to):
- Criminal & civil courts
- Outsourced employment verifiers
- Outsourced education verifiers
- DMVs
Why aren't these fees included in my pricing?
The price that BrightScreen charges includes the cost of conducting the research required to build a comprehensive report on your applicants, quality assurance, compliance with applicable law, technology, risk mitigation, and legally-mandated applicant support activities on completed reports (e.g. the adverse action process).
Third-party fees, however, are not as predictable and can change without notice. Additionally, because of the ever-changing, wide range of third-party costs charged by various organizations, establishing a flat "all-in" price has become extremely difficult.
How much are these fees?
When you combine each jurisdiction and level of court, motor vehicle registries, employers, schools, and licensing agencies, there are tens of thousands of possible fees that we may run into while producing a report for you. Despite this complexity, we can generally categorize third party fees into two categories:
Fees for courts and motor vehicle records:
These fees are generally well known to BrightScreen. Our software tracks these fees and estimates them for you on the order screen for your review. Because of this, we assume you accept the displayed fees and will therefore always incur these fees on any order submitted to us.
Fees for employment, education, and license/certification verifications:
Third party verifiers are rapidly capturing business from employers and schools who are short staffed and overwhelmed following recent world events. As a result, a majority of our verifications now require us to purchase the needed information from a third party.
At the time you place your order, we require you to select one of the following options. This gives us guidance on how to proceed if we run into a third party verifier in the course of our work. We ask this question on all orders, even those without any verifications in them, to ensure verifications can always be added to the order in the future with minimal hassle.
Order Screen Prompt Options: | Description: |
3rd party verification fees may NOT be incurred | BrightScreen will attempt to complete the verification using other means. This greatly reduces the probability of a successful verification |
3rd party verification fees may be incurred | BrightScreen will incur the verification fee on your behalf and pass the cost through to you on your invoice |
Ask before incurring 3rd party verification fees | BrightScreen will attempt to contact you and pause for 1 business day to describe the scenario and answer any questions you have before proceeding with or without the 3rd party |
BrightScreen does not mark up third party fees. Any fee invoiced to you is the same cost as we paid to the information source.
How can we prevent, minimize, or eliminate these fees?
BrightScreen utilizes technology and a team of researchers that can complete verifications using other processes, helping avoid outsource fees. Examples of these processes are:
Criminal Court Records:
- Advise you of a "No Record Found" result from the National Criminal Database (note: we will never provide details of derogatory information without confirming the information with the appropriate court)
Employment:
- Collect paystub(s)
- Collect W-2s
- Seek verbal or written confirmation from a supervisor
Education:
- Collect transcript(s)
- Collect diploma(s)
This list is not comprehensive. We are continuously developing and implementing new ways to get you the information you need as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
We are happy to work with you to meet the verification criteria you set for your applicant using the above means, or any other legal, ethical process.
How can I dispute a third-party fee?
We are happy to confirm that you were charged the correct fee, but we cannot provide refunds on fees unless the fee was incurred without your consent. Please contact us at
care@brightscreen.app for a fee review.