Posted on 05/14/2013 10:08:09 AM PDT by Badabing Badablonde
Nearly half — 47 percent — of employers use credit checks when making a hiring decision, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Most businesses use credit checks only to screen for certain positions, but one in eight, the survey found, does a credit check before every hire. “We’ve heard from dozens of people over the past several years who say they’re being denied jobs specifically because of a credit check,” Ms. Ludwig said. The people contacting her group, she said, are “mostly lower-wage workers,” especially those applying to big retail chains.
“Prohibiting the use of credit checks in employment is now our number one campaign,” Ms. Ludwig said. “Because it’s discriminatory. And because the last thing we need in a recession is another barrier to employment.”
Lawmakers in some jurisdictions have proved sympathetic to those arguments. Nine states have adopted legislation that curbs the use of credit reports to judge prospective hires — seven of them since the start of 2010. Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat from Tennessee, has sponsored federal legislation that would restrict their use. The New York Legislature and the New York City Council are considering strict new laws that would greatly limit an employer’s ability to do credit screening.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
We have a real problem with credit reports even though we have paid every bill on time for 30 years.
We find stuff on it that companies have caused....a loan paid off but listed as not paid because the bank never ‘cleared’ or something the last payment.
We have a very common name and stuff gets thrown on our report from companies we have NEVER done business with.
The agencies suck.
Insurance companies also use your credit rating to determine your rates. If you have bad credit, you become high risk and pay more. I haven’t had an accident claim in more than 35 years, but because of financial problems in the last decade, I am a high risk driver.
Don’t all of the credit check pings end up dinging your credit rating score (as if you are seeking new lines of credit)?
I’ve also heard that paying OFF a credit card and closing the account does not improve your credit score (because you’ve closed a line of credit).
A credit report is a dirt cheap way to do a rough background check: about $10. Everything else costs much more.
25% of all credit report infor is wrong or in the wrong file.
Federal law even has a anti-discrimination clause protecting those who filed bankruptcy. (it is in 11 USC).
Employers ignore it at their peril.
How long does a short sale trash your credit rating?
bill collectors are not allowed to call places of employment.
if they can not be bonded then this makes sense up to a point.
many people complaining of not being able to find jobs were actually dead weight incompetents that were dumped in 2008-2010.
Companies used the crash as an excuse to eliminate useless employees who were not able to do the job without fear of the quota police. This is also where must have a job to get a job came about. If you had a job you were prescreened to not be deadweight and not have been suing the company for some issue.
What does that have to do with a person’s ability to do the job they are hired for? And what about employee’s who for any number of reasons develop bad credit over the course of their work history at said employer?
My husband and I were both laid off from Microsoft in 2009. We lost 2/3s of our income and a year later had to file bankruptcy. We went through virtually all of our savings. It’s taken these 4 years to getback on our feet. None of this had anything to do with performance, in the 6 months before this happened we were both promoted.
To a point, yes. I wouldn’t say to a person, “Well gee, we’d like to hire you, but you don’t have a 720 FICO score, so too bad!” If companies are doing that, then no, I really don’t want to work for a company like that. But if a company sees multiple bankruptcies, (especially, as others have noted, NOT due to hardship or job loss) or defaults on credit cards, charge-offs that can’t be explained by divorce or being a co-signer for someone else who defaulted (which as I said, happened to me) then you’ve really got to wonder if that person is a trustworthy asset to your place of business or just someone who’ll rob your butt blind first chance they get.
federal law prohibits bankrupcy discrimination.
That takes a little bit out of the “distracted” argument, as there is no similar restriction on calls from kids, new girlfriends, and contractors.
Of course, the bill collector “distraction” is the only one that can be fixed by getting the job and the paycheck.
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