Posted on 01/19/2007 9:49:19 PM PST by FLOutdoorsman
Minorities are starting to fight employers over the use of credit history in hiring.
Lisa Bailey worked for five months at Harvard University as a temp entering donations into a database. When the university made the job a salaried position, Ms. Bailey, who is black, saw a chance to lift herself out of dead-end jobs.
Bailey's superiors encouraged her to apply, she says, but turned her down after discovering her bad credit history.
Bailey, with her lawyer, has lodged a complaint against Harvard charging racial discrimination. The reason: Studies show that minorities are more likely to have bad credit, but credit problems have not been shown to negatively affect job performance.
Some privacy and minority advocates are now seeing credit as a civil rights issue as minorities start to fight employers and insurers who base decisions on credit histories. Their effort could slow the near doubling in credit checks by employers in the past decade, which impacts millions of Americans who are struggling with debt.
"It's definitely a civil rights issue because of the growing use of credit reports and credit scores for hiring, renting an apartment, insurance, and the fact that people of color have not been integrated into the credit scoring system as much as traditional, white, middle-class America," says Evan Hendricks, author of "Credit Scores & Credit Reports: How the System Really Works, What You Can Do."
In a 2004 study involving 2 million people, the Texas Department of Insurance found that blacks have an average credit score roughly 10 percent to 35 percent worse than whites; Hispanics have scores 5 percent to 25 percent worse than whites.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Our economy is floating on borrowed consumerism for the time being. People who save and refuse to borrow (thereby having little in their credit histories) should invest in real properties and someday coordinate a dump of certain stocks and savings. That is...if the Chinese investors don't do it sooner.
That's a half-truth.
I went postal a few years back when I saw something like 10 'inquiries' from Home Depot among others in a short period.
(Disclaimer - not an expert in this field) but if you are currently holding credit with a merchant you are not penalized on the inquiry. That is is not to be confused with 'new' credit requests which do attach flags.
Sure. Unnecessary borrowing is not an exercise of good judgement, although it is a way to build a credit history. The best judge of one's own monetary management is one who saves without borrowing at all.
LOL, that explains that 'offshore' (rather large to trailer even here in MI) boat that burned in the front yard of the homeowner on the corner of maybe the busiest intersection of my township.
The point I made in the next part of what you were quoting is that a credit history is a good indication of an individual's sense of personal responsibility. I wasn't referring to an employer lending money to an employee which is a poor business practice almost universally avoided by employers. What I was referring to in the sentence quoted is that even if you aren't the lending institution per se you will still pay a price if the person who purchases your product defaults. For example, if a person buys a car and is given a loan by Ford Motor Credit or GMAC and the vehicle is repossessed, the dealer will still lose money even though he's not the lender. That's because most dealers are on what's called Full or Partial Recourse - which means they're also on the paper with the lender and take a bath along together with that institution.
It would be discrimination only if they inferred you had a bad credit history simply because you're black, without actually checking your credit history. Being black in and of itself doesn't affect the score that's on the report.
god=good oops
I just signed a contract for my first home last night. I have enough to pay in full, but want to get a loan so I can have a cushion until I get a job. I haven't worked for the last 2 years because I quit my job and moved home to take care of my elderly mom. I've worked steadily for over 25 years, my credit is excellent but because I haven't worked recently, the interest rate is ridiculous.
I won't waste my time and money supporting a large extortion scheme for several worthless rackets. I won't support the irresponsibility of borrowing (except for otherwise starving people who borrow from charitable friends). People don't really need to borrow for cars, houses or education.
It's time to review as to who I will and won't be buying from in the future. And BTW, although I don't borrow, my insurance premiums are very low. ...would rather have cheap immigrant brokers than crooks.
I agree. To me more alarming then credit scores is the fact that many businesses now use variations of the MMPI as job applications. Talk about an invasion of privacy. These are not just used by firms that deal with sensitive, classified information. Blockbusters is one company that uses this type of application.
Unlikely for the simple reason that many insurance companies have left Florida because it just isn't economical to stay.
Fact is Florida residents underpaid for insurance relative to the risk they live under. Now that the insurance rates are in-line with the risk, people are pissed. That's understandable. People were got used to underpaying.
But still, if insurance companies were making "too much money", then why aren't all the other insurance providers rushing to Florida to cash in? I'll tell you why: because Florida is New Orleans waiting to happen. Charley made that clear when he was headed for Tampa. Fortunately he turned early. But the lesson wasn't lost on insurance companies. They know they'll have to come up with billions at some point in the future and those billions aren't going to be there if people pay $400/year for insurance.
Farmers Insurance Co. included a notice with my car insurance bill that i wasn't getting their "best" rates
because i didn't have the "best" credit (despite FICOs around 800).
when i complained to the broker, he told me not to feel bad since even the car dealer in town who is worth $10,000,000 doesn't get their "best" rates. i asked him who gets their "best" rates and he told me it's people just out of college. after ~ 20 years with Farmers i told them "no thanks", switched insurance companies (and got lower premiums).
There are exceptions. I had excellent credit for 30 years, then went through a rough patch - a very small rough patch at first.
When I tried to work things out, not one of the companies with whom I'd had that long-term credit cared a whit or even had records going back that far. It meant nothing. Now you'd call me a deadbeat.
Not true with automobile insurance. The driving record should be the sole factor.
There are more people with good credit who are lousy drivers, just look at the Kennedy family or Dianne Fiendstein's husband, Richard Blum.
If you are an affluent drunk and a danger to everyone, you can just post a bond with the state of California for $50,000, buy off local traffic courts, politicians, etc., and continue being a reckless scum on the road.
I wonder why... I don't ever rent anything there because almost every new movie is garbage...
Some young freshman or junior college kid isn't going to have much of a credit history.
If that was the case the companies would not do it. The reason they would not do it is that some company would realize it makes no difference, rate accordingly and get all the business.
I own a couple of rental properties... CREDIT CHECKS ARE AN INCOME GENERATING SCAM FOR DISHONEST RENTAL OWNERS...
I never do a credit check. I look them over, look at their cars, I ask for a paystub, call the employer to verify they are employed, call the previous landlord(s) and bang, I decide.
I have seen realtors pay a $35.00 yearly fee to do unlimited credit checks for rental applicants and collect a non-refundable $25.00 fee from each applicant. WHAT A BLEEPING SCAM!
The extreme leftist California legislature is in the backpocket of the insurance lobby... California has the most cars...
Look at who gets campaign cash from the insurance companies...
Look at who gets the campaign cash from lending institutions... Wells Fargo bank is the only one I have seen that gives the lion's share to Republicans...
Follow the money.
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