Being denied employment because of a credit check :(

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi, I graduated last year..In order to get the job, they told me that they have to run a credit check on me..I know that I owe a lot of money to creditors but what my potential employer does not know is that I have a bank account with a lot of savings..The way I manage money is that I dont pay off my creditors all at once..I just pay off the minimum amount every month and save money..It is like paying off a home where people have savings but they just dont pay off the home all at once..My credit rating is excellent..I am at 780..I pay 6% interest on my credit cards..

My potential employer thinks I making too little to support myself so I got denied the job....And also my potential employer does not know that I am living with my mom now and she lets me live there for free..

Now, this credit checking thing to get hired,is kind of bad, if they dont have the whole picture! :(

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

There has to be more to this story.

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Was the OP trying for a job in corrections? I know that one has to have a clean history financially so that potentially prisoners would not be able to take advantage and try to 'buy' favors, or have their families 'buy' favors from the prison employees.

It is always a better idea to pay more than the minimum on any credit card. My problem is I have some savings, but not as much as they recommend. I put a lot of money toward any credit card debt I have (which isn't a huge amount, thank goodness).

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There has to be more to this story.

Maybe not. There is a huge credit scare going on right now. The markets are in a panic because of these bad home loans, excessive consumer debt, etc. which is why credit card companies are jacking up their rates and the stock market dropped 400 points last week.

Maybe these concerns are trickling down to employers when they do these credit checks as well.

The pendulum always seems to swing from one extreme to the other. The banks created this problem by suspending their conservative lending guidelines and giving loans to people who weren't really credit worthy. Now, because it's starting to go bad ... they're squeezing everybody on credit.

Anybody could see this coming ... the loans they were making were outrageous. Unfortunately, they end up making everybody pay for their mistakes, even those with good credit.

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The reason that employers to credit checks, is that just like coming up wtih how much to charge you for insurance premiums, it all boils down to statistics.

Statistically, people with extremely poor credit (below 580 credit scores), are more likely to call in, are more likely to be dishonest, and are more likely to steal.

That is the real reason you are seeing credit checks becoming more and more common in professions that have nothing to do with finance.

With that said, the OP's credit score was beyond excellent...the scale only goes up to 850.

I am wondering if someone in HR just shot off at the mouth and that really wasn't their official policy. With a credit score as high as the OP's, I DO NOT buy the fact her credit was the reason she didn't get the job...that is why she needs to get to the bottom of it. It would be different if they didn't give her a reason at all...but someone at that hospital decided to give her a reason.

If I was her, I would actually go down and very, very politely, ask to speak to the Director of HR or the Nurse Recruiter.

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As a nurse working here from a European country I cannot believe that potential US employees are screened such as this, what an infringement of your privacy and rights!! My credit history is nobody's business but my own, and has nothing to do with how I perform my work functions or treat my patients at bedside. It is both sad and ironic to me that in this so called 'land of the free' a persons rights are violated so blatantly and worse of all accepted as 'normal' by its citizens!! I am speechless!!

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
The reason that employers to credit checks, is that just like coming up wtih how much to charge you for insurance premiums, it all boils down to statistics.

Statistically, people with extremely poor credit (below 580 credit scores), are more likely to call in, are more likely to be dishonest, and are more likely to steal.

That is the real reason you are seeing credit checks becoming more and more common in professions that have nothing to do with finance.

With that said, the OP's credit score was beyond excellent...the scale only goes up to 850.

I am wondering if someone in HR just shot off at the mouth and that really wasn't their official policy. With a credit score as high as the OP's, I DO NOT buy the fact her credit was the reason she didn't get the job...that is why she needs to get to the bottom of it. It would be different if they didn't give her a reason at all...but someone at that hospital decided to give her a reason.

If I was her, I would actually go down and very, very politely, ask to speak to the Director of HR or the Nurse Recruiter.

There is a group of hospitals, in Houston, Texas I believe, that run a credit check on any potential employee. They feel if one cannot manage the money properly, they cannot manage their work properly. I guess I would have been a no hire. All I had was a car loan, mortgage, and an IRA. No credit cards. There really are some employers who make every aspect of their employees lives their business, except of course, the doctors.

Woody:balloons:

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As a nurse working here from a European country I cannot believe that potential US employees are screened such as this, what an infringement of your privacy and rights!! My credit history is nobody's business but my own, and has nothing to do with how I perform my work functions or treat my patients at bedside. It is both sad and ironic to me that in this so called 'land of the free' a persons rights are violated so blatantly and worse of all accepted as 'normal' by its citizens!! I am speechless!!

I'll be honest...I AGREE WITH YOU TOTALLY!

To me, the only time credit should be checked is if you are applying for a job that requires you to be bonded...if you have a judgement or collection on your credit, you can't be bonded.

That is like assuming you are going to be a criminal before you are....and I agree, I think it's wrong. I don't want an employer to know if I'm in debt or not....they may use that during salary negotiations or may use it to determine how badly you need a job...I can think of a laundry list of reasons why I wouldn't want an employer to see my spending habits.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
As a nurse working here from a European country I cannot believe that potential US employees are screened such as this, what an infringement of your privacy and rights!! My credit history is nobody's business but my own, and has nothing to do with how I perform my work functions or treat my patients at bedside. It is both sad and ironic to me that in this so called 'land of the free' a persons rights are violated so blatantly and worse of all accepted as 'normal' by its citizens!! I am speechless!!

I'm relatively sure we have to give our consent for them to check our credit. So some freedoms remain. But credit is definately not "nobody's business" in the USA. I had a credit check when I got a cell phone.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.
The reason that employers to credit checks, is that just like coming up wtih how much to charge you for insurance premiums, it all boils down to statistics.

Statistically, people with extremely poor credit (below 580 credit scores), are more likely to call in, are more likely to be dishonest, and are more likely to steal.

That is the real reason you are seeing credit checks becoming more and more common in professions that have nothing to do with finance.

With that said, the OP's credit score was beyond excellent...the scale only goes up to 850.

I am wondering if someone in HR just shot off at the mouth and that really wasn't their official policy. With a credit score as high as the OP's, I DO NOT buy the fact her credit was the reason she didn't get the job...that is why she needs to get to the bottom of it. It would be different if they didn't give her a reason at all...but someone at that hospital decided to give her a reason.

If I was her, I would actually go down and very, very politely, ask to speak to the Director of HR or the Nurse Recruiter.

That is interesting. Do you have a source for those statistics. That does explain it a bit better to me.

I do agree the op's credits scores is awesome.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
There is a group of hospitals, in Houston, Texas I believe, that run a credit check on any potential employee. They feel if one cannot manage the money properly, they cannot manage their work properly.

If you are referring to GroupOne, in the DFW area, while it operates as a credit check agency it does so merely to skirt the laws. It actually reviews HCWers work histories, and blackballs some workers. It doesn't limit itself to pure credit checks.

In most places, you have to sign for permission to have your "credit" checked, but if you do not sign, most employers reserve the right to not consider your application.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
As a nurse working here from a European country I cannot believe that potential US employees are screened such as this, what an infringement of your privacy and rights!! My credit history is nobody's business but my own, and has nothing to do with how I perform my work functions or treat my patients at bedside. It is both sad and ironic to me that in this so called 'land of the free' a persons rights are violated so blatantly and worse of all accepted as 'normal' by its citizens!! I am speechless!!

In many places, we get fingerprinted repeatedly, must pass random drug screens and have repeated background checks. My fellow travelers from Great Britain were a tas annoyed when they had to submit repeated fingerprints - for GC/Visa purposes, for Florida licensure and then to work in the hospitals.

My current nursing assignment requires federal clearance of my fingerprints/history. But then I am contracted to a facility that works under the authority of the POTUS (or so I'm told) - so I get scanned and my car gets searched every day before entering the grounds. And my ID is encoded and can be tracked worldwide.

So my privacy is shot to heck, and I am wondering which Fed is watching me post this............

(cue twilight zone music)

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.
If you are referring to GroupOne, in the DFW area, while it operates as a credit check agency it does so merely to skirt the laws. It actually reviews HCWers work histories, and blackballs some workers. It doesn't limit itself to pure credit checks.

In most places, you have to sign for permission to have your "credit" checked, but if you do not sign, most employers reserve the right to not consider your application.

Yes, that is the Group I was referring to. I guess it is a good thing I have given up any thought of going back to work and having it depend on my credit. My credit went down the drain when I was hit by a big rig, on Januaryn30, 1989. I lost my condo to foreclosure. I couldn't pay off the two credit cards I had and my income was next to nothing for 18 months. Now I don't own a home. I have a checking account and a very small savings account. Until she die, my car was 14 years old and had over 240,000 miles on it. And I still owe the IRS money that keeps going up because of fines, plenalties and interest, since I wasn't able to pay my last quarter of income tax for 1988. But I can say I haven't lie or taken anything that is not mine or for which I have not paid.

Woody:balloons:

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