Empoyers Who Request Credit Reports!!!

[Euskadi1946]

I've been an unemployed RN since June, 2003 and have been doing agency work which is very sporadic here in Salt Lake City. I have been to so many job interviews that I have lost count and always I get the same response from the employers. I have excellect qualifications but we hired another candidate who was more qualified. I went to an interview workshop and the lecturer told me that I was doing all the right things on an interview. I recently found out that here in Utah, many employers do credit checks on prospective employees. An attorney friend told me that pulling a credit report is included in the background check and if you sign a release form authorizing a background check, chances are, they will pull a credit report too. He also told me that employers can deny you employment if your credit is less than perfect and since my credit is less than perfect, I'm beginning to wonder if that is why I have been unable to find a job. I think this is absolutely appalling and underhanded of prospective employers. How do you pay your bills if you are not working??? I also understand that very few states allow this practice and unfortunately, I live in a state that does. Would love to hear some comments about this nasty little practice!!!!!!!!

[Mr_D]

Originally posted by lizz

There are some exceptions, I'll give you that. But don't tell me that every single person on this thread is a saint when it comes to credit. That's my problem with the discussion here.

Identity theft? You can now easily freeze your credit with one call to a credit bureau. All of the other credit bureaus will pick it up, almost immediately. I've done it because I was concerned about identity theft, even though nothing was happening with my accounts.

Divorce? I know plenty of people who divorce and still don't ruin their credit.

The bottom line is: there's a lot you can do to avoid trouble.

Why is personal responsibility not an issue here? Why is it ALWAYS someone else's fault?

If people were willing to assume some responsibility, then I wouldn't take issue with a lot of the statements here.

I can't agree with you more about people taking personal responsibility for events in their life.

But you take responsibility for what you are defending. And the credit system you defend has a LOT of problems because it ensnares a LOT of (truly) innocent people. Those people catch a lot of moralistic wrath simply b/c they have a bad credit score. Bad credit score DOES NOT ALWAY EQUATE to irresponsibility. It does lend itself to a lot of stereotyping . . .

And these people get seriously penalized when seeking a job or applying for a mortgage -- there's enough of them to have produced a huge outcry.

And it's only through intense public pressure that we now have the right to review the reports, and the right to expect the credit agencies to answer the phone, the right to add commentary to a line item, and a modicum of recourse should they fail to remove inaccurate information. Some of those most basic rights didn't come till 1991 and 1998. (FCRA II).

As for a consumer to have the ability to "freeze" their credit record, I doubt you on that. Most ID theft victims rage in frustration that they get one item cleared on their report only to have another appear a week later. If it's the case, then it's recent change that the big 3 reporting agencies have been fighting for years. By law (the one's our Republicrats passed), they own your information, not you.

I agree with your basic sentiment that creditors should have a way to protect themselves from unscrupoulous borrowers, but do your history homework on credit agencies. Any why not have a judicial system that can seperate the innocent from the guilty?

You won't gain many friends defending the practices of these guys.

Gotta go again --

take care Lizz

[Sheri257]

Originally posted by Mr_D

You won't gain many friends defending the practices of these guys.

I think it's pretty obvious that I don't care about winning any popularity contests. I do care about cleaning up my credit, which I have done for the last five years, and qualifying for jobs.

Yes, some people are unfairly stereotyped. But where do you think the common joke, "The check is in the mail," comes from? Because people routinely pay their bills?

Unfortunately, most people don't, unless they have to. The system is unfair in some respects, but once again, it's a game of percentages. I've run businesses myself, and it's amazing to see the lengths people will go to rip you off. You have to be incredibly tough with credit to survive.

Why do you think so many businesses don't accept checks anymore? Because most people honor them? No, they don't. Instead, they take credit cards (at greater cost, BTW) where there is a credit check system in place, and the creditor assumes most of the risk so they don't have to.

I do sympathize with the creditors in some respects, because I've been there myself. Your perspective really changes when it's YOUR money and business on the line.

As far as identity theft: I was able to qualify for a mortgage after rebuilding my credit. The lender turned up a report that someone was using my Social Security number, even though nothing was happening with my accounts.

I was so worried after working so hard to re-establish credit, I called the credit bureaus. They all had hotlines where I could literally push a button and freeze any new credit on my account. So that's what I did after the mortage went through.

If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Of course, if you freeze your credit, you may not be able to get any new credit for yourself either. But I was willing to take that risk since I want my credit to remain clean, and the last thing I need to do is borrow more money. :chuckle

For ten bucks a month, you can also subscribe to credit bureau alerts, where they notify you by email if there are any changes to your credit. It's not perfect, but it certainly helps, and I use that as well.

Like I said, there are things you can do to avoid trouble. Hopefully, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Mr_D]

Originally posted by lizz

As far as identity theft: I was able to qualify for a mortgage after rebuilding my credit. The lender turned up a report that someone was using my Social Security number, . . .

. . . They all had hotlines where I could literally push a button and freeze any new credit on my account. So that's what I did after the mortage went through.

For ten bucks a month, you can also subscribe to credit bureau alerts, where they notify you by email if there are any changes to your credit. It's not perfect, but it certainly helps, and I use that as well.

Like I said, there are things you can do to avoid trouble. Hopefully, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Wow. They didn't have that freeze feature in 1998. My wife and I were buying a house when we discovered my SSN had been used to rent apartment, pay bills, etc in south Florida. It took 9 months and hundreds of hours to clear it up. The Agencies were jerks, treating me like I was trash. The police departments would not take jurisdiction. I had one sergent tell me that I maybe better spend my time in a personal finance course. It was the most aggrivating situation.

We presented all the facts proving my innocence (like I've continuously resided in Georgia for the last 20 years) to the mortgage company, and they pre-approved a loan. We found a beautiful house. TWO Days before the closing, the mortgage company called and asked us to clear up the credit record blotch by paying the collection agencies ($2500) or they will deny the loan (a practice called cross-collecting). They almost had us -- pitting our excitement for finding a new house against us. The ONLY reason they backed down was we had a 20% downpayment and we threatened to raise legal hell.

Ten bucks a month? $120 a year!! For the privelege of getting an "update"?? of who's accessing MY information? The credit reporting agencies should pay ME a commission every time they sell it -- after all, I am the content provider. Why should they be the only one's to make money off my credit history? I'm glad you find if valuable - to me it's highway robbery. The fact that it's a service and not a right is due industry influence pedaling in bi-partisan Congress.

Ya know, that $120 a year could be put to better use. Do yourself a favor and add that to your retirement account. You are still entitled to a freebie report once per year anyway.

FYI -- I lobbied hard for providing consumers additional rights, including an 800 number. I am still amazed that there is so little legal recourse available. Till there is, I will NOT support employers having the right to credit report.

Mr_D

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Originally posted by austinsmom

I ditto that!!

I don't.

Lizz's posts have been dead on.

While eloquently expressed, her basic position is: simple (we've gotta own up to responsibility); universal (this applies to all); and balanced (there are a few exceptional situations where there may be some competing equities).

Let's not get so bogged down on the latter that we miss the essence of this super thread. Lizz's contributions were huge in making it so.

As stated previously, generally, employees aren't only hired for their technical wherewithal.

[Sheri257]

Originally posted by Mr_D

Ten bucks a month? $120 a year!! For the privelege of getting an "update"?? of who's accessing MY information? The credit reporting agencies should pay ME a commission every time they sell it -- after all, I am the content provider. Why should they be the only one's to make money off my credit history? I'm glad you find if valuable - to me it's highway robbery. The fact that it's a service and not a right is due industry influence pedaling in bi-partisan Congress.

You do have a point there. I suppose $10 a month is a bit unfair, although I don't mind it much. If they were charging a lot more, I'd probably be more upset about it.

I'm also very sorry this happened to you. The process I described happened just this year so, hopefully, there have been major improvements since your unfortunate experience.

I look at it this way: If people paid their bills, the credit bureaus wouldn't exist. But people frequently don't pay their bills, so credit bureaus are a necessary evil, and they do have to charge to pay their bills, just like everybody else.

Without credit checks, the lenders would lose a ton of money and go out of business. If the lenders go out business, they can't lend money for people to buy homes, cars, etc.

The American Dream of home ownership, etc., would die and none of us would be able to borrow money, much less own a home, because of all of the freeloaders out there.

In the end, it still comes down to people not paying their bills and the need to track it and assess risk. Unfortunately, that also has some unintended consequences such as identity theft.

Hopefully the above mentioned improvements will remedy some of those unintended consequences, but the inevitable mistakes will happen. But that's true in just about everything in life, not just credit. Nothing is perfect.

[Mr_D]

Originally posted by lizz

You do have a point there. I suppose $10 a month is a bit unfair, although I don't mind it much. If they were charging a lot more, I'd probably be more upset about it.

I'm also very sorry this happened to you. The process I described happened just this year so, hopefully, there have been major improvements since your unfortunate experience.

I look at it this way: If people paid their bills, the credit bureaus wouldn't exist. But people frequently don't pay their bills, so credit bureaus are a necessary evil, and they do have to charge to pay their bills, just like everybody else.

Without credit checks, the lenders would lose a ton of money and go out of business. If the lenders go out business, they can't lend money for people to buy homes, cars, etc. The American Dream of home ownership, etc., would die and none of us would be able to borrow money, much less own a home because of all of the freeloaders out there.

In the end, it still comes down to people not paying their bills and the need to track it and assess risk. Unfortunately, that also has some unintended consequences such as identity theft.

Hopefully the above mentioned improvements will remedy some of those unintended consequences, but the inevitable mistakes will happen. But that's true in just about everything in life, not just credit. Nothing is perfect.

I appreciate it and can't describe how glad I am that it's gotten a little better for innocent people.

I think you mean well, and not wanting to be critical, but your formulation is simplistic. America grew pretty darn quickly before credit agencies existed. Capitalism flourishes in other countries that have superior credit/privacy laws. The American dream is . . . I won't go there, not enough time.

The politicians I lobbied used the same language of "bunch of irresponsibile freeloaders" as their reason to keep the status quo in the credit industry. Focusing on irresponsibility and freeloaders does not excuse a poorly designed system, not does it excuse that average Americans were left out in the cold when designing the system.

The result is a divisive set of identity politics, where folks take a nasty turn on those who don't pay bills. It makes sense to condemn those who personally screwed you. It's rhetorical ploy to castigate an entire group of people as deadbeats.

If they don't pay their bills, then don't give them easy credit. And leave it at that.

The moral castigation ends up hurting everyone when used by policy makers in their appeals to be "right" with a select bloc of voters. It's a ploy to get you all hot and bothered -- that's the name of the game in divisive politics, pit a profitable business arrangement against the "boogeyman". It the oldest trick in the book. The actual policy gets lost in all the rhetoric and "necessary evil" becomes OK.

It's not OK.

I no longer will accept "necessary evil" without a fight. The credit reporting system is one of two issues that propelled me to escape the political plantation mastered by the Democrats and Republicans. I am independent and an activist because of the identity theft and NO rights afforded to me. I will no longer accept being left out. I want a place at the bargaining table when it comes to the policies that affect my life. And accepting "fallout" for a unfortunate few is not a deal I'd agree too.

I suppose $10 a month is a bit unfair, although I don't mind it much.

???? Sorry -- no comprehende!

OK -- must log off the boards for a while, have to write an essay for nursing school application. This gets so addicting!

Take care,

Mr D

[Sheri257]

I'm not buying into any political rhetoric Mr D. I'm speaking from personal experience.

I appreciate your perspective. I'm just wondering, have you ever run a business? If you have, and still maintain this perspective, OK. I respect that.

But if you haven't, maybe you don't know the experience of employees, customers, tenants etc. ripping you off at every turn. And that's just with an offline business. Try running an internet business, which is even worse, since just about anyone can steal from you with no consequences.

Or, have you ever lent money to someone you thought was a good person and a good friend. And they still didn't pay you back. Certainly this hasn't happened only to me.

Try collecting money from people who owe you, both in business and otherwise. Boy, that's a wonderful experience. The hassle is unbelievable. It's even worse when it involves someone you thought was a friend.

It really destroys your faith in human nature and, after awhile, you start looking for anything, really, including credit checks, to protect yourself.

Eventually, you don't care about the few exceptions because there aren't too many honest people out there to begin with. You've seen people lie, cheat and steal no matter how well you treated them.

By then, you'll take any system, even a flawed one. And I'm sure a lot of employers and creditors feel the same way.

Do the credit bureaus need to make improvements? Absolutely. But I don't believe there is some credit system utopia out there, just as there is no job utopia or life utopia, for that matter. As long as it's human, it's going to have some flaws.

And I say all of this fully recognizing that I once screwed my creditors. I realized I was a complete hypocrite, and was just as guilty as everyone who had ripped me off. And I should have known better than anyone, because I've been in their shoes.

I'm ashamed to admit that, but it's the truth. I was a freeloader, just like everyone else. So I actually appreciate the system, with all of its flaws.

And, BTW, I've never had any trouble removing inaccuracies from my credit report. And the bad stuff that is there is totally accurate.

The reason the SS# came up was because the lender was going to great lengths to make sure I was who I said I was. In other words: They were preventing identity theft.

Apparently they now run SS# reports to see if anybody else is using them. It was real pain, but I appreciated it.

So, hopefully, your efforts are paying off.

[KMSRN]

Lizz, all I can say is AMEN! Credit reports are indications of integrity and character. Mistakes can happen but they are the exception. I think checking a prospective employee's credit is a valid indication of reliability although I just started a new job and they did not check my credit. If they had, I would have been hired because I have worked at maintaining an excellent credit rating.

[SharonH, RN]

Originally posted by KMSRN

Lizz, all I can say is AMEN! Credit reports are indications of integrity and character.

Um, no they are NOT. While I agree completely with lizz regarding personal responsibility and paying one's bills, it is quite a stretch to indicate that a good credit report is an indication of integrity and character. There are plenty of scum buckets running around with excellent credit and plenty of good people who have poor credit. We are all human and sometimes people have poor financial skills, sometimes they are victims of circumstance, and sometimes they have poor planning skills. Oh and yes, some people ARE irresponsible and simply refuse to pay their bills.

P.S. I have EXCELLENT credit.

[KMSRN]

I said credit reports are indications of integrity and character - not definative. I don't think they should necessarily be used as the only basis for hiring. I don't know many scum buckets so on that point I will have to defer.

[sjoe]

lizz: "Identity theft? You can now easily freeze your credit with one call to a credit bureau. All of the other credit bureaus will pick it up, almost immediately."

It can be a very good idea to put what is called a "fraud alert" on your credit record.

I didn't even realize that I had been hit by identity fraud until a prospective landlord showed me the credit report he had received while checking me out. Someone had opened an account at a Wal-Mart in a city over 1000 miles away, then had overdrawn it and skipped out. Since this had happened 6 months earlier, my annual credit report checkup had not caught it.

My best guess is that the necessary credit information (name, ss#, DOB) had been obtained by someone with access to a job application I had filled out for that city. It is simplicity itself to put an ad in a newspaper for nurses, send an easily-obtained boilerplate application which includes the info necessary to open an account, and reap the profits from those who respond.

With a fraud alert, anyone (myself included) who tries to establish a new account in my name has to show two proofs of residence first--kind of a pain in the butt, since I had to send copies to the new phone and utilities accounts, but worth it to me (and it was free, of course).

I always stop and think now, whenever my SS# is requested. Do I want this person to have that information and can I find him/her/that company if problems arise later on?

We're not in Kansas anymore.

[Sheri257]

Originally posted by KMSRN

I don't know many scum buckets so on that point I will have to defer.

I don't know too many scumbuckets with great credit either, actually.

However, I DO know plenty of scumbuckets with lousy credit.

And I do mean, plenty. :chuckle