should potential employers use credit checks?

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Just would like opinions on the subject. I've noticed more potential employers using credit checks as a condition of employment.

Has your employer checked your credit? on my credit report I've noticed several looked at my credit report. Just want it to be out there why some can't secure positions.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

If there is a connection between credit scores and work ethic/risk-taking in the nursing field, show me the research. Also, I'd like to know how the score (high or low) is used in hiring decisions.

My state just recently outlawed the pre-employment credit check practice except in certain industries, like banking and law enforcement.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

People losing everything is directly related to living outside of their salary/means. I may make $130k a year but my house payment is only $900/month still. I could literally live on $2000/month. My 18y/o makes that much.

Can I afford to buy a home with a $3000 monthly? Sure.... but why? I don't want to over extend myself just in case something happens to me. They can check my credit, go for it, its just fine. I would rather have an employee that could thing aheed and manage their life before I would want them to manage their pts. You want someone responsible for cleaning out your teach Tue to be the same person that can't remember when they should be making the car payment every month?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
I would rather have an employee that could thing aheed and manage their life before I would want them to manage their pts. You want someone responsible for cleaning out your teach Tue to be the same person that can't remember when they should be making the car payment every month?

Considering the average medical student graduates with about $100K in debt, you will not be able to avoid those in the medical field who are in over their heads. However, being employed can help one out of it.

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If there is a connection between credit scores and work ethic/risk-taking in the nursing field, show me the research. Also, I'd like to know how the score (high or low) is used in hiring decisions.

My state just recently outlawed the pre-employment credit check practice except in certain industries, like banking and law enforcement.

What does a credit score say about the police that it does not also say about nurses?

One be a good nurse with a bad credit score, but one cannot be a good police with a bad credit score? That makes no sense.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
What does a credit score say about the police that it does not also say about nurses?

One be a good nurse with a bad credit score, but one cannot be a good police with a bad credit score? That makes no sense.

Law enforcement at the state level also has age limits for entering the academy, pre-employment polygraph testing, and pre-employment/periodic physical fitness testing. Someone seems to think that law enforcement and nursing aren't the same and should have different requirements.

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Law enforcement at the state level also has age limits for entering the academy, pre-employment polygraph testing, and pre-employment/periodic physical fitness testing. Someone seems to think that law enforcement and nursing aren't the same and should have different requirements.

Hell, I think nursing should have such stringent requirements.

The Police and Nursing both affect and deal with people's lives when they're at their worst and most vulnerable. Unscrupulous sorts in both jobs have the ability to take awful advantage of the worse sort of the people they're supposed to protect. It just doesn't make sense.

(I know you didn't make up this rule. I'm just expressing my incredulity at it.)

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Specializes in Correctional, QA, Geriatrics.
People losing everything is directly related to living outside of their salary/means. I may make $130k a year but my house payment is only $900/month still. I could literally live on $2000/month. My 18y/o makes that much.

Can I afford to buy a home with a $3000 monthly? Sure.... but why? I don't want to over extend myself just in case something happens to me. They can check my credit, go for it, its just fine. I would rather have an employee that could thing aheed and manage their life before I would want them to manage their pts. You want someone responsible for cleaning out your teach Tue to be the same person that can't remember when they should be making the car payment every month?

Well you don't seem to take into consideration that people can be living within their means but if their income steadily declines over a period of time....say over 2-3 years anyone can eventually find themselves looking at not being able to pay for the basics and a mortgage and a car payment. Or as in our case we kept our heads barely above water, just started to get to a point where we had enough $$ left after paying the bills and both cars totally died within 3 weeks of each other. Believe me a car payment was quite difficult to work into the budget after not having one for 10 years. Yes we did have savings and retirements and used both to pay bills until they were exhausted while dh went through several layoffs and I also went through two layoffs. Yep our credit sucks right now and we are working extra as best we can considering we have to share a car and don't live in a part of the country where mass transit is well established.

So tell me this does not being able to imagine a gross income loss in excess of 75% of our combined incomes mean we are not quality employees? Or, perhaps the fact that we were able to roll with the punches and find our way through mean we are resourceful, persistant and willing to do what it takes to make it through adversity? Weathering a major life crisis shows responsibility and integrity in a global sense that is more overarching than just the financial arena. It seems to be an uniquely American attitude that being credit worthy equates to be employment worthy.

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"At this point, we don't have any research to show any statistical correlation between what's in somebody's credit report and their job performance or their likelihood to commit fraud," TransUnion's director of state government relations, Eric Rosenberg, said in testimony before Oregon legislators in January."

States stepping up to limit pre-employment credit checks

"Bernie Madoff had a pretty good credit score:eek:," said Matthew Lesser, a Connecticut state representative who introduced a bill early last year that would have limited employers' use of credit reports.

Jerry K. Palmer, a psychology professor at Eastern Kentucky University, said his studies, though relatively small, found no correlation between the quality of an employee's credit report and that worker's job performance or likelihood to quit.

He said he was not aware of any studies that showed a correlation between poor credit and employee fraud or violence. But he noted that more research was needed to show what credit reports could predict.

As a Hiring Filter, Credit Checks Draw Questions - NYTimes.com

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Specializes in Flu clinics, Med/Surg, Acute Care.

I have had many jobs say they look at your credit. I don't think they should check. I mean if you have bad credit, you NEED a job to fix it. I hate how everything is tied to a credit rating.

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I don't think that finances reflect on how well you care for a patient.

Now, I completely understand the need for a credit check for a financial advisor. I mean, really. If you are going to advise me on my finances, you better have your own in check.

I'm not even sure if they are looking at the score when they pull it anyway. I really don't know what they look for. Like Fribblet said, I think they are really looking to see if you owe them medical bills. In fact, I just had a pre-employment credit check done at a hospital a week ago and they clearly made sure I understood they were looking for past employers, addresses, and criminal record (in large bold letters.) They mentioned it a few times. Only once (in tiny letters) did is say that adverse credit history may be taken into consideration. It seemed to be a disclaimer, but it didn't seem to be as important as the other factors.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

Wow. My phone really doesn't do me justice on the grammar side. LOL.

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Wow. My phone really doesn't do me justice on the grammar side. LOL.

:lol2:

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