For a credit score to remotely matter, it needs to be reformed. Because like someone else said penalizing you for not having credit cards, totally discounting paying off student loans in one fail swoop (which happened to me) and being frequently full of errors that are near impossible to correct....all this for starters does not make it a good indicator of whether you can be trusted to not be sympathetic to terrorists or run off to the Caymans.
ETA: and I don't think jobs working in financial planning and the nuclear industry are the issue in this particular article.
I guess this is where I was wondering if there are stats that support this. Are there people selling secrets to terrorists cause their MasterCard was late?
A few late payments aren't going to disqualify you. They look for are you in over your head. They look at the actual report, not a score.
My actual report doesn't even do a good job. You can't see that my rent was never late, for instance. Even better if you look at my reports from the 3 major agencies, they don't even all look the same. My husband has a very common name and he's got stuff on his that doesn't even belong to him. It is so hard to get it removed. And he spent most of his life in another country with an impeccable credit history but that meant nothing in the States. They just want to know if you have a Discover card.
I guess this is where I was wondering if there are stats that support this. Are there people selling secrets to terrorists cause their MasterCard was late?
A few late payments aren't going to disqualify you. They look for are you in over your head. They look at the actual report, not a score.
I was in charge of background checks/credentialing at a univeristy years ago. I only ran credit checks on upper administration (deans, presidents, board members) and anyone in the finance dept. My report didn't include an actual score; it was a total judgment call. MY judgment - lol.
A few late payments aren't going to disqualify you. They look for are you in over your head. They look at the actual report, not a score.
I was in charge of background checks/credentialing at a univeristy years ago. I only ran credit checks on upper administration (deans, presidents, board members) and anyone in the finance dept. My report didn't include an actual score; it was a total judgment call. MY judgment - lol.
That is scary. Not because of you specifically ? just the process of a person making a judgment call on what could be erroneous information and without any insight on what could have caused the issue.
I was in charge of background checks/credentialing at a univeristy years ago. I only ran credit checks on upper administration (deans, presidents, board members) and anyone in the finance dept. My report didn't include an actual score; it was a total judgment call. MY judgment - lol.
That is scary. Not because of you specifically ? just the process of a person making a judgment call on what could be erroneous information and without any insight on what could have caused the issue.
We do this as well. We don't get scores just the derogatory info. I have seen bankruptcy and other things on the credit of those going into finance and have never rescinded the offer. Sometimes an explanation is asked for though. For the record I hate credit checks for jobs, I think they are not fair at all.
For a credit score to remotely matter, it needs to be reformed. Because like someone else said penalizing you for not having credit cards, totally discounting paying off student loans in one fail swoop (which happened to me) and being frequently full of errors that are near impossible to correct....all this for starters does not make it a good indicator of whether you can be trusted to not be sympathetic to terrorists or run off to the Caymans.
ETA: and I don't think jobs working in financial planning and the nuclear industry are the issue in this particular article.
And again, credit scores probably work pretty well for what they were designed for - for lenders to look at and say "hey, this is someone we want as a customer" or "no thanks, we don't think we can make money off this person." But they were never supposed to be used to determine whether someone is a good hire or what their car insurance rates should be (that's another use of credit scores that makes me see red).
I was in charge of background checks/credentialing at a univeristy years ago. I only ran credit checks on upper administration (deans, presidents, board members) and anyone in the finance dept. My report didn't include an actual score; it was a total judgment call. MY judgment - lol.
That is scary. Not because of you specifically ? just the process of a person making a judgment call on what could be erroneous information and without any insight on what could have caused the issue.
And even with insight, maybe people don't really want to tell their employers that they filed bankruptcy because they had cancer and couldn't pay their bills. Or that they were late on credit card and car payments for several years because of a nasty divorce.
I was in charge of background checks/credentialing at a univeristy years ago. I only ran credit checks on upper administration (deans, presidents, board members) and anyone in the finance dept. My report didn't include an actual score; it was a total judgment call. MY judgment - lol.
That is scary. Not because of you specifically ? just the process of a person making a judgment call on what could be erroneous information and without any insight on what could have caused the issue.
Ha! Well I never flagged anyone. I'm the LAST person who should be judging someone's credit. I never saw anything out of the ordinary, though.
I know we credit check because someone in deep trouble financially can be more easily influenced by money from a potential terrorists.
This is an excuse that's been used since the Cold War, honestly. I bet Alger Hiss always paid his bills on time. I mean, really, that was the issue - he seemed SO trustworthy!
What is the evidence that people will poor credit have been targeted by terrorists to sabotage our energy sources? Frankly, if you're going to create a nuclear implosion, you probably won't have to worry about your mortgage anymore.
Also, let's not forget student loans. The government is complicit in causing millions of Americans to be deep in debt, and makes it next to impossible to discharge that debt.
It's a pretty common practice for a credit check to be a condition of employment for many positions in insurance companies, especially in claims. It's not that hard to enter fake claims into the system and pay out small settlements and keep it off the radar of management as long as the adjuster is careful with the amounts and frequency of the pay outs. After there were some huge scandals 15-20 years ago in the industry with this happening most companies started requiring clean-ish credit for people in positions where they had the authority to issue checks without the constant oversight of a manager. None of them had a score requirement but most of the had standards that only a certain percentage (25-30%) could be in arrears, and a limit on how much debt could be charged off. I used to work in temp staffing and it was frustrating as hell that we would find the magical unicorn candidate who was available immediately, agreeable to the salary range, had the right combination of experiences and licenses, and had not been on the market forever or had a reputation, but did not pass the credit because she had been unemployed or temping for a long period of time and her finances were understandably a bit of a mess.
I remember of the saddest firings I ever did was for a temp we had worked with for a while that had finally gotten on with one of our companies that almost always hired temps at the ninety day mark. A few days before we expected her to be hired we got a call from HR asking us to terminate her assignment because she has turned down the permanent offer. I was baffled because she almost cried of happiness when I told her the culture of the company and her odds of getting a full time job with benefits. When I spoke to her about it she said that she only asked for a few weeks extension because her credit wasn't good and she wanted a little more time to clean it up so they wouldn't fire her; unfortunately she was mistaken because her department didn't run/require credit checks and because she had effectively turned down an offer of full time employment she was terminated and the unemployment office decided she had quit and did not allow her benefits. It's been over six years and I still feel awful about how it all turned out.
I know we credit check because someone in deep trouble financially can be more easily influenced by money from a potential terrorists.
This is an excuse that's been used since the Cold War, honestly. I bet Alger Hiss always paid his bills on time. I mean, really, that was the issue - he seemed SO trustworthy!
What is the evidence that people will poor credit have been targeted by terrorists to sabotage our energy sources? Frankly, if you're going to create a nuclear implosion, you probably won't have to worry about your mortgage anymore.
Also, let's not forget student loans. The government is complicit in causing millions of Americans to be deep in debt, and makes it next to impossible to discharge that debt.
It's not about poor credit or causing total destruction. But if you're about to lose everything and your family doesn't know the house of cards you've built, aren't you an easier target to buy designs from? Or as a security guard, to be bribed to let someone get away with contraband like alcohol or a forgotten weapon in a backpack? Or passing a temp worker on an exam?
This is an excuse that's been used since the Cold War, honestly. I bet Alger Hiss always paid his bills on time. I mean, really, that was the issue - he seemed SO trustworthy!
What is the evidence that people will poor credit have been targeted by terrorists to sabotage our energy sources? Frankly, if you're going to create a nuclear implosion, you probably won't have to worry about your mortgage anymore.
Also, let's not forget student loans. The government is complicit in causing millions of Americans to be deep in debt, and makes it next to impossible to discharge that debt.
It's not about poor credit or causing total destruction. But if you're about to lose everything and your family doesn't know the house of cards you've built, aren't you an easier target to buy designs from? Or as a security guard, to be bribed to let someone get away with contraband like alcohol or a forgotten weapon in a backpack? Or passing a temp worker on an exam?
I mean, it's an idea that makes sense but I'm just interested in whether there is any actual data or studies to back up the idea.
It's not about poor credit or causing total destruction. But if you're about to lose everything and your family doesn't know the house of cards you've built, aren't you an easier target to buy designs from? Or as a security guard, to be bribed to let someone get away with contraband like alcohol or a forgotten weapon in a backpack? Or passing a temp worker on an exam?
I mean, it's an idea that makes sense but I'm just interested in whether there is any actual data or studies to back up the idea.
I highly doubt that if they are that they'd be publicly accessible.
I do wonder what kind of research has been done to back up the use of credit checks. IME if companies are NOT hiring people because of something that doesn't actually relate to the job, they can be sued. You can't just make someone complete a test for no reason when hiring, you need to show that the test predicts performance. I would imagine the same thing for a credit check? I'm curious now.
I would actually be surprised if 50% of jobs require a credit check. IME, both companies I've run background checks for RARELY require a credit check on top of it. It's usually only for jobs highly related to handling peoples' personal information and credit cards. I can kind of see that, how someone in deep trouble financially might be more of a risk to hand over someone's CC info or info that can help with ID theft. I actually can only recall running 1-2 credit checks at my previous employer, and one had bad credit and we still hired them because of the nature of it. At my most recent employer, I don't think I ran any credit checks, though I ran tons of background checks. So - I wonder if it's really even all that common, and if it IS, if people are really getting denied employment because of low-ish scores.
I guess I need more information, in other words. I disagree with using a credit check without good reason, and I disagree with using one simply based on not having a high score.
I also have mixed feelings about background checks in general.
I know we credit check because someone in deep trouble financially can be more easily influenced by money from a potential terrorists.
Credit is just one aspect of the background check, too. My DH has to undergo psychological testing and a background check every couple of years. Then there is the phyiscal fitness for duty stuff.
If the plant employees get a speeding ticket they can be denied access to the plant. We know a guy that got a reckless driving ticket and this happen too.
I work in banking and have to undergo a credit check for hiring.