New Law Would Prohibit Use of Credit Checks for Employment (foreclosed, insurance)

[stan4]

New Law Would Prohibit Use of Credit Checks for Employment

Wouldn't that give people even less incentive to manage their finances properly?

[stan4]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

noah, people with bad credit are not less productive workers. That is a crazy comment. They probably are more productive workers because they want to keep their job and or get a job to pay off their debt.

I am sure that saying everyone with bad credit is lazier than everyone with good credit is way overgeneralizing and just silly.

Strangely, though, that's how it seems to fall out in the people I know, though.

[portyhead24]

All I know is I'm tired of advertisements telling me my self worth is directly connected to my credit score. They make it seem like if your score is below 600 then you're a bad citizen. Get out there and spend and rack up debt (but always responsibly). That's the way to go

[Mishap]

Leaving a typo in your resume can cost you an opportunity for a job so why not a terrible credit score? I agree it shouldn't matter much for lower level jobs but when you deal w/ either large amounts of sensitive information or have fiduciary responsibilities, a credit check is absolutely valid. I work in software and my company handles hundreds of thousands of credit files daily and the last thing you want is a leveraged out or bankrupt person w/ every bit of information they need to steal your identity.

I'm sorry but your mother's husband should be in jail if he actually racked up 100k in debt under her name. If it was all joint accounts, he needs to be in at least as deep as her. At the minimum she should be able to sue to recover some of the money and perhaps negotiate w/ the creditors after the fact to improve her credit file. That said, her ex husband is still a reflection of her decisions and a risk that a company doesn't have to take especially in this economy. Her single best option is to be up front about it if she has a job offer pending background check. If she's not getting that far, then it's just her b/c companies need your approval to run credit/background checks.

That said since I work for the company that invented the credit score, they could actually figure out a lot of information down to a person's race if they really took the data mining to an extreme which is why strong regulation is necessary. A certain ATL based credit bureau has a postal code based credit score they use in Canada for when they don't have enough information to actually score an individual. Depending on the country it is perfectly possible to create massively discriminatory credit information and then use that against individuals.

[bayarea-girl]

Noah, studies by credit companies have shown the opposite of what you are saying. Credit companies have pointed out that there is no direct evidence that credit worthiness is related to wheter an emplyee will be good, lazy, or steal.

People have bad credit for many reasons, one could be the economy and loss of a job resulting in foreclosure, a divorce, illness/medical bills, and of course irresponsible spending (which credit card companies bank on, that is why they extend the credit to begin with). TN and Texas are enacting this into law, come on GA catch up. Credit checks for employment are very discriminatory and I have good credit. When I was in GA and my credit was ran, it had the opposite affect. The prospective employer had the nerve to tell me that I had too many assets and would I even be really interested in the job and I hated the lines of questioning as to how and why I have the assets I do and or the credit score I do, to them it must have been some sort of mistake.

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by portyhead24

All I know is I'm tired of advertisements telling me my self worth is directly connected to my credit score. They make it seem like if your score is below 600 then you're a bad citizen. Get out there and spend and rack up debt (but always responsibly). That's the way to go

You don't get a score below 600 b/c you're not racking up enough debt. You get a score like that b/c you don't pay on time which to a credit card company, you're a bad customer.

My parents have zero debt and pay off all of their credit cards monthly and have credit scores over 800. My dad even paid off his last car loan early (36mon/2.9%) b/c he didn't like the interest.

[bayarea-girl]

Also, in CA they rarely check ones credit score and there aren't these huge scandals of rampant employee theft.

For those of you who want this put into law please contact your Congressman.

[BeyondInfinity]

I believe that the federal government should mandate this across the board. It is not fair that someone can be turned down for a job due to their credit. Credit determines nothing at all except for how you personally may manage your own money!

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Noah, studies by credit companies have shown the opposite of what you are saying. Credit companies have pointed out that there is no direct evidence that credit worthiness is related to wheter an emplyee will be good, lazy, or steal.

People have bad credit for many reasons, one could be the economy and loss of a job resulting in foreclosure, a divorce, illness/medical bills, and of course irresponsible spending (which credit card companies bank on, that is why they extend the credit to begin with). TN and Texas are enacting this into law, come on GA catch up. Credit checks for employment are very discriminatory and I have good credit. When I was in GA and my credit was ran, it had the opposite affect. The prospective employer had the nerve to tell me that I had too many assets and would I even be really interested in the job and I hated the lines of questioning as to how and why I have the assets I do and or the credit score I do, to them it must have been some sort of mistake.

What credit check shows your assets? No credit file I've seen shows anything but creditors. When I got to jump through hoops for my mortgage lender my 780+ score only showed I paid on time and not how much cash I could bring to the table. To answer that, they wanted to see my W2 statements, bank statements, and investment accounts which are not on any credit file. Your income is listed but it's stated (meaning that's what you told them).

I've been denied interviews b/c my income was too high...you don't need a credit check to find that out since they can just ask you. If the company can only pay 60k and you're making 90k, they can't land you unless there's something dramatically wrong w/ your current income or you're about to lose the 90k job which adds uncertainty they don't need.

[noah]

I agree somewhat, I've looked into it and posted the other side:

http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shown...9/06/22/16030/ (broken link)

But I still think stress is a factor albeit probably not enough of one. I don't think it has anything to do with people stealing money though.

Originally Posted by bayarea-girl

Noah, studies by credit companies have shown the opposite of what you are saying. Credit companies have pointed out that there is no direct evidence that credit worthiness is related to wheter an emplyee will be good, lazy, or steal.

People have bad credit for many reasons, one could be the economy and loss of a job resulting in foreclosure, a divorce, illness/medical bills, and of course irresponsible spending (which credit card companies bank on, that is why they extend the credit to begin with). TN and Texas are enacting this into law, come on GA catch up. Credit checks for employment are very discriminatory and I have good credit. When I was in GA and my credit was ran, it had the opposite affect. The prospective employer had the nerve to tell me that I had too many assets and would I even be really interested in the job and I hated the lines of questioning as to how and why I have the assets I do and or the credit score I do, to them it must have been some sort of mistake.