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Filing bankruptcy is not the end of the world nor is it going to cost you a job or apartment if you're upfront about it.
I've landed a few jobs since 2011 when I filed. Anytime I was informed a background check was going to be done, I was immediately upfront about filing Chapter 7. I still landed work. These were things beyond my control and I was still paying the bills until my lawyer told me to cease payments. I find being upfront about it as opposed to waiting until the potential employer finds it works to your benefit.
On the flip side, I was told by one realtor I would never find an apartment with a bankruptcy. She was wrong. I ended up finding quite a few who would take me through another broker. It probably helped that I have no landlord issues.
I agree that everyone should check their credit reports and background checks. I once interviewed with a company whose background check had wrong information on me. The interviewer said to me "So you moved around a lot, how did you work in NY when you lived in MA?" I never lived in MA. I never lived outside of NY. I basically told him I have no idea what information is on the report, but clearly some of it is inaccurate as I never lived outside of the state. He still kept drilling me on things that were on this report. I decided to take a different job.
I didn't grow up middle class (FAR from it), but I'd like to think my decisions helped to eventually get me there.
Just out of curiosity what do you consider unavoidable? I'd bet in most cases that if you dig back far enough to get to the root cause you'll see that there were options at some point and someone chose the wrong one. It happens..... but unavoidable? Maybe not.
All I know is how much one person would throw it in my face that nothing bad would ever happen to them because they had 6 months of savings in the bank. Until 2008 and both of them were out of work for a year.
You really don't seem to realize that some things are unavoidable. I left an abusive home at 17 and went right to work instead of staying at home and going to college. I needed a place to live when I was 18 and went to live with a friend of mine, which worked out fine until her husband started hitting on me. I found myself out in the street at that point. Years later I moved into my truck so I could take a minimum wage job with flexible hours. That was so I could go back to community college full time, only to have them start charging tuition for the first time ever less than a year later - tuition I couldn't afford. These things were unavoidable and there was no way I could have foreseen them happening to make a different choice.
Life happens. You can't guarantee your wife won't have an affair behind your back and decide to run off. You can't guarantee that your house won't get destroyed in an earthquake or a tornado or a flood. You could be in a car accident tomorrow that might leave your wife or child a paraplegic and run through your savings in a month taking care of them. Your decisions and choices are only as good as the predictability of life and when life, bad luck, and the unpredictable happens, all those good decisions you thought you made are going to be worth about this much: > <.
I just hope you don't learn that the hard way, is all. Good luck, my friend.
I had an employee who had a not-so-stellar credit history when I hired him on. But because he did so well at the interview and passed his machinist test with flying colors I hired him. He told me he had gone bankrupt trying to take care of his kids medical needs. I went through something similar with my youngest son so I felt for him and took the bait.
Had we taken heed to that credit report we probably wouldn't have hired him.
Meh, I think some of the greatest swindlers of all time (Madoff and who knows how many others) probably had great credit. I know people with not-so-great credit who would never steal. It is really hard to put a single label on it. It is a hard judgment call to make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KonaldDuth
I have always disagreed with the entire premise that criminal background checks and credit checks provide a window into a individual's personal responsibility. I have always disagreed even more with the idea that they provide a window into an individual's work ethic and skills.
First of all, let's remember that having a clean criminal record simply means one of the following:
You never commit crimes
You commit crimes and never have been caught
You commit crimes and have been caught, but hired a good lawyer or got lucky to have the State drop the charges for whatever reason
Similarly, having a glowing credit report simply means that the amount of money you have owed that is on the books has always been paid back in a timely manner. If you owe $40,000 to your parents or $5,000 to a landlord or if you fled to America after financially screwing over people in your home country, that will be invisible on a credit report.
There are plenty of people who have insane amounts of debt but their credit is just fine because they make minimum payments. My uncle who is very smart (and a great employee) has been in so much debt it that it would probably stress me to death if it was my debt---but his credit looks fine on paper. He might be just as likely to steal as that guy with the 590 credit score. He wouldn't, but I am just throwing that out there.
I think using a credit check is reasonable with some jobs but I think more people would be on board if you were able to actually explain issues (like another poster who was able to explain her bankruptcy above to perspective employers---some companies will just toss your app in the trash) AND if you were able to modify incorrect information/identity theft easier on it. Some people go through a lot to get something changed on there.
All I know is how much one person would throw it in my face that nothing bad would ever happen to them because they had 6 months of savings in the bank. Until 2008 and both of them were out of work for a year.
You really don't seem to realize that some things are unavoidable. I left an abusive home at 17 and went right to work instead of staying at home and going to college. I needed a place to live when I was 18 and went to live with a friend of mine, which worked out fine until her husband started hitting on me. I found myself out in the street at that point. Years later I moved into my truck so I could take a minimum wage job with flexible hours. That was so I could go back to community college full time, only to have them start charging tuition for the first time ever less than a year later - tuition I couldn't afford. These things were unavoidable and there was no way I could have foreseen them happening to make a different choice.
Life happens. You can't guarantee your wife won't have an affair behind your back and decide to run off. You can't guarantee that your house won't get destroyed in an earthquake or a tornado or a flood. You could be in a car accident tomorrow that might leave your wife or child a paraplegic and run through your savings in a month taking care of them. Your decisions and choices are only as good as the predictability of life and when life, bad luck, and the unpredictable happens, all those good decisions you thought you made are going to be worth about this much: > <.
I just hope you don't learn that the hard way, is all. Good luck, my friend.
I'm not disagreeing with you at all in regards to things that we cannot see coming. Our differences seem to come from how we prepare for those. I don't make quick decisions if at all possible. I like to play out different scenarios before I make a decision to try and cover all of the "what-ifs" that might occur. Then I try to come up with a plan on how I address each scenario and choose the one that seems the most viable. In the instance of college that you mentioned above, I would have taken into consideration that tuition was a possibility, and may have decided against going back at the time until I was better financially able. Not saying your decision was wrong for you, but I'd likely have taken a different route. Different minds, different times I suppose.
You cannot predict life. But you CAN predict how you will react to it. That's why insurance, investments, savings, and careful decision making is so important. What you can do is always plan for the worst case scenario. If it doesn't happen, you come out on top. If it does, you already have a plan in place to handle it. Any time I deal with money and estimating costs, I always throw in a contingency to factor in some unforeseen event. It's saved us quite a few times.
I'm a planner by trade, but I became one because I plan out everything at work and in my personal life. It's easier for me to see the risks, and figure out how to minimize those than it is for my wife. My planning stems from necessity, not desire to do it.
That's why insurance, investments, savings, and careful decision making is so important. What you can do is always plan for the worst case scenario. If it doesn't happen, you come out on top.
And how does one go about getting savings and investments if you are just starting out and your parents can't give them to you? And how was somebody with a per-existing condition support to get insured for the risk before Obamacare fixed that?
And how does one go about getting savings and investments if you are just starting out and your parents can't give them to you? And how was somebody with a per-existing condition support to get insured for the risk before Obamacare fixed that?
Is this a serious question? I think this is an entitlement issue that many younger people in my generation seem to have. Most people don't start with anything. That doesn't mean you can't turn it into something. At 21, I had $700 to my name that I had tucked away little by little. And an old 89 Honda with over 250k miles on it that I bought for $1,000 from a friend of the family to get me to and from work.
You work a LOT..... and you spend very little. I've worked two jobs, sometimes three if the need arose and it's what I had to do. It's not easy, but you have to start from somewhere. Tuck back every penny you can until you become stable. My wife and I were extremely frugal in our younger years out of necessity. That has helped pay off in dividends as we reach our mid 30's.
Over time, you work your way into better paying jobs with more benefits until those second and third jobs aren't necessary. Then over time as wealth increases you begin investing it into something other than a savings account (IRAs, different mutual funds, etc..). Leave the savings account for the emergency fund.
It's a slow process and no one gets there over night. The problem is.... many figure out that credit is fairly easy to get and they abuse it. Then they come on places like C-D and complain that they can't get a job because their credit is shot.
As for pre-existing conditions, shop around for insurance. When I came off my father's insurance I didn't have a lot of trouble getting insurance despite having Degenerative Disc Disease and Fibromyalgia. When one door closes, find another door. You can't just give up.....
Is this a serious question? I think this is an entitlement issue that many younger people in my generation seem to have. Most people don't start with anything. That doesn't mean you can't turn it into something. At 21, I had $700 to my name that I had tucked away little by little. And an old 89 Honda with over 250k miles on it that I bought for $1,000 from a friend of the family to get me to and from work.
Yes. It is a serious question, one put in many forms by myself and others. One that you have yet to respond to. If you are starting out with nothing and you hit a problem, you could very easily have a bankruptcy that you could not have avoided. What happens if you need a car to get to work, so you borrow the money, and then you get sick or something where you can't work. Lots of people wind up with very big hits on their credit through things that were not easily to avoid and sitting there at 40 years old with money in the bank telling them to buy more insurance is bull****.
I personally don't see the point of a credit report unless you're in the financial sector or dealing with obscene amounts of money.
How will it help the Average Joe with bad credit if he cannot get a job? If Joe can't get a job to PAY OFF his debts and build up his credit again, then guess what? His debts will go into collections and Joe will get another hit to his credit score.
It's a vicious cycle. Do away with credit reports, not all people that have horrible credit make bad employees.
One time at the end of the work day I was in the elevator with the ceo of the company. His weekly salary was well into five digits. He wished me a good evening and I replied that I was on my way to my second job so I wasn't so sure how good of an evening it was going to be. You should have seen his face. He lost all color and gave me the oddest look. I guess from his point of view people with second jobs were a potential security risk. He could have remedied that by paying some of us a little better but no, let's not go overboard.
Or the CEO's reaction was because he was thinking, "This person isn't committed to the job here. This is not good. I thought we hired people who were dedicated. Have to add this person's name to the next round of layoffs".
nope, our company runs a credit report on all applicants, even those entry level $12.00/hr part time jobs
i think you will find most if not all (larger, multi state) companies do
When people are hired or apply for a job, there can be a bunch of stuff to sign and if they don't look closely they're authorizing the employer to do background checks which include a credit report.
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