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I was starting my job search when something told me to pull my credit report. I had interviewed for an insurance company and she said that she would run my credit and she never called back. I did tell her that my credit was not good, but we are on a payment plan to get rid of the negative issues.
I pulled my report and my score has dropped 100 points within 2 months, because some of my old creditors updated the date of last activity as if there has been some recent activity on the accounts.
The field that I am in I have 7 years of experience.
Does anyone have any advice on what I could say in an interview to get over this hurdle?
Tomorrow I am sending letters to the credit bureaus to get the information updated.
I would think that just being honest during your interview is your best bet, and it sounds like that is exactly what you did. But the bottom line is, no matter what you do, in certain industries if you don't have a decent credit score, you are not likely to get hired. So just keep trying, keep being honest, and keep working on getting that credit score up steadily.
First, dont make it a big issue. if it comes up, just let the interviewer know that yes, you are going thru some hard times, you are prioritizing your bills, still paying the most important ones, "Face the fact" you're unemployed, therefore, youre looking for a job. Possibly might even have an older credit score available or rating to prove that this is just a new thing due to the unemployment. Address it, dont dwell on it. If the interviewer does, then simply state, Ive made some choices in my finances for me and my family to get by on what we have coming in right now, if I get this job, I will be able to turn this all around.
Do some research on the Fair Credit Reporting Act & employment. I think the employer cannot hold a credit report against a candidate unless the job entails the managing of money. And if they do decide to not hire you based on what they got in the report, they need to share the info with you.
The FCRA has very little to do with what an employer reads into a potential candidates history. no more than what an insurance company does for your driving record. They use it as a Weeding tool. Today the HR people dont pick out the best candidates, they weed out the ones with problems first, the credit report is just one of the weeding tools, for some jobs, not all. They dont have to disclose they used it.
Do some research on the Fair Credit Reporting Act & employment. I think the employer cannot hold a credit report against a candidate unless the job entails the managing of money. And if they do decide to not hire you based on what they got in the report, they need to share the info with you.
That's not necessarily true and can vary by state law as well.
The federal law has two significant loopholes. First, if the employer does not use a third-party screening company but, rather conducts the background check itself, it is not subject to the notice and consent provisions of the FCRA. Second, the employer might tell the rejected applicant that its adverse decision was not based on the contents of the background investigation, but, rather that the job pool was so exceptional that it made its hiring decision based on the fact that there were individuals more qualified than the applicant.
Even if the employer doesn't contract out background checks to a 3rd party, they really are going to a third party when it comes to credit reports. The 3rd party is transunion, experion, etc.
Also, I never even got into the fact that employers aren't likely to disclose that the credit report was the reason for not hiring. We all know that there are official reasons for not hiring someone, and the unofficial reasons. My point is that if the employer does make that the official reason for not hiring the person, it has to be a finance-related job, and the employer has to disclose what info in the report led to their decision.
I have reread the listing for the job and it listed good credit as a requirement. It was for a CSR position with insurance, I am licensed with the state in that field. The only money handling would be taking payments and I do that now and I have also worked in retail where I have handled cash. I have sent a follow up email, maybe I will get some feedback.
I was starting my job search when something told me to pull my credit report. I had interviewed for an insurance company and she said that she would run my credit and she never called back. I did tell her that my credit was not good, but we are on a payment plan to get rid of the negative issues.
I pulled my report and my score has dropped 100 points within 2 months, because some of my old creditors updated the date of last activity as if there has been some recent activity on the accounts.
The field that I am in I have 7 years of experience.
Does anyone have any advice on what I could say in an interview to get over this hurdle?
Tomorrow I am sending letters to the credit bureaus to get the information updated.
Most companies aren't looking for a credit score cut-off like they do when you're trying to rent a place or get a loan. Instead, financial services and other companies that do pre-employment credit checks look at the number of delinquencies and judgments giving more credence to those in the past 2-3 years. They typically have some type of formula that looks at percentage of delinquencies compared to overall credit and then subtract additionally for judgements or liens, kind of like what a college might do to qualify you (i.e. SAT score, plus GPA, etc.) Granted, not paying your bills will also mean lower credit scores, but in general, having your credit score go up or down has no bearing unless it's due to new delinquencies or judgements. As you probably know, your credit score can go down for many reasons including have recent inquiries, closing accounts, establishing new credit, etc. Employers wouldn't care about this stuff but your creditors would.
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