Job hunters should check credit report
• The Best Selling Credit Repair Package
The job interviews have gone well, the people you would be working with seem cool and the HR department wants to call your references.
Now you just have to hope your credit report passes muster.
It turns out your credit can affect more than your mortgage or car loan.
An increasing number of employers want to know how you spend your money before hiring.
The theory is that your financial history offers important clues about how you will perform on the job.
In a competitive job market, a penchant for buying everything you see could cost you a job.
"Typically, people who manage finances well manage their lives well and are less stressed, likely to be more honest and more in control of their workday and their home life," said Maxine Sweet, a spokeswoman for Experian, one of the nation’s biggest credit bureaus.
"A credit report is not only reflective of your financial position but your character."
A prospective employer accessing your credit report might seem like a privacy violation, but it’s legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, federal legislation passed three decades ago.
The law requires employers to get your written consent before accessing a report if it’s a factor in an employment decision.
Most retailers will do a credit check.
The hospitality industry also does them for employees who have access to cash or the ability to be around customers.
They’ll run credit checks on people who are in the housekeeping department because they have access to guests’ valuables," said Celeste Winford, an employment attorney at the Dallas office of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP.
Credit checks, along with broader background checks of criminal history and other public records, are also common for employees in management or supervisory positions.
And it’s not just customer-service-oriented jobs either: financial corporations do them too, as do many large companies with human resources departments.
They want to make sure you are not financially overextended, so that you’re too stressed to do a good job, or cash-strapped enough to consider stealing.
They also want to see that you have been responsible, by not running up huge debts you cannot pay.
Finally, the reports can be used to verify addresses — if you say you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, but your credit report says otherwise, an employer will pick up on the inconsistency.
Also, remember that an employer can access your credit report without your permission if it’s not used in an employment decision.
Some tips
• Check your report for accuracy before you start job hunting
• Be prepared to explain or answer any questions on the report from an employer
• Stay on top of your finances and keep your credit clean
- Source: AP, via FortWayne.com, May 23, 2006
