Slashdot Mirror
Will Your Credit Report Disqualify You For a Job?
coondoggie writes "Two companies that fired workers and rejected job applicants based on background checks, without informing those people of their rights, have settled with the FTC for $77,000 in civil penalties. Most experts we talked to think this case is just the tip of the iceberg. The companies — Quality Terminal Services and Rail Terminal Services — were charged with violating provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires employers to get permission to look at individual credit reports. If you don't get a job because of information in your report, the employer must show you the report and tell you how to get a copy from the consumer reporting company. There is no charge for the report if you request it within 60 days of getting notice that you did not get a job."
Agreed. Unless you have a job, how are you going to fix your credit?
Most of what companies do makes sense to no one but them. A company is not a single entity, even, but a whole group of idiots with different priorities and different ideas of how to do things, who probably don't talk with each other all that often, and even less often actually agree.
A previous employer shipped their entire business, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electronics equipment, all over the world in reusable plastic boxes with the companies name on them, sealed with velcro. Every time, at least a half a dozen people who were not their employees handled the boxes and had access to everything in them. They still did credit checks on potential employees.
In the IT industry especially, companies are fine with treating local employees like criminals, but then are more than willing to outsource essential work to god-knows-who in skeezy third-world countries.
Not trusting random people on the street is one thing. But not trusting employees is the sign of a ridiculous, horrible company.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
If that's what you're trying to manage, then I daresay you should find direct evidence in support of people's ability to manage regular tasks and survive tight situations.
Credit is a false indicator in this regard. I know people who have amazing credit scores, but I wouldn't trust them to manage a paper sack. Similarly, I know a lot of people who have a strangely wreckless approach to their personal lives, but whose professional work is shockingly squeaky-clean. It is perhaps because they are so dilligent about their professional work that their brain takes a vacation at home.
And, of course, credit can / is usually wrecked by things outside of the control of the person. Health issues, job losses, divorce, moving, and identity theft all ruin credit, and can frequently do so without the end user knowing about it. Personally, my credit was ruined for YEARS without my knowing it, simply because my college roommate had failed to pay the last bill on electricity before moving out. The bill was for 16 dollars, which was too small to actually notify me that anything was still owed, but not too small that it wasn't listed as a default in my credit score. Now that I'm of more firm financial footing, my credit is still terrible. Why? Because I belive borrowing is a symptom of a failure to properly financially plan, which has the side effect that my available credit is low and my credit repayment history is thin.
Credit Score is a tool specifically for financial companies to decide if they want to loan you money. You'll notice that paying your bill in full each month is actually counted as a negative against your credit score, as does shopping around for loans (generating lots of inquiries), consolidating debt, closing unused credit cards, and other things which I personally consider highly fiscally responsible. Again, this is because your FICO is not a measurement of your financial accumen, but rather your potential profitability to moneylenders. Let's keep it as a tool for that, shall we?
The ______ Agenda
Or they can be complete bullshit.
My Experian report (which has a high score) has me working for Boeing since I was 10 years old. They apparently confused it with my father, but even after several letters pointing out the mathematical improbability of their information being accurate, it's still there.
It's a shame it isn't true. I could have been retired for years.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You may start with a lower score than a rich person, but your score will only go bad if you do something irresponsible, like buying something on credit which you don't pay back.
Like, for example, a couple of weeks in the hospital?
Breakfast served all day!
It's worse than that.
Credit is little more than a way to keep people working for low wages in crappy jobs. The entire credit system is little more than legalized slavery. We can see how the rise of the credit industry has coincided with a slow degradation of real income for workers.
Banks and corporations are working hand in hand to make sure as many people are underwater as possible. Why else would your credit score go down when you cancel a credit card, and also go down when you get a new credit card?
You are welcome on my lawn.
There is definitely a "citation needed" there. And I don't understand why you trolls manage to turn every discussion into an attack on Christians. If it were a regular Slashdot attack on Christians and I started talking about how a credit check can make it hard to get a job, I think I'd get modded "Offtopic".