Employers, with a prospective employee’s consent only, sometimes pull a credit report on the prospective employee. This is a federally permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, given today’s economy, many people, especially the unemployed, have had credit damage done to their credit reports. Fox Business reports that some states are stepping up to prohibit employers from pulling credit reports for employment purposes.
Since 2007, three states have stepped up, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon and passed legislation that limits an employer’s access to a prospective employee’s credit report. Additionally, a proposed amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act was introduced to prohibit such credit checks as well.
Many employers are not happy about this. They value the information a credit report give them as much as an interview and a reference check. Some employers correlate a credit history with a person’s level of integrity, honesty and character. Legislators counter that whether someone has a good credit history or not has nothing to do with whether that person is honest or dishonest. As you can see, there is arguments on both sides that have merit.
My slant – What is undeniable, however, is that you are in a far better position to obtain a job if your credit report is clean and well maintained. At least once a year, you should review your credit report to make sure that everything on it is accurate. Indeed over 80% of all credit reports contain inaccuracies and at least half of those inaccuracies depress credit scores. It costs you nothing to review your credit report or to hire a consumer credit lawyer to get it fixed. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to get your free (and no obligation) credit report once a year.
If you are harassed by a debt collector, contact an attorney. contact me, Attorney Gary Nitzkin by email at [email protected] or toll free at (888) 293-2882. Visit www.micreditlawyer.com for free instructional videos on how you can defend and protect your credit.
