credit checks for jobs?

[pontifex]

Why do companies need to do credit checks for jobs? i've had 2 positions come up where they need to do credit checks before they would hire me.

what is the purpose of this?

 

[spaceman]

Originally posted by: pontifex
Why do companies need to do credit checks for jobs? i've had 2 positions come up where they need to do credit checks before they would hire me.

what is the purpose of this?

2see whether or not ur shady!

 

[Linflas]

Only time I had that happen was when I got a job as a bank teller in college. Made sense for that.

 

[Elganja]

Originally posted by: pontifex
Why do companies need to do credit checks for jobs? i've had 2 positions come up where they need to do credit checks before they would hire me.

what is the purpose of this?

you can tell a lot about a person looking at their credit history... for example how responsible and trustworthy they are...

 

[Rick3464]

lowes, walmart, target ect. all do credit checks to base their decision for employment. it's the corporate mentality that someone with bad or no credit is going to be more likely to steal.i have been the victim of this newest form of discrimination at a lowes where i was recruited by the regional, area and store manager to work. i had 3 references on my application from them as well. i was refused based on my non existent credit.
seems to me it's becoming a twisted world where unless you have $30,000 of debt you cant get a decent job.
someone with no credit is more than likely a better employee based on the fact that they don't have all the debt hanging over them and shows them to be better at managing their personal income and would not steal to pay a credit card bill.
thats my opinion.

 

[Elganja]

Originally posted by: Rick3464
lowes, walmart, target ect. all do credit checks to base their decision for employment. it's the corporate mentality that someone with bad or no credit is going to be more likely to steal.i have been the victim of this newest form of discrimination at a lowes where i was recruited by the regional, area and store manager to work. i had 3 references on my application from them as well. i was refused based on my non existent credit.
seems to me it's becoming a twisted world where unless you have $30,000 of debt you cant get a decent job.
someone with no credit is more than likely a better employee based on the fact that they don't have all the debt hanging over them and shows them to be better at managing their personal income and would not steal to pay a credit card bill.
thats my opinion.

Having credit != being in debt

Having no credit means your fiscal responsibility has not been proven yet or can't be proved yet (short history)

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Credit checks are used to assess the applicant's level of responsibility, verying previous employment and residency, understanding if there are personal issues that may affect the applicant's performance level at work, and financial trust. While there is debate over their usefulness, I always run one for staff members, but never run one for production workers.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

I think it's ridiculous, especially at a retail store. How are broke college kids suppoesd to get jobs?

I had a credit check at a 'corporate' style place I applied to a year or so ago. I actually turned down their generous offer based on that and their drug testing policy (testing every 3 months is pretty ridiculous and imo an invasion of my privacy) even though I had no problem passing both tests.

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
I think it's ridiculous, especially at a retail store. How are broke college kids suppoesd to get jobs?

I had a credit check at a 'corporate' style place I applied to a year or so ago. I actually turned down their generous offer based on that and their drug testing policy (testing every 3 months is pretty ridiculous and imo an invasion of my privacy) even though I had no problem passing both tests.

A fail to see how a credit check will immediately disqualify "broke college kids." I agree with you on drug testing to the extent that the people being drug tested are not in safety sensitive jobs. We don't test staff, but we do test production. A positive test does not result in automatic termination.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
I think it's ridiculous, especially at a retail store. How are broke college kids suppoesd to get jobs?

I had a credit check at a 'corporate' style place I applied to a year or so ago. I actually turned down their generous offer based on that and their drug testing policy (testing every 3 months is pretty ridiculous and imo an invasion of my privacy) even though I had no problem passing both tests.

every 3 months you've got to be kidding me. It is bad enough that corporations have hijacked our privacy rights by universally forcing drug testing upon anyone who wants to work for a living

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: Linflas
Only time I had that happen was when I got a job as a bank teller in college. Made sense for that.

Same here.

Also had a credit check when I got my security clearance, but that was separate from the job application.

 

[zoiks]

My employer checked my credit (software company) when I joined. I had bad credit back then and told em so. They told me that they didn't care about money issues at all. They were looking for a pattern to see if I was reliable or not.

 

[Xavier434]

The main problem I have with this practice is that credit seems to be getting more and more unrecoverable. People make mistakes. No one is perfect. They should be able to recover, but that is becoming harder and harder to do. Debt gets sold again and again so it never leaves your report. Even after you pay it off it remains on your report for 7 years. Now jobs? People need jobs to pay off that debt and you are telling me that people are being denied their only way of paying it off? If every business did that then how is one supposed to recover?

 

[Queasy]

Only time I've had that happen is when I worked for Equifax and well, that just made sense. You don't want someone with a shady credit history working with credit reporting.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

I think it can be a very useful tool in determining someones characteristics. However, my main beef is that it is relatively HARD for a person to find out their report and especially their score, and even then the formulas used to reach that score are mysterious so you don't always know what you need to do to fix it. An individual should have unlimited free access to their score and report if it is going to be used for these purposes.

 

[OCGuy]

Checking for fraud.

 

[Rumpltzer]

I've had 2 credit and background checks for my 2 jobs out of school. Both were engineering jobs where the government is mostly our customer. I didn't really understand it, but I went along with it because my credit history is pretty freaking good and I figure it only makes me look better.

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
I think it can be a very useful tool in determining someones characteristics. However, my main beef is that it is relatively HARD for a person to find out their report and especially their score, and even then the formulas used to reach that score are mysterious so you don't always know what you need to do to fix it. An individual should have unlimited free access to their score and report if it is going to be used for these purposes.

No, it's not. 😕