According to a survey by VISA, 4 in 5 people do not know that bad credit can affect their chances of being hired for a job. What many people don't appreciate until they see it firsthand is that companies have the right to reject job applicants because of their credit histories. Employers who investigate your credit record as part of the hiring process contend that your credit history is a good predictor of your character, judgment and reliability as an employee. Some consumer advocates argue against this and claim the practice is an unjust method of discriminating against applicants. Independent of which side of the story you agree with, the fact remains that the data contained by the credit bureaus could have bearing on whether or not you are hired for a new job. ABC News featured an article titled How Bad Credit Can Affect Job Prospects in which there are a number of good tips to keep in mind when applying for a new job. The first tip is finding out if the employer will request a copy of your credit reports. Prospective employers have to get your permission before conducting a credit check so look through the small print of any application. You will commonly find the consent statement in the small print where you lend your consent upon signing the application. If you have great credit, you probably won't have anything to worry about. If, however, the information in your credit reports shows a history of difficulties making timely payments or other credit problems, it is advised that you make an effort to minimize their impact. Of course, if you haven't checked your credit reports recently and don't know what is on them, make sure you order a copy of your reports before beginning the job search. You can order your reports free of charge at AnnualCreditReport.com. If your score is sub-par because of credit reporting errors or other questionable damaging information recorded in your credit reports, work to get these items corrected or removed. If you do not have time to take care of these issues before applying for a job, there are many other benefits to correcting these issues so it is still advisable that you do so. But for now, you will have to try to help a prospective employer look past your bad credit score. If you know an employer wants to take a look at your credit, consider preemptively coming clean instead of having to perform damage control after they have seen your credit reports. Many people with poor credit have extenuating circumstances such as unemployment, fallout from a divorce, or medical issues that can wreck havoc their credit rating. After confidently and truthfully explaining your situation, you may find that employers will be understanding of your difficulties.
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The majority of American consumers do not realize that bad credit can hurt their chances of being hired for a job. Learn how employers can use your credit and how you can minimize the effect bad credit has on your job hunting success.
Since 1991, Lexington Law has been helping clients legally dispute the questionable negative information in their credit reports. To date, Lexington Law's credit repair services have assisted thousands of clients with disputing these credit listings resulting in over 1,000,000 removals in 2009 alone.
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