Prospective employees will always want everything to go in their favor while looking for a job.  They wouldn’t want any part and parcel of their past catching up with them or jeopardizing their employment prospects.

For some of these people their credit report is the only skeleton in their cupboards.  But unfortunately, for those who are job hunting it would be a bad time to have a poor credit and prospective employers would be looking at conducting credit checks on you.  It is especially the case if the job vacancy requires handling of money, sensitive material, and personal information.

Although it has been debated that using credit reports to take decisions while hiring employees is an unfair practice, it is still widely used by most employers, according to Chi Chi Wu, National Consumer Law Center, as it was stated in a testimony the previous year in front of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  The basic argument was the fundamental issue if it was fair for workers to be judged on the basis of their past credit history instead of considering their ability to perform their jobs as this amounted to discrimination.  According to Wu’s testimony he argued that such hiring practices were unfair as they penalized consumers who were already in a crisis and fallen behind on their payments due to job loss.

It is common sense that someone who has suffered a job loss will quite obviously fall back on payments as there is no source of income.  Due to this increasing practice of using credit reports workers are losing out in the job market as they have fallen back on bill payments.

However, companies will have to notify the person before pulling out their credit reports for employment purposes.  This notification will have to be given in writing before getting hold of the report you have to give a written permission.

To be on the side of caution it is better to obtain your credit report once a year from the three credit reporting agencies and know your credit status and credit scores before applying for a job.  Free copies can be availed once a year from these agencies.  Get mistakes corrected if necessary.  But be frank with your employers about the negatives in your credit report.  Most companies will give a fair chance to prospective employees to give an explanation.  Better to be frank and be in control of a situation before the situation takes control of you.

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