Thread: employers doing credit pulls?

i'm in the midst of a job hunt and one of them i submitted to does credit checks. it's a crappy job too so i don't see the point. does anyone else feel they should have to pay us to pull our credit? that can bring our fico score down. i don't think they should be able to do that freely.

instead they should have some database that publishes our credit scores once a year and you would be able to send them a code or something to yours so they could see it. that way you wouldn't be hurt if you applied at 5 places and they all did credit checks.

Doing credit checks on potential new employees involved with money matters is allowed. You don't explain what you mean by "crappy job"
As far as a central database for publishing credit scores is concerned - hell will freeze over before that ever happens. CRAs live and die by the fees that they impose.

Experian or one of the credit bureaus could set up a service for consumers where they pull your score once a year, then you could give an access code to potential employers. You could give an access code to them then each time they'd want to check, they could, but they (the employer) would get charged each time they checked on someone. That way we save ourselves from credit pulls but the bureaus still get their money for them.

my "Crappy jobs" were just some retail garbage i applied for. i mean if i was apply for some corporate exec job where i was making bank i wouldn't care. it's just that it's some dead end job that isn't much more than minimum wage. i don't know i guess i just feel since it's already that bad haha they shouldn't be dinging my credit file do with a hard pulls.

Originally Posted by Kino

my "Crappy jobs" were just some retail garbage i applied for. i mean if i was apply for some corporate exec job where i was making bank i wouldn't care. it's just that it's some dead end job that isn't much more than minimum wage. i don't know i guess i just feel since it's already that bad haha they shouldn't be dinging my credit file do with a hard pulls.

Maybe even crappy jobs - with anyone - require a credit pull. With the "illegal immigration" issue, it has become a necessity to really verify one's identity. Not mandated by the govt., just another way for the hiring co. to make sure.

I can see why people would get pissed if the employer does the credit pull and then doesn't hire, not for reasons from the credit record but just because they decide to hire someone else. That would piss me off. But the employer has to pay for every credit pull they do so it is in their best interest to actually hire the person if they're going to pay to do that.

I just wanted to clarify that when an employer pulls a credit report, it is not a hard hit against the credit score. It is a soft hit and does no damage. It can remain on the credit report 2 years.

Originally Posted by NightStar

I just wanted to clarify that when an employer pulls a credit report, it is not a hard hit against the credit score. It is a soft hit and does no damage. It can remain on the credit report 2 years.

Are you sure it's not a hard pull? I don't understand how they could do a soft. Doesn't a company already need to be extending credit aka doing business with someone in order to do a soft pull?

Originally Posted by fffresh

Are you sure it's not a hard pull? I don't understand how they could do a soft. Doesn't a company already need to be extending credit aka doing business with someone in order to do a soft pull?

It's a soft pull because an employer is not considered a future creditor. Any investigative matters are considered soft ones.

I am positive, I use to work for a credit bureau.

All companies considered soft hits include:

Employers
Landlords
Apartments
Insurance
Utility Companies
Consumer pulling their own credit report

All hard hits include:

Banks
Personal Finance Companies
Credit Unions
Credit Card Companies
Dealerships