Bankrate and Fox Business spread urban legend that employers use credit scores

Contact with London, New York, North Palm Beach and Austin

Also, see: 

  • CreditCards.com:
    • Employers may look at your credit score when you’re applying for a job, and landlords look at it for prospective renters,” he (Scott Crawford, CEO and co-founder of DebtGoal.com) says.”
    • “The general statement won’t affect your FICO credit score, but employers can’t look at your FICO score anyway, says Larry Lambeth, president of Employment Screening Services, a company that provides pre-employment screenings for more than 6,000 companies in the United States and abroad.”
    • “Credit scores, on the other hand, shouldn’t ever be viewed by employers.”
  • Bankrate.com:
    • “Credit reports and credit scores show up in the background checks employers increasingly order at the time of hire or promotion.”
    • “Contrary to popular belief, employers can only see your credit report, not your credit score.”
    • “Watch this video from Creditscoring.com to see how widespread this falsehood is.”

 

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 12:53 AM
To: Ben Harding, press contact, Apax Partners; Peter C. Morse, chairman, Bankrate, Inc.; Thomas R. Evans, president & CEO, Bankrate, Inc.; Editors, CreditCards.com
Cc: Jodi Helmer, writer, CreditCards.com; Teri Everett, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs & Communications, News Corporation
Subject: credit score, employers, urban myth, Fox Business, CreditCards.com, 2011-10-17

You published, “For one thing, even if you’re not looking at your score, your prospective employer may.”

The consumer reporting agencies all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment purposes.  Even your own website, Bankrate.com, states, “’There’s a misconception that scores are used, and scores are not used,’ says Steven R. Katz, spokesman for Chicago-based agency TransUnion.”

Will you make a correction?


Greg Fisher
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio  45409-0342