Category: Media

Media depiction, credit score use, employers, CBS, Dallas

Consumer reporting agencies Equifax, TransUnion and Experian all state that they do not provide credit scores for employment screening.

Despite that, the anchor at the CBS–owned television station in Dallas asks the financial expert and analyst to explain it all to us:

KTVT CBS 11, Dallas financial expert and analyst explains it all to us
KTVT CBS 11, Dallas financial expert and analyst explains it all to us

It is today’s #1 hit in Yahoo News for the term “credit score” (complete with a picture).  You can’t buy that kind of ranking.

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:27 PM
To: KTVT: Ginger Allen, interviewer; Lori Conrad, communications director; Steve Mauldin, president & general manager; news@cbs11tv.com; KTVTNewsEyeTeam@ktvt.com; cbs11@ktvt.com
Cc: Jim Lacamp
Subject: credit score, employers, CBS, CBS Television Stations, KTVT

You wrote, “In this economy, your credit score is more important than ever before, as prospective employers are looking at them to help in hiring decisions.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

More

FreeScore.com II (second contact attempt)

The blogosphere simmers while Ben Stein summers.

 

The official Whac-a-Mole

  

From: Greg Fisher 
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 10:49 PM
To: Nate Allard, Media First Public Relations; Ryan M. Wines, R2C Group
Subject: FW: credit score, employers, FreeScore.com II

 

Please reply. 

 

[previous email attached]

 

Wikipedia Credit Karma/FICO baloney

The 4-year mess continues.  But, how long will it take the collective brain of the world to figure out this one?

Genius 99.23.41.118 contributes:  “Credit Karma will provide the FICO score from TransUnion for free, but will not provide the actual credit report.”

But, as any idiot can see, at the “wiki” about Credit Karma:

Credit Karma provides users with a proprietary credit score model. The scoring is on a scale of 300 to 850 which is the same scale as FICO Score from Fair Issac Corporation.

And, what a coincidence!  The Credit Karma score scale is exactly the same as the FICO!  No wonder the wiki is whack. 

The editors were duped again by just another Fake-O flim flam.

credit score, employers, ABC News

Despite consumer reporting agencies’ emphatic statements that they do not provide credit scores for employment screening, ABC News writes:

But your credit score can also prevent you from getting that new job. Many recent applicants — from the newly divorced to recent grads saddled with student loans – are finding that their credit scores are keeping them from getting hired.

The television network’s statement is part of a request for stories about the topic from readers.

credit score, employers, Washington Post

http://www.buffalonews.com/410/story/667793.html
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090517/BUSINESS/905170338/1003/ARCHIVES
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/credit-card-rate-2381680-utilization-percent
http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/salinas/story/1374724.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/136/story/1028698.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/michelle_singletary/043009_color_of_money.html
http://www.projo.com/business/content/bz_singletary03_05-03-09_DJE6T79_v6.17c60ad.html

From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:35 AM
To: Michelle Singletary, Wasington Post personal finance columnist (The Color of Money email address); Michelle Singletary (another Washington Post email address for Singletary)
Cc: Andy Alexander, Washington Post ombudsman; Andy Alexander (another Washington Post email address for Alexander); Shirley M. Carswell, Washington post deputy managing editor
Subject:RE: credit score, employers III

Please reply.

From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 8:49 AM
To: Michelle Singletary, Wasington Post personal finance columnist (The Color of Money email address); Michelle Singletary (another Washington Post email address for Singletary)
Cc: Andy Alexander, Washington Post ombudsman
Subject:RE: credit score, employers II

You also wrote, “If the market has widely embraced the FICO credit score, Congress shouldn’t allow business quarrels — not now when credit is hard to get — to result in shutting down access to information that is essential to obtaining the best loan, insurance rate or even a job.”

Please reply.

From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 7:24 PM
To: Michelle Singletary, Wasington Post personal finance columnist (The Color of Money email address); Michelle Singletary (another Washington Post email address for Singletary)
Subject:credit score, employers

You wrote:  “And a lower credit score means you pay more for the money you borrow. It can also mean higher insurance rates for your home or car, or worse, the loss of a job.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

Equifax states that it checks its job applicants’ credit scores



From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 12:36 PM
To: Steve Ely, Equifax
Cc: Ilyce Glink; Coretha M. Rushing, chief human resource officer, Equifax
Subject: credit score, employers, Equifax HR

 

You said, “I will tell you, even when you apply for a job at Equifax, we check your credit score because we’d like to make sure that you are good at managing your money.”

 

What credit score is required for the CEO’s job?

 

Debt utilization, how much owed compared to capacity to borrow, ABC News

From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 12:09 PM
To: Alice Gomstyn
Cc: Emily Peters

 

You wrote, “Peters says that nearly a third of your credit score is dependent on how much you owe, compared to how much you have the capacity to borrow — your debt utilization.”

 

If that ratio represents almost a third of the FICO score, then what percentage does the “Number of accounts with balances” represent?

Credit score myth on Wikipedia dies after 654 days

New encyclopedia game contestant Kat Malone removed Wikipedia’s 678 credit score myth on May 22, 2009, after it stood for one year and 9 months.

The user challenged the 678 myth in the Wikipedia article “Credit score (United States)” with the deadly wiki “citation needed” flag.

Other important and controversial changes in the wiki include capitalizing the word corporation, and that the FICO score scale is between “300 and 800 (per Barack Obama),” “300 and 850,” and “300 and 800 (change it back, I dare you).”

The wiki is a top-ten result for the term credit score at search engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Website creditscoring.com covers the wiki folly and wiki myth at “Influence: Media, Wikipedia” and “Fake-O FICO Funk.”  The credit score website’s author even traveled to San Francisco to alert Wikipedia in person, but was unsuccessful because Wikipedia’s headquarters address is secret.

Credit score, job, employer, NBC Washington TV station

 

REPORTER:  “Jim, if finances have a heartbeat, it’s the credit score. It affects what you pay for mortgages or rent, your auto loan, your insurance, your utility deposits, and even if you’ll get a job.”

From: creditscoring.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 2:52 PM
To: Elizabeth Crenshaw (askliz@nbcwashington.com)
Cc: Jeff Zucker, ‘news4pr@nbc.com’; ‘nbc4dc@nbc.com’
Subject: credit score, employers

You said: “If finances have a heartbeat, it’s the credit score. It affects what you pay for mortgages or rent, your auto loan, your insurance, your utility deposits, and even if you’ll get a job.”

 

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?