Category: Employers

Alleged use of credit scores by employers in pre-employment screening.

Florida Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism

In Florida, the state legislature session is underway, and members are discussing the use of credit reports in employment.  Senator Nancy Detert is the introducer of Senate Bill 100, which was given 8 yeas and no nays this week.  The myth continues as the senator and media unknowingly push it.
Florida Poly

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 1:07 PM
To: Regan McCarthy, senior producer/assignment editor, WFSU-FM/ Florida Public Radio
Cc: Nancy C. Detert, chair, Committee on Commerce and Tourism, Florida Senate
Subject: Florida Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4559.

You wrote: “‘ As we turn the corner on the economy and try to get people back to work, one of the stumbling blocks is that we have employers pulling credit reports and not hiring you because you have a bad credit score. And I think that’s frankly, kind of dirty pool, unless you’re dealing with money or trade secrets or a whole list of exceptions,’ Detert said.”

Employers do not use credit scores.

What is your clarification policy?

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

Florida SB 100, 2013

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 12:35 PM
To: Jim Turner, reporter, Sunshine State News
Subject: credit score, employers, Florida, SB 100

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4554.

The Connecticut legislature was misinformed by its witnesses.  Employers do not use credit scores.

However, you wrote, “Proponents see the effort as a means to eliminate a Catch 22: You can’t improve your credit score because you don’t have a job, yet you can’t get a job because of your bad credit score.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

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

 

Prediction: Dan Gilbert will make a correction.

Dan Gilbert will make a correction.  That is a prediciton that you can believe, sports fans.  Here’s why.

Gilbert is famous.  He’s a mortgage company, NBA basketball and casino squillionaire.  He is also infamous for a certain prediction about his basketball team.  And, unfortunately, his website, Quizzle.com, states, inaccurately, “Employers are Checking Credit Scores – Are You Ready?”

Employers do not use credit scores.  The credit bureaus state that they do not provide scores for employment purposes.

So, there are three things that @cavsdan can do:

  1. Name at least two employers who use credit scores, exposing them, so that the credit bureaus take serious action, and thus solving one of the greatest mass-media mysteries of the past decade: Just who these mystery employers are.  There are none, of course, so he is not going to do that.
  2. Sell his company before the pressure to make the correction is too great to ignore.
  3. Take his lumps and make a correction to the statement.

Follow the message to Dan Gilbert requesting the truth.

Adams Media, F+W Media book

Last Christmas, a broadsheet named the New York Times published an item about people using credit scores in dating.  In it was the claim, “The credit score, once a little-known metric derived from a complex formula that incorporates outstanding debt and payment histories, has become an increasingly important number used to bestow credit, determine housing and even distinguish between job candidates.”

The story quoted the book author (on something other than scores in employment) below.  But, even though the scary baloney that employers use credit scores has been “increasingly” rebuffed, it is obvious that it has not been countered enough.

Employers do not use credit scores.  Say that they do and you will end up here.  If you’re already here, you are hardly alone.

So, get over it. Just make a correction, and move on.

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 11:44 AM
To: Manisha Thakor
Subject: Adams Media, F+W Media

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4523.

In your book “On My Own Two Feet” (2007), you wrote, “Increasingly, prospective employers are also looking at this three-digit number, under the assumption that people who are financially responsible make better employees.”

What indicates that, increasingly, employers use credit scores?

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

[THE RESPONSE]

The President: Credit score can affect chances of getting job

In his weekly address, President Obama talked about submitting complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  In that address, he said:

If you haven’t checked out your credit score recently, you should.  It can have a major impact on your life.  It can determine whether or not you qualify for a loan or what kind of interest you have to pay.  It can even affect your chances at renting an apartment or getting a job.

However, the CFPB’s website states, “The nationwide credit reporting companies say they do not currently provide credit scores for employment purposes.”

London publishing house hype

“Gah! If I read one more lie about credit scores, my head will explode! No, your lender is NOT required to consider ‘alternate measures.'” – @lizweston, September, 2012

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 11:32 AM
To: Liz Weston; Liz Weston (via Amazon.com)
Cc: Vivienne Cox, non-executive director, Pearson plc (via W. Spiegel); Glen Moreno, chairman, Pearson plc (via T. Glover); Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, Pearson plc (via C. Goldsmith)
Subject: credit score, employers, Pearson plc, Weston

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4215.

On the cover of the fourth edition of your credit score book, someone wrote, “Your credit score is more important than ever: not just for getting loans, but for getting jobs, insurance, rentals, and fair rates on all financial services.”

The cover continues—describing the book—saying: “Now, it’s completely revamped for today’s massive changes—from FICO 8 to ‘FAKO,’ short sales to employer abuse of credit scores” and “Whatever your score, you need this information—to defend yourself, and to get the credit, rates, work, and home you deserve!”

However, on page 185, you wrote, “I didn’t write about employer use of credit checks in previous editions of this book, because employers look at credit reports, not credit scores.”

What is the name of an employer who abuses credit scores?

On what date did you learn about the text on the cover?

What is the name of the person who wrote it?

What are the names of the persons who approved it?

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

 

QuinStreet and facts regarding credit scores

From: Greg Fisher
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 2:27 PM
To: Barbara Marquand, staff writer, QuinStreet
Cc: Doug Valenti, chairman, QuinStreet
Subject: Experian, Fox Business, Quinstreet, VantageScore; employers

Experian linked to an article on the Fox Business website in which you wrote, “VantageScores range from 501 to 990, and the breakdown of excellent to bad credit is similar to the scale used to calculate grades in school — 900 to 990 is excellent; 800 to 899 is good; 700 to 799 is fair; 600 to 699 is poor; and under 600 is failing.”

Who designated that tier as failing?  And, at what are those in that tier failing?

Also, you wrote, “Even employers sometimes check credit scores to gauge applicants’ sense of personal responsibility.”

What indicates that employers use credit scores?

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

Who is the Washington Post’s source?

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 5:29 AM
To: Donald E. Graham, chairman, Washington Post Company
Cc: Michelle Singletary, columnist, Washington Post; Patrick B. Pexton, ombudsman, Washington Post; Danielle Douglas, reporter, Washington Post; Ylan Q. Mui, reporter, Washington Post; Ylan Q. Mui; Meredith Hooker, managing editor for Internet, The Gazette; Allan Lichtman, professor, Department of History, American University; The Washington Post Company; John Temple, managing editor, Washington Post; Ken Harney
Subject: credit score, employers, Washington Post, 2012-09-25

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4205, https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=trope-even-employers and https://blog.creditscoring.com/?tag=washington-post-company.

You published, “Credit agencies have come under greater scrutiny as consumer advocates question the accuracy of the scores, which affect the ability to get a mortgage, car loan, credit card and sometimes even a job.”

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

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

Name one

Employers do not use credit scores. But, imagine what would happen if an employer actually did use a credit score to deny employment to someone.

There would be an inquiry to the consumer’s file with the consumer reporting agency. Using that datum, the agency could determine who obtained the score. Then, of course, the consumer could complain, publicly, and, finally, this nonsense would be over. We would have an actual name of an employer who used a credit score for employment purposes!

But, that’s not going to happen. They said it happened at Harvard, but it did not. The big question in this debacle: How could the employer have obtained a score when they are not even included in employment reports?

From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@creditscoring.com]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 12:10 PM
To: Michael Denning, publisher, Main Street Business Journal
Cc: Michael Patrick O’Brien, lawyer, Jones Waldo; Allen Smith, manager of workplace law content, Society for Human Resource Management; Marc A. Taylor, attorney, founding member, Taylor English Duma LLP; Bruce S. Richards
Subject: Name one

See this message and your response at https://blog.creditscoring.com/?p=4193.

Regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you published, “The new provision states that anyone who uses a third party provided consumer report including a credit score to deny employment must disclose: (1) that a credit score was used; (2) the score; (3) up to four key adverse factors in the score and the agency that provided it so the applicant can correct any errors.”

Employers do not use credit scores.  What evidence indicates that employers use credit scores?  What is the name of an employer who uses credit scores?

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

A reply from a Patch editor

[PREVIOUS MESSAGE]

Tim Armstrong is the chairman and CEO of AOL. That means that he is in control (if you can call it that) of the Huffington Post and Patch. When Armstrong was asked for the source of a claim on Patch, the response came from a Patch editor:

From: Rebecca McCarthy
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 3:21 PM
To: greg@creditscoring.com
Subject: Re: credit score, employers, Athens Patch, AOL

The author of the story.

On her page titled, “About Rebecca About Rebecca“[SIC] McCarthy states, “I worked as a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and for other newspapers.”