More Employers Requiring Credit Checks for Potential Hires

PHOENIX - Many people are unemployed and looking for work. Could your credit score be keeping you from landing a job? More and more businesses are looking into your finances before offering positions.

It's a Catch-22 -- you don't have a job, so your credit has gone bad. And you can't get a job, because you have bad credit.

The number of businesses checking credit scores before hiring is going way up. A survey by the Society of Human Resource Management found in 1998, only 25 percent of employers ran credit checks on job candidates. That number jumped to 43 percent in 2004.

Now, 60 percent of businesses in the survey are pulling credit checks as part of an interview.

Most of the jobs that now require a credit check are jobs that deal with people's personal information and money. And with so many people foreclosing on homes, losing cars and not paying off debt due to the state of the economy, many jobseekers have bad credit.

Lori Lehman doesn't have the best credit score. Many of the jobs she'd applied for have required a credit check.

"I was turned down for the job because I don't have an 800 score on my credit, because of the way the economy was and losing my job and losing my car," she says.

Theresa Maher from Jobing.com says that most of the jobs that ask for credit checks deal with financial information or money in general.

"The employer decides based on the information that they received that they don't want to hire that candidate, they have to disclose that to the candidate, and the candidate has access to that information in case they want to dispute anything that was found," says Maher.

Maher recommends being upfront with an employer.

"Surprises in the job interview or in the job hunting process can really damage the credibility of the candidate. Being up front not only shows your integrity on your part, but that you're really prepared with what your information is."

Lehman points out, "If you have the experience and the education why should employers have to go and look at your credit report. That is not saying that you are going to come in and not be a dependable employee."

The government allows you one free credit report per year, so if you're looking for work, it can't hurt to know ahead of time where you stand.