topic Re: Background Check for Employment in General Credit Topics

Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:25:00 GMT

Does anyone know exactly what is pulled when a person gives a potential employer the authorization to do a background check?

Do they just do a soft pull on your Credit Reports for review or do they delve into more than just that? What the "more" I am suggesting I have no idea...Not sure if there is "more" than that.

I am sending my authorization in the morning.....I recently checked my credit and everything is good so should I assume everything will be okay with the background check?

Thanks in Advance!!

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:40:54 GMT

I recently had one-

They did a soft and I passed with flying colors- don't worry

Unless you have a skeleton- you have nothing to worry about.

Message Edited by Timothy on 06-25-2008 08:40 PM

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:44:22 GMT

O.K. THANK YOU!

Re: Background Check for Employment

Lel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:37:34 GMT

Okay, I'm ignorant about this, but why would an employer need to know your credit history? You're not going to borrow money from the employer.

I had to undergo a background check for my job, which is a non-sensitive position in the federal government. It involved a criminal background check, an accounting of my whereabouts for several years, fingerprinting, and questionnaires to a handful of friends to confirm that I am not fomenting an armed uprising against the United States of America. But it didn't involve my credit.

Re: Background Check for Employment

marty56 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:50:07 GMT

Anyone who has need of a government security clearance will have their credit looked at. The reason is that negative information on your credit report could mean that you are open to blackmail or having money problems so you might be open to trying to make money for selling secrets.

As long as you are open with your credit issues and are taking steps to improve, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I know people at work who have had BK, collections, and the ex ruining their credit, all of which would sink their credit scores and either didn't loose their security clearance or if they did, it was only temporary.

I never worked for a bank but I suspect they would too.

Message Edited by marty56 on 06-26-2008 03:50 AM

Re: Background Check for Employment

RobertEG — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:37:37 GMT

Jobs usually place a level of trust in employess. Potential employess with credit problems are viewed by some employers as being of higher corporate risk. Many employers are seeing big jumps in empoyee theft and other illegal activities. Plus, one with clear credit problems is much more susceptible to outside pressure to conduct activities detrimental to the employer.

It is logical and sound, and not an unreasonable inquiry, if they set it as a condition of employment.

Re: Background Check for Employment

RobertEG — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:47:36 GMT

I totally agree with Marty. I ran a national security branch of a federal government agency for 20 years, which requried employess to have at least a secret national security clearance. Credit problems were a major red flag, and legiitmate security concern for one susceptible to, as Marty has said, coercion by others. But they were never a show-stopper.

The bottom line in all security investigations that we pursued was, once we sat down with the employee or potential employes, were they totally forthright with us. Dishonesty on top of credit problems will kill you evertime. Just be honest and open, and you will probably be ok.

HIde something, or tell lies, and you are dead.

Re: Background Check for Employment

marty56 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:54:40 GMT

Also I dont know if they check the hot check systems but that would be another thing they may check and certianly if you are writing hot checks, that would be a big red flag as well.

Funny thing is that I have not seen any government agencies offer any real training on money management, proactively anyway.

Re: Background Check for Employment

RobertEG — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:03:30 GMT

Every government employee is subject to at least a National Agency Criminal Inestigation (NACI)background check. This does not involve a credit check. This is usually not done prior to employment, but is routinely done within the first six months or so, while you are still a conditional, probationary employee, and thus dont have the union grievance rights extended to career employees. .

Only those having position descriptions (PDs) that include higher sensitivity ratings are subject to further review. That is where credit checks may come into play.

The whole point of this post is that security checks go on all the time, many of which an employee may not even be aware of. They are necessary.

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:15:30 GMT

Your welcome-

I should note- mine was not for a Goverment job - It was for a Fotune 500 company where I have access to VERY sensitive data

1111mel wrote:
O.K. THANK YOU!

Re: Background Check for Employment

Lel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:52:13 GMT

Thanks, everybody, for enlightening me. I just looked at my credit reports, and nothing looked like an inquiry from the government, but like I said, my job doesn't require security clearance. Everything you mentioned makes perfect sense to me.

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:14:45 GMT

@Lel wrote:
Thanks, everybody, for enlightening me. I just looked at my credit reports, and nothing looked like an inquiry from the government, but like I said, my job doesn't require security clearance. Everything you mentioned makes perfect sense to me.

W-e-e-e-l-l-l-l, yes and no. Hubby initiated a security clearance investigation (rather, signed the paperwork to have HIS started) when he first began working for the DoD. We monitored his credit for what seemed like forever, never seeing the Fed inquiry on his reports. Finally, about a year and a half later, we financed a car, and there it was! They did the credit check one YEAR after he signed the paperwork.

For the record, at the time, they only checked TU. But then, at that time, TU (AKA BDM, AKA TRW) was in the Gov's back pocket (TRW/BDM are HUGE contractors for the DoD, and this was before TRW sold TU). YMMV, though. Especially since it seems that TU has lost most of it's "teeth."

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:18:31 GMT

Mine wasn't for a government job either......This is the next step to continue considering me for the job...I haven't been offered anything yet.

I thought it was jumping the gun a bit, but it would be a great opportunity in a new city with room for advancement so worth the inquiry on my credit.

Thank goodness the ones I pulled on 6/21 are spotless (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

Re: Background Check for Employment

Lel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:23:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

W-e-e-e-l-l-l-l, yes and no. Hubby initiated a security clearance investigation (rather, signed the paperwork to have HIS started) when he first began working for the DoD. We monitored his credit for what seemed like forever, never seeing the Fed inquiry on his reports. Finally, about a year and a half later, we financed a car, and there it was! They did the credit check one YEAR after he signed the paperwork.

Heh heh....the wheels of government do grind slowly. It took us nearly a year for our request for a new fax machine to be filled, and it once took a 3 weeks to order toner for our copier.

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:01:01 GMT

@Lel wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:

W-e-e-e-l-l-l-l, yes and no. Hubby initiated a security clearance investigation (rather, signed the paperwork to have HIS started) when he first began working for the DoD. We monitored his credit for what seemed like forever, never seeing the Fed inquiry on his reports. Finally, about a year and a half later, we financed a car, and there it was! They did the credit check one YEAR after he signed the paperwork.

Heh heh....the wheels of government do grind slowly. It took us nearly a year for our request for a new fax machine to be filled, and it once took a 3 weeks to order toner for our copier.

*snort*

Tell me about it! What really grinds my gears the most is when the gov is SO slow about reimbursing us for his travel (we pay the card, the gov pays us back). We often wait over a month to get paid back and you betcha that ain't with interest (though you can betchyer bottom dollar that the GOV would charge US interest if they could!!)!!

Re: Background Check for Employment

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:57:05 GMT

This website has alot of info on it. I posted about it awhile back, here's the link.

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs16-bck.htm