Back ground check Lexis -Nexus

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My employer wanted to do a random background check with Lexis Nexus.  I passed when I was hired back in 2006 and my credit has declined due to some health issues. 

I am wondering....if I place a block on my 3 bureaus, will Lexis Nexus still be able to pull my credit bureau reports and show them to my employer?

I don't mind them looking at my tickets, and I am not any type of criminal.  I just had been diagnosed with cancer and some things have gone to collections.   Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi,

My employer wanted to do a random background check with Lexis Nexus.  I passed when I was hired back in 2006 and my credit has declined due to some health issues. 

I am wondering....if I place a block on my 3 bureaus, will Lexis Nexus still be able to pull my credit bureau reports and show them to my employer?

I don't mind them looking at my tickets, and I am not any type of criminal.  I just had been diagnosed with cancer and some things have gone to collections.   Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you!

---

I do not think your employer has the right to access your credit reports after the one initial view they had when they first hired you unless you specifically grant them further access.

Why do you think your employer wants to continue looking at your credit reports?

[tbolt2]

I think you need to discuss the scope of the background check with your employer and find out what information they will be requesting from Lexis Nexus. You may not need to lock your CR.  They may be doing something as simple as a criminal background check.

If they pull the CR, you should also consider the ramifications that the freeze might make them think you're trying to hide something. That might be worse than anything they may find.

LN has access to a vast amount of information and it is separated into a variety of different categories or purposes - My company uses LN for a very narrow purpose, none of which is credit related. I contacted LN to setup our use of their service. As part of the "sales pitch", the account rep and I went through a demo of the information available through LN on me........ the amount of information they gather and keep is beyond scary......both in the sheer amount of it and how far back it goes...forget 7 - 10 years from CRA's...info from some public records like incorporation papers I was on for my father's company was 20+ years old....stuff I forgot about long ago.

[DI]

If you're seeking a promotion your employer can reqeust a new credit report/background check.    A credit freeze won't stop them from being able to access your credit report. One of the things that I read on one of the CRAs website is that  a freeze doesn't interfere with background check process. 

[Anonymous]

---

@DI wrote:

If you're seeking a promotion your employer can reqeust a new credit report/background check.    A credit freeze won't stop them from being able to access your credit report. One of the things that I read on one of the CRAs website is that  a freeze doesn't interfere with background check process. 

---

True, a freeze should not interfere with an employer obtaining a credit report / consumer report.  Any information obtained from a credit reporting agency is a consumer report and falls under the FCRA.

To legally obtain a consumer report, an employer needs your express, written permission.  This permission must be on a document whose sole, exclusive purpose is only to inform you and obtain your authorization to obtain a consumer report on you.  Permission supposedly granted by signing a general Terms & Conditions or any other document that in any way touches upon any subject other than consumer report authorizations is invalid.  If you sign a valid document and give the employer ongoing authorization to obtain future consumer reports then that is considered valid.

[tpatterson2k9]

Can someone please explain more about this Lexis Nexus site to me?  I find it very disturbing that they are able to keep tabs on all of my credit and financial history for an indefinite amount of time.  Is this legal?

[tbolt2]

---

@tpatterson2k9 wrote:

Can someone please explain more about this Lexis Nexus site to me?  I find it very disturbing that they are able to keep tabs on all of my credit and financial history for an indefinite amount of time.  Is this legal?

---

There is a good summary article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LexisNexis. In simplest terms - they are a data mining company.

As far as I know, most of the information they keep is related to public records, legal matters, etc. I do not know if they have any records related to personal financial data for an individual. My company uses them for legal research (state laws, statutes, etc) and public records searches. One example - we primarily use their service to verify is someone is deceased. Our legal department may use them for research on various state laws. 

As far as I know, their services are not available to just anyone. In other words, somebody is not just going to sign up at a website and start getting certain kinds of information. They have a very thorough, process to determine whether or not a company is allowed to use their service, including a personal visit from a company rep / investigator to verify a variety of information about our company. All of this to verify that we were a legitimate business with a legitimate need for access to their databases.

and nothing is free with them.....  every search costs something. IIRC the price list alone was several pages

In my original post, I mentioned that the amount of information they have, and length of time is beyond scary. Perhaps I should be more clear - the scary part  is not that this particular company has so much, but that so much is "out there" to begin with.

I have no concerns about this particular company or how they do business. Based on my experience with them, I would have less concern about them than I would most other companies. Let's face it, as we have seen recently with Sony, any company could have security issues....

[Anonymous]

---

@tbolt2 wrote:

---

@tpatterson2k9 wrote:

Can someone please explain more about this Lexis Nexus site to me?  I find it very disturbing that they are able to keep tabs on all of my credit and financial history for an indefinite amount of time.  Is this legal?

---

There is a good summary article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LexisNexis. In simplest terms - they are a data mining company.

As far as I know, most of the information they keep is related to public records, legal matters, etc. I do not know if they have any records related to personal financial data for an individual. My company uses them for legal research (state laws, statutes, etc) and public records searches. One example - we primarily use their service to verify is someone is deceased. Our legal department may use them for research on various state laws. 

As far as I know, their services are not available to just anyone. In other words, somebody is not just going to sign up at a website and start getting certain kinds of information. They have a very thorough, process to determine whether or not a company is allowed to use their service, including a personal visit from a company rep / investigator to verify a variety of information about our company. All of this to verify that we were a legitimate business with a legitimate need for access to their databases.

and nothing is free with them.....  every search costs something. IIRC the price list alone was several pages

In my original post, I mentioned that the amount of information they have, and length of time is beyond scary. Perhaps I should be more clear - the scary part  is not that this particular company has so much, but that so much is "out there" to begin with.

I have no concerns about this particular company or how they do business. Based on my experience with them, I would have less concern about them than I would most other companies. Let's face it, as we have seen recently with Sony, any company could have security issues....

---

LexisNexis has a significant amount of private personal data much of which is not classified as a public record.  Although many of their personal data services are via tie-ins with third parties such as the traditional CRAs, they do have access to SSA, IRS and almost every state's DMV records.  LexisNexis is classified as a CRA, so you can request a disclosure from them.

Although LexisNexis does take steps to verify a subscriber is a legitimate business, they do not have standards as stringent as one might like to think.  Practically any landlord, lawyer or business entity that has the need to conduct any type of consumer investigations can subscribe as long as they are willing to pay the fees which are, as pointed out extensive.  They even have a minimum fee that subscribers pay even though they may not run a query during the billing period. 

I would have more worry about the subscribers who wrongly interpret the LexisNexis data I would about LexisNexis itself. 

[RobertEG]

FCRA 604(b) sets the complete statutory requriements for both furnishing and using credit reports for employment purposes.

It is detailed, and depends upon numerous factors.

I suggest you pull a copy of FCRA section 604(b).  It will answer most, if not al, of your questions.

[DI]

---

@tpatterson2k9 wrote:

Can someone please explain more about this Lexis Nexus site to me?  I find it very disturbing that they are able to keep tabs on all of my credit and financial history for an indefinite amount of time.  Is this legal?

---

The information that Lexus Nexis have comes from your Equifax credit report.