Employers do check credit reports especially as part of background checks. My credit tanked from identity theft and I wound up losing my job of over 15 years in the financial industry as soon as the next "bonding check" came around and my credit tanked. I was considered high risk and prone to stealing sensitive data. There was no appeal process and 5 years later we are still in litigation.
Since then, I managed to spend crazy amounts of money writing letters, sending them certified return receipt to track down an excess of 40 fraudulent accounts and/or mixed files information.
I now work as a military contractor and hold a clearance. The issue of derogatory trade lines the credit reporting agencies refuse to remove came up and I had to go before the DoD review board to discuss two old "collection" accounts not belonging to me.
I had my paperwork in order. I put together a file with each creditor and had copies of every letter I sent to them, every letter of dispute to the credit reporting agencies, every return reciept from Fed Ex and the USPS (notating which documents were included in the reference line on the actual return receipt), a log of telephone calls reflecting who I spoke to , what was said, who promised to have the trade line in question deleted, the time/date of call, how long I was on the phone.
If you know they are doing a check, tell the potential employer up front that your scores aren't very good. Tell them debt/income ratio is a result of student loans and you prove it with supporting documentation. The collections are another issue.
Check the statute of limitations in your state and see if they are still eligible to be on there and be careful of illegal reaging of the accounts.
I really don't like the idea of private industry being Big Brother and dictating how you live, where you work, how much you are going to pay for insurance.
The laws in place are well and good, but the politicians have been bought by the financial industry (remember I used to work in the industry) and they play the "Pass the Buck" game and no one enforces the laws already in place unless someone makes enough noise and puts on enough political pressure.
Enough of my rant.
