Most people know that if they file for a bankruptcy that it will remain on their credit record for about seven years, but many do not realize that during those seven years, potential employees may see it and be swayed by financial problems. Many employers are looking for easy ways to thin their enormous piles of applications. They do this by requiring background checks, and now days, they’ve added credit checks too. Although technically, they are not allowed to deny someone employment because of a bankruptcy, they can for certain positions factor in bad credit to deny employment. While a bankruptcy may have saved you financially, it will wreak havoc on your credit score and employers with some companies will be checking it. If you have a credit score that is below average, they may see you as a below average hire or worse, someone with the potential to commit crimes against them due to financial hardship.
Although the job you’re applying for may not be one in the financial industry, that doesn’t mean the employer won’t want to be allowed to run a credit check on you before hiring. Statistics show that “employees with debts are among the most likely to steal from their employers.” With crime on the rise in the recent economy, many companies aren’t willing to take this risk and consequently, are implementing credit checks along with background checks within their hiring processes. If you have a bankruptcy on your record, it’s important to consider being upfront about it and tell your prospective employer about it. When they let you know that you’ll need to pass a background check that includes a credit check, that’s the time to let them know what they’ll be seeing and to explain yourself. It’s a good idea to have a lot of both employer and personal recommendations to show that despite your bad credit, you are an upstanding citizen who works hard at what they do. You simply might have to limit your job searches to companies who will not require credit checks. There are still enough out there who have not yet adopted this extra policy.
Companies who want to perform background checks and credit checks on their potential employees often work with organizations like backgroundchecks.com to get access to national databases like US OneSEARCH and credit reports. Although these kinds of checks don’t prove that a potential employee will or will not commit a crime, they can give employers insight and, according to statistics, a pretty good idea of potential issues that could arise should they hire employees with problematic pasts. This is why it’s so important for people wanting good paying jobs to not only be hard workers, but also good upstanding citizens who pay their bills on time and refrain from committing crimes.
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backgroundchecks.com - a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) and cofounder of the Expungement Clearinghouse - serves thousands of customers nationwide, from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies by providing comprehensive screening services. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an Eastern Operations Center in Chapin, S.C., backgroundchecks.com is home to one of the largest online criminal conviction databases in the industry. For more information about backgroundchecks’ offerings, please visit www.backgroundchecks.com.
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About Michael Klazema The author
Michael Klazema is the lead author and editor for Dallas-based backgroundchecks.com with a focus on human resource and employment screening developments
