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Can credit card debt cost me my job?


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Things are finally turning around for me. I’ve been made an offer of employment for a considerably higher salary. We’ve set a start date and I am in the background check stage. But I am concerned that my credit history will cause them to rescind the offer. I don’t have any derogatory marks, but I have massive credit card debt. I have two or three cards maxed out due to circumstances beyond my control. Should I be worried? ? has anyone had a job offer retracted because of what was on their consumer report??

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Congratulations on the new job. I know how keen you've been to get out of your last situation.

 

I'm not in the US, but my gut feeling is that our background checks would be similar to yours. The main background check is about your criminal history. Or, if you're to be a CEO then they need to make sure you're not bankrupt.

 

Seems ridiculous to reject someone because they are working to pay off debt.

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Like Basil I'm not US based but background checks here in the UK basically consist of eligibility to work legally, security checks (charges, convictions etc) and checks with former employers to find out if there were any issues with dismissals, tribunals and other serious work related incidents such as (sexual) harassment.

 

If your record is clean of the above, I wouldn't worry about your financial situation.

Most employers don't give a rat's @ss about their prospective recruits financial position.

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Most employers don't give a rat's @ss about their prospective recruits financial position.

 

 

That isn't true, it depends mostly on the type of job, an accounts receivable job or payables or a job that handles the company's books or money.. even the electronic money credit history is paramount to hiring.

 

Many other type of companies have the bar set high on credit to make sure employee theft isn't going to be an issue as well..

Most Banks for example don't allow people to work for them that have bankruptcies or bad credit.

 

As far as many jobs that don't fit into those type then yes, credit history isn't going to make a difference.

 

To the OP, all you can do now is wait it out.. chances are it won't make a difference for it for jobs not in the financial industry.

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OP, IMO if you return clean on the DMV and criminal checks, and don't have marked derogs on the credit report, presuming they pull a full commercial report, you'll be fine. If you've been paying your debts as agreed, even though a couple cards are 'maxxed out', it's unlikely that'll be a problem. However, if you get a followup because of that factor, have an explanation prepared in writing, same as you would for a lender. We nearly always looked favorably on applicants who were honest and thorough in their presentation of their finances. Life is imperfect. Yup, people have debt. It's how one manages challenges that imputes confidence in their abilities. Good luck!

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In certain states in the US (California for example) it's illegal for an employer to deny you employment based on information obtained from your credit report but to be honest that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

I was however denied a federal job in my past for a misdemeanor.

 

I was cited for riding a dirt bike on private federal land but the DA put "disturbing the peace," on my record which incidentally made my offense look much worse. :(

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That isn't true, it depends mostly on the type of job, an accounts receivable job or payables or a job that handles the company's books or money.. even the electronic money credit history is paramount to hiring.

 

Many other type of companies have the bar set high on credit to make sure employee theft isn't going to be an issue as well..

Most Banks for example don't allow people to work for them that have bankruptcies or bad credit.

 

As far as many jobs that don't fit into those type then yes, credit history isn't going to make a difference.

 

To the OP, all you can do now is wait it out.. chances are it won't make a difference for it for jobs not in the financial industry.

 

Whoa....I wonder if this is a regional thing. My background is in accounts/admin/international money transfers and I've never had my financial history investigated.

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Whoa....I wonder if this is a regional thing. My background is in accounts/admin/international money transfers and I've never had my financial history investigated.

 

it's been a thing for a while..

 

How to land a job despite bad credit | Interest.com

 

We check someone's credit when hiring in the front office, of course we have also had a bookkeeper with money issues who would steal from us in small amounts and was fired for that very reason.

It took us quite a while to figure out how she was doing it.

We don't however check their credit until the very last stage in hiring and have never had to not hire someone because of a bad credit history.

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The credit report an employer pulls is different then the one a creditor or potential lender gets. It does not include your D.O.B. or credit score but it does give info about your financial stability. In some states it is illegal to check this -- mostly the western US plus MD, DE, VT, IL & CO.

 

If your new job is one of financial trust you could very well have the new job offer rescinded. I lost a job once when they pulled my driving record & confirmed that 10 years earlier I had a DWI. I had disclosed to the local office that it was there & the person who wanted to hire me went to bat for me with the national office but they would not budge on their policy.

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My credit is still recovering from it's pre-divorce state, but I got a great job anyway, with the gov't. Unless you are working at a financial institution I wouldn't worry too much.

 

And congratulations!

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Things are finally turning around for me. I’ve been made an offer of employment for a considerably higher salary. We’ve set a start date and I am in the background check stage. But I am concerned that my credit history will cause them to rescind the offer. I don’t have any derogatory marks, but I have massive credit card debt. I have two or three cards maxed out due to circumstances beyond my control. Should I be worried? has anyone had a job offer retracted because of what was on their consumer report??

 

The way this works is like this.. Do you own more than $5,000 or higher than $10,000 in credit charges. Have you paid back anything yet to the credit card holder. Do you live in a no fault state? You have the option to take the job if the credit fair act check comes up with a min on the amount that is allowed. So it works 50/50 you paid some money to them and they gave you some credit if you have stop making payments on the debit then you might show up as not a good chance to be put of the team at the company you have be placed at. Every company has rules for this in place. Take the job if they tell you the credit check came back fair. They will tell you if you can work or not after the credit check has failed your chances.

 

This happen to me and I am okay now.. After 10 years you fall off the radar if you don't use CC anymore and use DC, DPC (debit prepaid card) you can use these as CC but they show up still as DC. Get's confusing has hell. But I rather use them the CC is merely money loan option. Interest rate is so high. I use to have 900 plus score after 10 years of not using CC it was 700 score. The racket behind this I could explain some things you can do to get around so much red tape. If you live in CT and you got a CC from there you're in trouble with the brower they can come after you with court order. Just have to be careful using CC so much. Take over your life. DC and DCP are better you mange the money yourself.

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I doubt your credit history would matter for your job - from what I've seen, background checks for jobs are usually to check for criminal history, not financial. Your credit history WILL matter for other things like renting a place, getting a loan, etc though.

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I doubt your credit history would matter for your job - from what I've seen, background checks for jobs are usually to check for criminal history, not financial. Your credit history WILL matter for other things like renting a place, getting a loan, etc though.

 

Renting is hard enough, getting a loan is not a good option you have to pay that off it's another way the system works against you. JOBS they check the history for Credit under the Fair Credit act, if you have more than $10,000 you owe you might not get the job. 1 card though if you have more than 1 card doesn't look good in your favor.

 

I really don't care for the CC score nonsense, not my cup of tea. I rather be off their radar and use DC/DCP option instead those have VISA or MC logo on them. Just work make your money save and buy what you want. This way you can manage yoru own money instead of owning money on CC which should be called LMC Loan Money Cards..

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Renting is hard enough, getting a loan is not a good option you have to pay that off it's another way the system works against you.

 

Certainly, I was not suggesting the OP apply for more loans... I was just listing areas which credit score usually impacts.

 

JOBS they check the history for Credit under the Fair Credit act, if you have more than $10,000 you owe you might not get the job.

Interesting, I had no idea this was done in the US. What is the rationale behind it? How will someone pay back their debts legally if they can't get a job?
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Interesting, I had no idea this was done in the US. What is the rationale behind it?

 

 

The employers think it goes to reliability & the ability to make good decisions. Obviously if you have control over the company's finances they don't want to hire somebody who will be tempted to steal to pay their own debts.

 

 

$10k on disposable toys doesn't look good. $10k in medical bills is a different story but then the applicant faces the possibility of being discriminated against over health or caregiver issues.

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The employers think it goes to reliability & the ability to make good decisions. Obviously if you have control over the company's finances they don't want to hire somebody who will be tempted to steal to pay their own debts.

 

 

$10k on disposable toys doesn't look good. $10k in medical bills is a different story but then the applicant faces the possibility of being discriminated against over health or caregiver issues.

 

I wonder if this is true. I've made a purchase in this amount in the past (engagement ring) so I could get the points on my card and have some legal recourse. I have a hard time beiving I would be denied a job because of a current balance.

 

I think they look for people with systemic credit issues who might show poor judgement or steal. I don't think it's tied to a dollar amount.

 

Say the job was $200k/year. Would $10k on a credit card be that much?

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I understand that some (or most?) federal govt jobs require credit check. My guess is that they just wanted to make sure their future employees don't have lots of delinquent debts in the past. I also doubt if they can see your current outstanding balance in your credit cards. Honestly, it's a free world, how you are spending your money is nobody's damn business, as long as you don't default on your debts.

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A friend of mine was rejected from the local police department because of his credit. I don't know if it was anything particularly, I wanna say it was just the credit score but I can't say for sure

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:laugh:....

 

Some people make that much!

 

In financial institutions if your credit sucks you likely won't get a job. Too much risk of someone stealing if they can't pay their bills.

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Yeah, if the job involved, say, financial planning or managing a client's assets or such, I could MAYBE see the correlation. But the vast majority of jobs don't involve managing finances. Granted a large debt might be caused by financial irresponsibility or poor financial decisions, but plenty of people are terrible with finances and yet make pretty good engineers, firemen, lawyers, whatever.

 

I am really surprised it's legal to discriminate against a job applicant for something that cannot really be proved to affect their job, in the US. It feels like a rather dangerous slippery slope. What next, are people going to be turned down for jobs because they are single parents, or might be getting pregnant, or have an STD?

 

:laugh:....

 

There are quite a few jobs that pay that much, haha.

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OP, do you have debt or do you have bad credit? I do not think the former will be an issue but the latter could be.

 

In the US, your credit rating is used for everything from stuff you would expect (interest rate you'll get on a loan) to other, less directly applicable stuff - like your auto insurance rate and employability (even in non-financial positions).

 

OP, go on Credit Karma and get an estimate of your credit score. That will give you a sense of where you stand.

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Thanks all for the replies. I would say my credit score is average at best, maybe mid 600s, but that is due entirely to the presence of the maxed out credit cards. As I said I have no derogatory remarks and a credit report would show that I’ve made every payment on time, but I currently hold about $4000 in total credit card debt on these maxed out cards.

 

The job is not a financial institution, but I am essentially a project manager for a project which has a set amount allocated to it. I will have responsibility to spend the money wisely so the project doesn’t go over budget and making sure the company gets the best deal we can. But they do have an another employee who handles the budgeting for the organization. Gosh, I’m so worried.

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Redguitar -- I have my fingers crossed for you.

 

 

Sevencity -- it's not the amount of the debt. It's the debt to equity ratio. Somebody making $200k per year who owes $10k has a debt equal to 5% of his/her income which is no big deal. But if the salary was only $30k per year that debt represents 1/3 of the income, before taxes. After taxes, there would be very little money left for food & housing after that kind of debt service. Moreover, if you have $10k in credit card debt but you have $30k in available credit the debt to equity ratio doesn't raise many red flags but when you max out the cards then people wonder / worry.

 

 

Again, the type of debt may make a difference -- credit card vs. medical bills vs. student loans. A lot of factors go in hiring decisions; sometimes more then just does the candidate have the basic educational qualifications.

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Thanks all for the replies. I would say my credit score is average at best, maybe mid 600s, but that is due entirely to the presence of the maxed out credit cards. As I said I have no derogatory remarks and a credit report would show that I’ve made every payment on time, but I currently hold about $4000 in total credit card debt on these maxed out cards.

 

The job is not a financial institution, but I am essentially a project manager for a project which has a set amount allocated to it. I will have responsibility to spend the money wisely so the project doesn’t go over budget and making sure the company gets the best deal we can. But they do have an another employee who handles the budgeting for the organization. Gosh, I’m so worried.

 

$4k doesn't seem like a lot.

 

When do you hear back on the background check?

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