Why have employers started credit checking?

They say it is because someone with good credit will be a better employee than someone with bad credit. I have never believed that and thought it was a violation of privacy, especially if it has got nothing to do with a job. It will be interesting if employers keep up with this practice since so many credit scores have taken a hit lately.

Are they really narrowing their chance of finding the right employee? Usually credit is a good indicator of responsibility and thus maturity and it seems those are the kind of employees they want.

Firstly i think that anyone who believes that doing a credit check on a potential employee as a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff and that employers will benefit from only employing those that have favourable ratings is a tad niave .Lets face facts here , if it were the case that you lost your job at this present time because you had misdemeaners as regards your finacial affairs then i would estinate that the unemployment rate in the Uk would shoot up ten fold .. given that the majority of us have at some stage in out lives missed a catalogue payment a mortgage payment , fell behind with the rent , ignored the latest phone bill , told the Provident agent to call back next week ..you get my drift .Secondly , poor payment history is not always the sole reason for having a poor credit rating ... everytime a loan company or other does a check against your name , the rating is adversly affected , so it would seem that any employer who uses this as a means to guage trustworthyness and responsability is not assured of its success .If the current government have any will to re boot the economy then this initiative will only serve to put a spanner in the works i think .The many thousands who have lost jobs and have fell by the way-side recently will i'm sure become the very people who will be discriminated against the most by this as they struggle to make ends meet and inevitably " rob peter to pay paul " .. and find themselves in a vicious circle.So all in all i fail to understand how this endevour by the bourgeoisie will be helping either themselves or the proletariat .. and if anything , surely its the latter who should be doing the credit checking .. afterall its them that depend on the trustworthyness of the former to come up with the goods is it not ?

I don't see a problem, they want to see yours, fine. then ask to see the company accounts to check their in the black. also you would like to see the personnel accounts of the directors. when you have satisfied your self that they are a solvent company you would like to work for, accept their invitation to join them. its time to fight them back, they want more, then they will have to prove to you that they as honest as you are/or not

i have never heard of this except for the halifax call centres they do one it isn't our fault threes a recession we didn't cause it greedy bankers did

I've been unemployed since January 17 so I've been looking for jobs almost every waking moment and yes, about 75% of them are doing credit checks. I'm not sure why that information is important to them but they are definitely narrowing their chancing of finding the right employee. I guess they don't like my credit since I've applied to over 100 jobs in the past 2.5 months and haven't got anything in return - no call backs, no interviews, nothing. ---- EDIT I'm sure I've been overlooked for jobs after credit checks. I've been unemployed for 2.5 months leaving my husband to pay the bills with his checks which are only enough to pay minimum payments on everything. We both have near the limit credit card balances and I spoke to the credit card company where luckily I was enrolled in Payment Protection so I don't have to make a minimum payment until I find a job (up to 6 months or something like that). We also have store credit cards from when we moved out (Sept. 2008) that we thought we were going to be able to pay off by the time their interest started because I had a very high paying job but obviously, that hasn't happened. I'd hate to think that places were turning me down because of my credit when I have a very good history with my past employers.

the only way they can do a credit check is if you give them your Social Insurance Number (Canada) or Social Security number (US), which they cannot ask for until after they have hired you (at least in Canada). It does not really have to do how well you work, but some positions it is important. If you can't handle your own money, how well are you going to handle theirs? Some employees are able to use petty cash, etc. they do not want employees that are going to splurge all that on every little thing. As well, they want employees that will put up a good front. How good will the company look if you have to take out a prospective client and get refused a rental car, or your card gets refused at dinner, etc. on account of bad credit?

haven;t heard of this before,a crb check yes but not this.