Why do they check your credit when applying for a job?

Years ago I worked for a private investigator (mostly workmen comp cases) but we also did employee background checks. These consisted of criminal and civil court checks and credit reports. It's true the credit report is to usually show if someone is responsible. However when I did the background checks I was very careful to look at everything. Bad credit doesn't mean one is irresponsible. (especially these days) Also sometimes things would show on someone's criminal record for example a DUI even if it was more than 10 years prior which should not show up. So in those cases it was better to have individuals doing the background checks rather than just getting the report, at least in my opinion. You should be proud of your daughter. Regards

I think it has something to do with how responsable are you with your money. If you can't properly manage yours they wouldn't want you managing theirs. They might also believe that people who are struggeling ( which low credit might indicate ) might be more inclined to steal from them. Still...if they had a half decent interviewer they'd be able to tell someones work ethic without all that but they'd rather let a computer do it.

I'm astonished to know about it. I never heard it before. At least,in Canada it doesn't happen.

More and more employers are checking their prospective employees credit report these days. According to what I have read before, they are doing this because credit report shows them how responsible a person is or something like that. Also, if the prospective employee could be trusted with handling money matters etc. etc. I am not sure if that is how they use it but those are just some of the things that I've read from before. Your could have asked though what the purpose is for checking her credit report. They should be able to justify the need for this.

this is just plain wrong, in fact I would go as far as to say that this is discrimination. your personal finances or debt/credit problems have nothing whatsoever to do with the employer, unless they are offering you some kind of loan or credit. I have just about the worst credit rating you could ever get, it doesn't mean I'm irresponsible or that I don't handle my money well or that I am more inclined to steal. It just means I've had problems keeping up repayments in the past, which could be for a number of reasons. In my case, I took out a guaranteed loan and was laid off the next day!

In my point of view, they check their credit cards to see whether the person has any debts on their life. Also to check if they know how to manage well. Being objective, there is no significance between checking the credit card and the job employment. I also ponder about this kind of checkup.:)