Years ago, folks could make investment mistakes or become ill or have a house fire or what have you and it was not the end of their credit worthiness but a life experience that can actually build good character,and better knowledge base…

now the rich rule our nation with an iron rod of a million and one forms of debters’ prisons– we all know the uber class has such wonderful moral values.

Oh now that is just playing on sterotypes isn’t it? Is that to say BoA is racist and purposely did credit checks to exclude more African-Americans than whites? How did BoA know what the reports results would be? But well I guess we still gotta throw race in there somewhere.

@TGGP. I am not a lawyer either but I can tell you exactly why Cali’s proposed law won’t stand up. The first ammendment; it’s a free speech issue. Remember you do not HAVE to allow a company to check your credit or your driving record. You’re granting them permission in writing when you apply. Pass a law making that illegal and you just denied me my right to demonstrate to a prospective employer that I am a highly ethical and dependable person making it harder for me to differentiate myself from other applicants.

ChrisMaresca, he said “If I’m an employer”, so it’s entirely possible he is not an employer and was just speaking hypothetically. Also, again I reiterate my suggestion that people who think these companies are just incompetent have a big profit opportunity. But I don’t expect anyone to try to take advantage of that opportunity, because I don’t think ANY OF YOU REALLY BELIEVE that the information you want to ban is COMPLETELY UNINFORMATIVE.

You’re not going to? Yeah, didn’t think so. Might say too much about your company’s attitude towards it’s customers.

And majkmushrm is right, HR is just lazy and generally incompetent. Between this, checkbox requirements and computerized candidate systems, they devised a perfect way to avoid taking any responsibility for a bad hire. It also explains why unemployment is so high….

If I’m an employer I have every right to your credit history, your driving history, and in many cases I can test your urine to see if you enjoy snorting cocaine in your leasure time. I don’t have a right to your medical records (unless you’re a pilot) and I can’t ask who you voted for. We have several protected classes in this country… deadbeats and criminals are still fair game.

If you don’t like those rules or feel that my company dosen’t have the right to invade your privacy then start your own business… this is still the land of opportunity afterall.

I understand that the plight of the unemployed and doubly unfortunate through bad credit scores is a terrible thing. But if we as a society want to remedy that, isn’t it society (or at least tax-payers) as a whole that should seek to remedy that through some form of subsidy? Prohibiting the use of information just leads to deadweight loss.

They want to do that because, yes, it can be difficult legally to fire for cause. But they really do it because hiring the right person is a difficult interpersonal skill, and one which few managers have successfully mastered. Rather than training managers in that skill, and affording them practice and the opportunity to fail, employers would rather complain that they can’t find the right people, whoever they are.

Hiring is difficult. Get over it. Train hiring managers, and give them the freedom to fail and learn the right lessons from it. Don’t be a wimp.

Too old ? Well overqualified is a bit dicey now but a bad/weak credit report does the job just fine. Fill in the blanks, just use bad credit and you’re covered.

Unfortunately, this kind of garbage goes beyond credit ratings. Some employers want access to your driving record as we discovered when my wife was going to do some temporary work for a company. Now, if you’re applying to be a driver for a company, knowing your driving record is relevant and important. My wife, on the other hand, is an IT professional who does database manipulation and interface design. Her driving record is irrelevant to the quality of work she can do. What makes this even more egregious is that she’s not a twenty something with little work experience. She’s been doing this stuff for 40 years.