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Armed with an impressive resume and knowledge of the company you are interviewing for, you confidently approach the interviewer and begin to craft the inspiring ‘first impression’ you envisioned last night as you went to bed.

You may feel prepared for the interview and qualified for the new job, but there is a strong possibility that the interviewer has already formed an opinion about you – through information contained in your credit report. 

Increasing numbers of companies are requesting credit reports to assist them in the job hiring process.  Essentially, your credit report is your financial resume and employers use it as an indicator of your personal integrity and how and how you conduct your life.  With that in mind, it’s alarming that seventy none percent of all credit reports contain errors.  A qualified job seeker simply can’t afford to have credit report errors sabotage an excellent employment history.

In the competitive job market, an accurate credit history may be the decisive factor in gaining a job interview.  Inaccurate credit reports can torpedo the most impressive resumes, and you won’t have a second chance to make a first impression.

The labor market is not only intense form the job seekers standpoint, but employers also are striving to gain a competitive advantage in the hiring process by accessing all the information available to improve the quality of the workforce.  Employers are also more likely to check the credit history of prospective employees who will be involved in some aspect of the company’s finances.

You can use this trend of employer credit checking to your benefit by repairing and/or maintaining a clean credit history.  Your credit report is your financial fingerprint, so check it frequently and keep it accurate so you are prepared to jump on the dream job opportunity should the occasion arise.

Credit Reports generally contain five types of information:

Identification Information: Information such as the name of the individual, current and previous residential addresses, and Social Security number.

Trade Line Information: Detailed information reported by creditors and other furnishers on each current and past loan, lease, or other debt (such as utility and medical debts).

Public Record Information: Information derived from financial-related public records, such as records of bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens, garnishments, and other civil judgments.

Collection Account Information: Information reported by collection agencies regarding credit accounts and other debts.

Inquiry Information: Identities of individuals or companies that have requested information from an individual’s credit file; the date of inquiry; and an indication of whether the inquiry was by the consumer, for the review of an existing account, or to help the inquirer decide on a potential future account or relationship.

Unfortunately, an alarming number of these files (credit reports) contain serious errors and could cause the denial of credit, a loan, or a job, so monitor your credit report and minimize or eliminate future credit problems.  A recent study of consumer credit found that 3 out of every 4 credit reports contain errors, some large enough to cause credit denials.

• Twenty-five percent (25%) of the credit reports contained errors serious enough to result in the denial of credit;
• Seventy-nine percent (79%) of the credit reports contained mistakes of some kind;
• Fifty-four percent (54%) of the credit reports contained personal demographic identifying information that was misspelled, long-outdated, belonged to a stranger, or was otherwise incorrect;
• Thirty percent (30%) of the credit reports contained credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but incorrectly remained listed as open.

The credit score was designed to show lenders how much of a risk a consumer can be.  The higher your credit scores are the lower the risk you are to creditors and obviously the lower your credit scores are the higher the risk you are.  When it comes to your credit and credit score, paying off your credit cards and credit accounts is always a good idea and can help raise your credit score.  However, closing your credit accounts does not always help your credit score, even if they are paid off.  Sometimes closing your credit accounts will even lower your credit scores.  Let me explain why.  When you pay off an account it helps raise your credit score in a couple of areas.  First, it helps the payment history to show that the account is paid and positive.  Second, it shows you have less money you owe on that account and on your overall credit. But, the downside is when you close your credit accounts you are stopping your payment history on that account, therefore shortening the timeframe of your payment history. If any of the credit accounts you paid off have been open for 2 years or less than you are ok to close them out because you are not getting rid of a long history. However, if you have had the card for 5+ years than I would recommend you keep it open so you don’t lose that payment history. Payment history counts as 35% of your credit score. What this means is that the longer you have your credit accounts (mostly credit cards because they are revolving) the better.  Your credit score takes an average of your payment history time frame, for example, if you had 2 cards for 10 years and 1 card for 1 year, the credit account that you have only had for a year is actually bringing down your average.  So, if you pay the accounts off that is great but don’t close them unless you have to and if you do close any, close the one you have had for a year so your average will go back to 10 years.  This will help your credit score!

Good Luck and with any other credit questions, ask our Credit Expert Kristi Thornton by emailing your questions to lynn@ovationlaw.com.  You can also call any of our Case Analysts at 1-866-639-3426 Option 2 or check out our site at www.ovationcredit.com.