Some Employers Doing Credit Checks of Applicants
VELSHI: The fabulous Christine Romans is my co-anchor on a show that we anchor ever weekend here on CNN called "YOUR $$$$$." She also joins me every day. It's a long day. This is the end of the day for her and -- no, it isn't actually. It typically isn't the end of the day for you. It should be, given how long it is. But I'm actually -- I always ask you to stick around because we have great conversations.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.</s>VELSHI: And one that we've had in the last couple ideas has been this -- this idea that there are states or efforts to try and curtail the use of your credit report, your credit history by employers to make a determination as to whether or not you should get a job. But it is a widespread practice.</s>ROMANS: It really is, and I think most people don't even understand this. Eighteen states -- 25 different bills in 18 states in this legislative calendar, Ali, are trying to limit what your prospective employer can see about you. A job applicant goes and applies for the job. Human resources or the owner of that business can run a credit check as long as they tell you. Sixty percent of companies do this; 13 percent do everybody as a standard practice.</s>VELSHI: Wow.</s>ROMANS: They just run a credit check on everybody. Forty-seven percent just do for selected candidates. Most likely, Ali, people who are going to be touching money, who are going to be running a budget.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: Forty percent of companies just don't do this at all. They simply don't run a credit history. But it can be done, and it is legal.</s>VELSHI: You mentioned something. It's legal if they ask you and you consent. When you're in a job market that we're in now, most prospective employees, people looking for a job, don't think that they have the right or don't think it would be wise to say no.</s>ROMANS: Right. And look, if you're -- if you're going for a job in a money business, it's pretty standard. Also, if you're going for a job in some things that are licensed like day cares or in different states. There are different kinds of jobs you have to have a license, where they have to do a criminal and a credit check on you just to know who you are if you're dealing with the elderly or you're dealing with young people. So, all of your information...</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>ROMANS: You should assume all of your information is available to the person who is thinking about hiring you.</s>VELSHI: You did some research into what you are most likely not to get hired for as a result of somebody checking your credit.</s>ROMANS: Yes. OK, so this is a -- this is from the Society for Human Resources Management. So, this is a human resources firm. Look, you're not going to get hired because of a current judgment against you, a lawsuit, an outstanding order against you in the court of law; debt collection, uncollected debt, you've got a lot of debt out there. Bankruptcy, 25 percent of the hiring managers would look you over because of a bankruptcy. High debt-to-income ratio, much less foreclosure, even less than that. I was pleased to see education-related debt hardly even makes this list.</s>VELSHI: Good.</s>ROMANS: Just 2 percent were concerned about education-related. A lot of us have student loan debt, right? Medical debt, only about 1 percent. On Facebook and on Twitter, a lot of people were saying, "Hey, wait. If you have a medically-induced bankruptcy, that's not fair to not be able to get a job." It doesn't look to me like hiring managers are not hiring because of that. That's ridiculous.</s>VELSHI: OK, well, that -- that's a little bit of good. Let me just bring you. You just mentioned Facebook. We asked people about this. Let's get a couple of comments here. Lance says -- we were asking, "Is it fair?" Lance says, "I say yes, it is fair. It's indicative" -- it being your credit score, credit report -- "is indicative of the type of person you are. If someone can't manage their own financial affairs, then I wouldn't want to hire them to manage anything for me." What do you think of that?</s>ROMANS: Well, I think there are a lot of people who -- I hope Lance has a 750 credit score and has never done anything wrong in his criminal or credit history.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: Because if he's looking for a job, people are going to know about it, right?</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: Look, the bottom line here is that a lot of people have a situation -- I will tell you that most managers look back six or seven years. VELSHI; Right.</s>ROMANS: And they're also -- especially a big human resources department, Ali, I think that they can look back and they see the patterns. They see a divorce. They can see a judgment that was against you. They can see uncollected child support. They can see these sorts of things. And I think that they can piece together sort of...</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: They probably see a lot of different kinds of backgrounds, too.</s>VELSHI: You make a good point, though.</s>ROMANS: So maybe they're not so judgmental.</s>VELSHI: This isn't the credit score. This isn't the few months snapshot of your credit. We're talking about your credit report, your -- your history of debt, judgments, things like that. Brook wrote on Facebook, "I think it depends on the job being applied for. A position in the financial industry, like -- like banking, might be important. In order to get my" -- sorry, we've got Allison's up there, but I'm actually talking about Brook's. "In order to get my license as a mortgage loan originator, it was mandated so my employer would need to know." So she's making the point that there are some jobs where it does seem fairly obvious that you would need to have your credit checked.</s>ROMANS: Right. And there are -- and there are many people who have tweeted us and e-mailed us and said, "Look, you know, I'm in a hiring position, and I know for a fact that people who have very poor history with their own financial -- their own financial matters aren't good at running a budget. And if I'm hiring someone who needs to run a budget or I'm hiring somebody who's going to be literally a treasurer of a department, it's incredibly important that they have a personal life that their finances are in order, too." I will say that you are more likely to have a credit background check run on you if you're going for the big-dog job...</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: ... if you're going for a job where you're running a department or you're -- where you're actually handling money.</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>ROMANS: It's much less -- much less the entry-level, rank-and- file jobs that they're doing this on.</s>VELSHI: OK, look, Christine's coming back to talk about this, so why don't you go to -- Christine, are you collecting these on your Facebook page?</s>ROMANS: I am. I am.</s>VELSHI: All right. So, go to Christine's Facebook page, Christine Romans's, or mine, AliVelshiCNN. We're going to check on this in another hour. The other thing I want to talk to you about when we come back, Christine, is the fact that so many times credit reports aren't accurate.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VELSHI: So if you're subject to this, at least check your credit report.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>VELSHI: Log in on Facebook. You can always see Christine and me on weekends, Saturday at 1 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern, on "YOUR $$$$$." All right. Let me give you a check of the top stories we're covering right now. We call it recall redux. Federal safety officials say they've gotten ten -- ten complaints, I'm sorry, of sudden acceleration from Toyota drivers whose vehicles have already been repaired under the recent recall. Toyota says it's aware of the claims. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reaching out to the people making the complaints. A new chairman is taking over one of the most powerful committees in Congress. Democrat Sander Levin will be the acting chief of the House Ways and Means Committee. That's the committee in charge of crafting all tax legislation. New York's Charles Rangel stepped -- stepped aside as chairman yesterday because of an ethics investigation. And a German court has convicted four men of plotting to attack U.S. targets and U.S. troops inside Germany. The two Germans and two Turks once trained in terror camps along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They'd already begun making -- mixing explosive materials when they were arrested back in 2007. All right. Hollywood goes to war. You've seen it in many movies over the last year, and the Pentagon is not happy about it. We'll tell you why when we come back.