Refused job interview based on credit rating. Discrimination?

FBaby

You are looking at it from the wrong end. Companies every day make decision that they will only employ people with certain level of education. Does this mean that if you don't have a degree you are less capable of doing the job as an individual? No, but the company rates people with s degree higher and that is their choice to bring a cut off point relating to education.

This is exactly the same. The company has decided that they want people with clean credit record because they believe these people are more likely to be valuable employees. If they can still get the best people by applying this restriction, why wouldn't they?

AP007

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

They can, if they wish, screen out all people with blue eyes or ginger hair. .

Its auburn not ginger

sniggings

MrCooper wrote: »

I have been refused an interview for a job and the reason they gave was because I failed the credit check.
Is this a case of discrimination? Why would having bad credit have any affect on my ability to do a job? It isn't as if I have a criminal record.

you would have to have agreed to the credit rating check before they did one, so how can you agree to it and then say it's discrimination? if you had passed it would it then not have been discrimination?

Pennywise

FBaby wrote: »

If they can still get the best people by applying this restriction, why wouldn't they?

Exactly.

If you were the only suitable candidate due to experience/qualifications, then they'd be stupid to apply a restriction that may or may not be important, but when they have several suitable applicants, all as good as each other, then it makes sense to minimise risk. The OP's credit rating increases the "risk" - it doesn't mean that something bad will happen, but statistically, the risks are greater of something bad happening than employing one of the alternatives without a bad credit rating.

Exactly the same as employing a woman in her 40's who already has a family rather than someone in her 20's who's just got married. Impossible to say that the older woman won't have more children or that the younger woman will have children, but statistically, it's more likely that the younger woman will give birth during the employment than the older woman.

It's all about probabilities and statistics. Giving personal examples of instances that appear to go against the trend doesn't make the trend wrong - they are, after all, nothing more than personal experiences which are probably statistically insignificant. All they do is highlight that in any probability based scenario, some instances will buck the trend.

makeyourdaddyproud

What if you have never borrowed and thus have a clean (empty) file possibly even with a recent change of address. Would one be out of the running for the job?

As you can see from the above cited example, it's not black and white. And in my opinion, it is morally unfair whether or not it is enshrined in law.

Takeaway_Addict

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

What if you have never borrowed and thus have a clean (empty) file possibly even with a recent change of address. Would one be out of the running for the job?

As you can see from the above cited example, it's not black and white. And in my opinion, it is morally unfair whether or not it is enshrined in law.

You could also argue that its morally correct for employers to reduce their risk towards trouble for other staff/shareholders etc

castortroy31

Hi All,

just saw the thread and am an interested party. I have worked in the financial services all my life and in the last 4 years had some personal issues which lead me to borrow beyond my means and trash my credit history.

now it is possible to work in the financial services industry and yes the credit check is quite stringent. I think for the OP if they have a clear history meaning no arrears they should still be able to get a job.

missed c/c payments here and there wont matter too much as long as they have not go t ccj/bankruptcy or any arrears i.e. council tax.

i have been worried about myself as well and have seen first hand my other friends who got interviews and at the last minute they failed the checks.

to the op have a look first at your credit history and see what can immediately be done first.