Credit check (??)

Nikiya

An agency I work for is now requesting my "credit check". They are American so I do not know what they mean by that. I had heard of "credit reports" which I suppose is the same thing. Reading an article in this site it would seem your "credit score" is an ongoing report for which you have to pay every month.
Basically I'd need to know how expensive/complicated it is to get one.
I also read about "clearscore" but I am a bit reluctant to provide all my private information online. Has anybody used it?
Thanks for any help/clarifications.

DCFC79

Nikiya wrote: »

An agency I work for is now requesting my "credit check". They are American so I do not know what they mean by that. I had heard of "credit reports" which I suppose is the same thing. Reading an article in this site it would seem your "credit score" is an ongoing report for which you have to pay every month.
Basically I'd need to know how expensive/complicated it is to get one.
I also read about "clearscore" but I am a bit reluctant to provide all my private information online. Has anybody used it?
Thanks for any help/clarifications.

Yes it could be a copy of your credit report they are wanting, could you ask them why they want it ?

Theres 3 credit ref agencys, noddle, experian and equifax. It seems clearscore are partners of equifax.

The credit score given by the 3 above is just a number, no lender sees it, you are the only person who can see it. 2 of the agency's you can pay x amount a month and you get to monitor your credit file.

m4rc

I wouldn't give anyone that sort of information unless my career depended on it - like working in the financial services sector. If they can't justify why they need it and what they will do with the information I too would be very reluctant to provide it.

Pixie5740

I would want to know why they need this information too. The credit scores generated by the credit reference agencies don't mean anything, lenders certainly don't use them. You can get your Equifax report free via Clearscore and your Call Credit report free from Noddle but you'd need to pay £2 for your statutory Experian report unless you can sign up for their free trial and cancel before the end of said free trial.

I've worked for 2 financial institutions in the past and both ran their own credit checks on me (with my knowledge) as part of the application process after I'd got through the interviews.

Nikiya

Pixie, what is the difference between a report and a statutory one? I would not mind paying just two pounds in terms of cost. I will certainly ask them why they are requesting this.

Nikiya

Besides, I am careful not to be in the red so I do NOT have a big history as a borrower, tending to live within my limits (cue to your comments below Pixie!!) and I understand in those cases your "credit report" is nil....

Thrugelmir

As an employer they should be able to access the information they require, with your permission of course, from a suitable source. Shouldn't be up to you to provide anything. Up to them to vet you. Financial services companies vet as a matter of course.

bazfez

Employers have the accessibility to do a credit search on you. But as you say they are an american company maybe they are unable to do the check themselves and hense why they have asked you to do it for them.

If you have nothing to hide I don't see the issue. You could get a job out of it.

Pixie5740

The only difference between your £2 statutory report and the £14.99 report is that the £14.99 report comes up with a made up credit score that no lenders actually use in other words a waste of £12.99 The information on both reports (which is the important bit) is exactly the same.

DCFC79

Thrugelmir wrote: »

As an employer they should be able to access the information they require, with your permission of course, from a suitable source. Shouldn't be up to you to provide anything. Up to them to vet you. Financial services companies vet as a matter of course.

Surely the american employer can find a company in the UK who can carry out these checks.

GingerBob_3

I'm just a bit puzzled by this one. Supposedly only "closed group" companies can smack you with a credit check. In other words, only companies who report your accounts to the CRAs can interrogate the data. How then, do general run-of-the-mill financial services companies and other sundry employers gain access to this data?