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What you should know
Federal law allows potential and current employers to view a modified version of your credit report for employment purposes such as hiring and promoting.
This employment report includes much of the information about your loans and credit cards that is listed in your credit report. To protect your financial security and meet equal employment opportunity laws, all Experian employment reports omit your account numbers, year of birth and spouse references.
Traditionally, the biggest users of credit reports for employment purposes are companies in the defense, chemical, pharmaceutical and financial services industries because of the sensitive positions many of their employees hold. Increasingly, other industries use the reports to serve as a general indicator of an applicant's financial honesty and personal integrity.
The report, however, does not tell a potential employer whether to hire or promote an applicant. An employment report typically is used in addition to application information, references or skills testing to help employers make the best, most objective hiring decision.
Consumer protections
Recognizing the sensitive nature of employment reports, legislators enacted several consumer protections. Among them:
- Federal law prohibits anyone from accessing an employment report without first obtaining written permission from the consumer.
- If the employment report plays any part in a decision that negatively impacts the consumer, federal law requires the company to give the consumer a copy of the report along with a written description of the consumer's rights.
In addition to state and federal requirements, Experian instituted several policies to protect consumer privacy and ensure accuracy, including:
- Experian strongly recommends to employers that they not deny employment solely on the basis of an employment report.
- If the employment report contains information that causes a potential employer concern, Experian encourages the employer to give the applicant an opportunity to clarify the issue.
When an employer obtains a copy of an employment report, that access is not shown on future credit or employment reports except when an applicant obtains his or her own report directly from Experian. This protects consumer privacy because other employers or credit grantors will not be informed about job-related activities. In addition, inquiries for employment purposes do not affect creditworthiness or credit risk scores because they are not shown to lenders. (Information about employer access is located in the "Requests for your credit history" section of the consumer credit report. It remains on the file for two years.
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