Tena Friery, research director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, San Diego, California (www.privacyrights.org), points out that the Fair Credit Reporting Act allows a current or potential employer to pull your credit report with your permission.

�It doesn�t necessarily have to be a job handling money,' Friery says. 'The employer may decide that a person could be a good credit risk therefore they�ll be a good employee or just the opposite.�

Even if you�ve not robbed a convenience store or filed for bankruptcy, your job search can still be derailed by a background or credit check. �We have fact sheets on our Web site that explain how to prepare for a background check and how to make sure everything, at a minimum is correct and that any adverse information that should have been removed has been removed,� Friery says.

She has heard from plenty of people who suffer from inaccurate background checks because they share a birthday and a similar name with a convicted felon.

Nationally, credit repositories must delete adverse information after seven years and bankruptcy information after 10 years. And, FYI, the bankruptcy bill that passed in 2005 prohibits employers from considering bankruptcy when hiring or firing employees.

When an employer decides not to hire you because of something uncovered by a credit check, the employer has to inform you in writing and follow certain procedures. So chances are the employer will simply tell you that someone else was a better candidate for the job.

If you do have a deep, dark credit or criminal secret, your best bet may be to bring it up as soon as someone asks you to sign the permission form for a background check. If credit is the issue, suggest that the employer look at your overall credit history. Memorize a short, contrite explanation for your past mistakes, point out that you�re now living within your means and ask if there�s going to be a problem. Then, move on to another topic.

If you think you�re clean, make sure your record shows you�re clean. You have the right to pull your credit report from each of the three repositories once a year. See www.annualcreditreport.com.

ChoicePoint�s Web site explains how you can order free copies of different types of background checks.

Reader Comment

Dear Dona DeZube-
Great article but you did not really address how to be sure your background check does not have any incorrect information, e.g, as far as criminal convictions, etc etc. I think most people know about how to pull their credit reports but how do you check to be sure that you are clean as far as any convictions or police record(s)??? Thanks Virginia (current job applicant)

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This note is in regards to your article, 'Know Your File Before a Background Check,' by Dona DeZube, in the current issue of jobsinthemoney. I would like your recommendation as to how an unemployed person with disabilities, unable to meet his or her financial obligations because he or she cannot find employment, and thereby condemned to a bad credit rating, convince potential employers that his or her bad credit rating is inadvertent and clearly the fault of the job market in the first place?

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One's financial history in NO WAY has anything to do with obtaining a job in today's world and is an invasion of privacy. Any company that conducts this type of invasion, would not, in my opinion, be worthy of any professional looking for a job. Soon this will be against the law (if not already) and companies will be held accountable for this invasion. No wonder smart individuals are obtaining their OWN businesses and/or working from HOME.