Consumer Credit Reports - A Brief Review

Being an employer, you may want to usemust be informed that the employer is checking
consumer credit reports while hiring newhis credit report and more importantly he should
employees and also while assessing them foragree to it.individuals have the right to be
promotion, reassignment, and retention, but only ifinformed if the information in the credit report
you abide by the Fair Credit Reporting Acthas negative influences on employment decision.
(FCRA). Sections 604, 606, and 615 of the FCRAMore information about consumer report: -
clearly mention the employer's responsibilitiesA consumer credit report consists of personal
towards its employees when he uses consumerinformation along with credit characteristics,
reports for employment purposes.character, general reputation, and lifestyle. This
The FCRA was primarily constituted to guard thereport should be prepared by a
privacy of the consumer report information andconsumer-reporting agency (CRA) according to
to guarantee that the information that is printedthe FCRA.
on the report by the bureaus and agencies isEmployers feel safe and satisfied to run a
precise. An amendment was made to the FCRAbackground check on applicant before hiring them
on 30th Sep 1997 stating that more and morefor the desired job. Some employers are only
obligations should be imposed on employers whointerested in your credit payment record, some in
use consumer reports. The Congress advocateddriving record and some in criminal records.
this step, as they felt that inaccurate andDepending on your job profile, an employer can
incomplete consumer reports can cause someoneeven ask for an investigative consumer report.
his job or may be even his promotions.These are types of consumer credit reports if
The amendments made it clear thatindividualsacquired from CRA.