Bad credit during a job application, will an explanation help?

Question

A friend of mine recently started working, and one of the vendors wanted to do a credit check. He unfortunately has several negative credit items, and they replied back asking for an explanation. If he explained that he would be rectifying those items soon, and how they came into his history on account of identity theft, would they allow him to continue working?

Answer 1

Yes, that can sometimes help. Some employers use credit to help the guage an employee's worth. However, most do not blindly use it. Some are more than willing to hear explanations and what the potential employee is doing to fix the problem.

Be careful though. Do not make it seem like the job is going to be the fix to the credit problems. That makes it look almost like begging for a job. That is a turn off to employers. Also, avoid making excuses that avoid taking responsibility. Employers do not like to see that kind of stuff either. An example is the "it is not my fault because......". Also, some companies do use the credit score blindly. There is nothing you can do to sway those guys. Hopefully you (or your friend) do not run into many of those.

Answer 2

if the employer is going to use a credit check as part of the screening process, honesty is always the best policy.

If however, it is not something that they routinely do, I wouldn't bring it up.

Answer 3

possibly, make sure it is all documented.