[LittleBirdy]

Has anyone ever been denied employment because of their credit history? Does anyone know how bad it has to be for this to happen, or what the red flags are for employers?

I have been living 700 miles away from my DH for the last six months waiting for him to sell our house and find a job here. Neither has happened, but DH is going to join me in a few months any way. Once he does, we won't be able to afford our mortgage any more. Right now we have fantastic credit - no CC debt, no late payments, nothing. We'll still be current on our car payment which is the only debt we have other than the mortgage, so the only black mark will be the late payments and eventual short sale/foreclosure. We won't finance another vehicle ever (we're semi-DR people, I'll drive a $500 clunker or get a bus pass before I'll get a car loan again!) and I don't want to buy another house for a looooooong time but I am worried about DH finally finding a job and then being denied employment because of the credit thing.

(I humbly ask that you not pass judgement on this decision. We have had the home for sale for a year and it's currently priced at $4,000 less than what we owe on the mortgage. We have tried to do this the "right" way but we're slowly running out of options. My heart is heavy enough already.)

 

[laohaire]

There isn't any level of "how bad" your credit would have to be to be denied a job; credit checks are done at the potential employer's discretion and they can judge it however they like.

I don't have any advice, just keep on keeping on. Not all jobs require credit checks. When applying for jobs, I would not ask if a credit check is required (hello, insert red flag here). You won't be the only one in this job market with a black mark on your credit, so keep that in mind.

 

[Denvergirlie]

Each employer will set it's own standard as to what is a red flag.

I know in our company, unpaid credit cards, defaults, judgements are the issue as we in turn issue company credit cards to most of these people. I am not offically HR, but would think that a mortage default would not be viewed in the same way a credit card default is. Likewise, bankruptcy would be a red flag as well, but might be looked at to see what caused the bankruptcy.

However, even within our company there is some flexibility as too what the debt is from and what level of responsibility the person holds at work.

There is no one size fits all answer for this, it's going to vary by each and every employer.

 

[jeliphish]

can you talk about a short sale with the mortgage company? IF you can't continue the payments you still don't have to go all the way to forclosure...the bank will be ever so willing to negotiate a short sale. Email Dave, maybe he can offer advice. I am a member of his TMMO so I have access to the forums so if you want to PM me more specifics I can place the questions on his forums...there are some smart and thrifty people on there!