NCSL could have misled people about employers using credit scores

You wrote: "What number determines the interest rate on a loan, whether a person can rent an apartment and, in some instances, whether an individual will be hired for a job? What number purports to tell financial institutions, credit card companies, car dealerships, employers and mortgage lenders, among others, the credit risk of consumers? This number is a consumer's credit score, and the number is based on an individual's credit report."

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

What evidence indicates employers use credit scores?

What is the name of an employer who uses credit scores?

Please reply.

Please reply.

Please reply.

Please reply.

Mr. Fisher

I apologize that we have had a some type of miscommunication.

I saw your email to NCSL's press-room a few weeks ago and responded at that time. I am sending this email from my personal account to see if it will go through. Please make sure that your email provider is not blocking NCSL.

I'm a little confused with the questions you are asking in your email. The only place that I can find the paragraph you quoted is in an email NCSL sent out. I did not see it in the information posted on NCSL's website.

Please let me know and we can move forward with addressing your concerns. I will be your contact from here on our at NCSL. Please feel free to contact me directly.

Thanks,

Your website states: "What number determines the interest rate on a loan, whether a person can rent an apartment and, in some instances, whether an individual will be hired for a job? What number purports to tell financial institutions, credit card companies, car dealerships, employers and mortgage lenders, among others, the credit risk of consumers? This number is a consumer's credit score, and the number is based on an individual's credit report."

The URL is http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12517, which is in the May 6 [and 4 subsequent] email with that exact quote from your website. That page containing that passage refers to a July 2006 NCSL report titled "CONSUMER REPORTING - A Primer for Policymakers."

The report, itself, contains the same text, verbatim.

The NCSL bookstore states: "A consumer's credit score, based on his or her credit report, can have a great deal of power. It can determine the interest rate on a loan, whether a person can rent an apartment and, in some cases, whether an individual will be hired for a job."

Your Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce Committee Agenda from the 2009 NCSL Fall Forum states: "What do a mortgage lender, landlord, insurer, credit card company and an employer have in common? They all have access to and may use your credit report and credit score."

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

What evidence indicates employers use credit scores?

What is the name of an employer who uses credit scores? Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

What did the email you sent out say?

Thank you Mr. Fisher for providing those examples for me.

We have corrected some of the wording used on our website.

Take care and please contact me with any further questions.

I have no further questions. I'll just stick with the original four, none of which you have answered.

The report by Heather Morton still says the same thing, and you have provided no substantiation.

In Maryland, they didn't buy the hype. But, look how the issue was sold in Oregon.

Mr. Fisher

As I mentioned in my previous email, I will be your contact at NCSL.

There were a few promotional paragraphs on our website that we acknowledged could have mislead[SIC] people to believe that credit scores are used by employers. We changed that wording last week. Similar wording to what was used on our website was included only in the introduction of a 2006 report, but not in the body of the report.

Therefore, we do not have any further comment to any of your questions. NCSL is not an advocacy group and has not taken a position on the use of credit information in employment.

I will consider your questions answered and this matter closed.

The National Conference of State Legislatures published and continues to make available for purchase a report that NCSL has failed to substantiate, and that contains a statement that NCSL claims "could have mislead[SIC] people."

On page 13 of its report "CONSUMER REPORTING - A Primer for Policymakers," the National Conference of State Legislatures states, "For their generous support of this project, NCSL gratefully acknowledges the NCSL Foundation for State Legislatures, AARP, American Express, American Financial Services Association, Citigroup, Community Financial Services Association of America, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and Visa."

How much money did you give to NCSL for the project? How much did you provide to the organization in 2009?