USA Today on employers using credit scores, Part 1

In 2008, national consumer reporting agencies Equifax, TransUnion and Experian stated that they do not provide credit scores for employment screening purposes. In 2009, USA Today reported twice that employers use credit scores.

Initial email to USA Today asking for its source regarding credit score use by employers

You wrote, "And if scores can drop even if consumers do nothing wrong, they say, it raises the question of whether there's a flaw in the credit scoring formulas relied upon by the nation's lenders, insurers, and increasingly employers and landlords."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-03-05-economy-credit-scores_N.htm

Who is your source for the information that, increasingly, employers rely upon credit scoring formulas?

Please reply.

From: Kathy Chu, USA Today
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: Out of Office: credit score, employers II
Date: 3/24/2009

I will be out of the office the week of March 23rd and will have little access to e-mail.

If you have an urgent matter, please contact editor David Craig at [email address]. Please do not contact him with routine story pitches.

I will return your message as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Kathy Chu
Reporter
USA TODAY

Please reply.

From: Commitment to Accuracy [USA Today]
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: USA TODAY - Editorial Department (KMM6378449V82969L0KM)
Date: 4/1/2009

Thank you for your recent letter to USA TODAY. I have shared your comments with the appropriate assignment desk. An editor will be in contact if a more specific response is warranted.

Your interest in USA TODAY is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Brent Jones
Reader Editor

USA Today's reply

From: Chu, Kathy
To: creditscoring.com
Subject: RE: credit score, employers III
Date: 4/1/2009

Please read the story again. We mention data in the story about employers increasingly relying on credit information.

Kathy Chu
Reporter
USA TODAY

Find my latest stories at: http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/reporter.aspx?id=349

Consumer reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion do not provide credit scores for employment screening.

"It becomes this self-fulfilling problem," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "Lenders cut credit lines, and if consumers simply do what they had been doing, their credit score could fall. Other lenders respond by cutting their own lines or raising rates."

The cycle concerns consumer advocates and some legislators. Some wonder whether restrictions should be imposed on lenders' ability to slash credit limits and close accounts. And if scores can drop even if consumers do nothing wrong, they say, it raises the question of whether there's a flaw in the credit scoring formulas relied upon by the nation's lenders, insurers, and increasingly employers and landlords.

USA TODAY, in previous stories in its "Credit Trap" series, has reported that during the housing boom, banks sharply raised card limits in part because of a surge in home equity, then guided borrowers to use mortgages to pay off card balances.

What are the names of the consumer advocates and legislators who say that employers use credit scores?

Message to "consumer advocates and some legislators" (the only legislator) in the USA Today article

Please reply.

------------- At 11:46 PM 2/16/2009, creditscoring.com wrote to Gail Hillebrand, Consumers Union:

You said, "An automatic FICO disaster information shield would also prevent FICO scores from becoming a barrier to reemployment of displaced people looking for new work with employers who rely in part on credit scores."

See http://www.creditscoring.com/influence/government... .

Who is your source regarding credit score use by employers?

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

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[copy of email thread, to-date, regarding USA Today]

USA Today's policy: "Readers have a right to know where the information in the newspaper comes from."