Background Credit Check

Whether applying for a credit card, loan, a line of credit, a mortgage, purchasing a car, renting a place to live, or employment; a background credit check is a necessary part of the application process. The major reason a background credit check is done is to verify your credit worthiness. A credit check basically questions a person's ability to pay bills in a timely manner. In the case of an employment screening, the credit report will only focus on reporting credit information pertinent to the job. If applying for a job as a bank teller, the employer would need to know that a potential employee can handle access to large sums of money or classified information. For example - If a potential employee has many financial woes they may not be a good candidate for a job in a bank. A credit check also looks at the balance to limit ratio also known as the credit utilization ratio. The balance to limit ratio is the amount of credit used compared to the total credit available. A low ratio is good for obtaining credit because it shows that a person has more credit than debt; this makes for a good credit rating. A background credit check looks at the credit scores reported from the three main credit reporting agencies/bureaus; Transunion, Experian, and Equifax. The system utilized for creating a credit score is the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) or the Beacon. The credit information is collected from merchants, credit card companies, banks, mortgage companies, and utility companies. The credit information collected is used to create the credit score. A credit score is determined by five elements and they are: payment history - which is how well a person pays; credit variety - which is the kind of credit held; credit history - how long a person has credit; what is owed - open credit balances; new credit - new credit items attained, what type of credit item and how often credit is applied for. A background credit check can bring feast or famine to those applying for a credit card, which is why it is important to manage credit issues a soon as it arises. Help for a credit issue is available through consumer credit counseling agencies.