In 2017, Brittany Greene was on track to be promoted from an assistant to a business analyst position at her company, she says. She’d earned her master’s degree in project management and shadowed with the team.
But Greene didn’t get the job — and says her poor credit history played a role. “I actually found out afterwards that I did not get [promoted] into that position because of my credit,” she says.
She was notified about the decision via email, she says. She then had a virtual meeting with a member of the team she would have joined, who confirmed her credit history affected the decision, she says. CNBC Make It was not able to independently confirm if Greene’s credit history was a factor in her former employer’s decision not to promote her.
Greene’s story is a reminder that for many Americans, having a good credit history matters for more than just the interest rates you can get on loans or whether you’ll qualify to rent an apartment, says Cynthia Chen, co-founder and CEO at Kikoff, a fintech company that helps individuals build and repair their credit.
About half of employers include credit reports in employee background checks for their U.S. locations, a 2021 survey from the Professional Background Screening Association found. Credit checks are especially common for hiring in financial services like brokerage firms and health-care services, Chen says.
