I read the comments but don’t think anyone has hit on the obvious: medical debt. I did see loss of job mentioned as a legitimate reason credit may be bad.
Employers do not care!
Medical debt is different in that it is not a choice. If you don’t have insurance and get sick you will have many thousands of dollars in collections in short order.
I agree that credit score in many ways shows how “good” a debt consumerist slave you are. I am outraged that I am forced to be in such a ridiculous system.
My wife was denied employment by TSA specifically and only because of unpaid medical debt. By the time I met her this was already in collections and had torpedoed her score so I did not feel responsible for paying it. I do feel responsible for figuring out how to clean her record in the future. Her experience is that a lack of good credit score meant no new credit issued which has eventually meant only negative remarks in her credit history.
If employers are simply screening the scores like a computer I strongly disagree in using credit in hiring decisions. Poor credit is a vicious downward spiral which results in only paying cash for things (responsible behavior) but this forced responsibility is not rewarded. It is punished. How can my wife pay her bills if she can’t get a job? A real Catch 22. The jobs she can get do not pay enough to leave anything left to pay off significant debt. The fact that it is already in collections slams the prison door. She will be low wage / unemployable until time heals her credit problems.
