Isn’t this a catch 22?
John Doe has a credit bad credit score. John Doe is sick of being an immature lame-o and/or victim of predatory lending,hewants to get out from under his financial woes. and wants to grow up find a girlfriend, settle down and have a family some day.
So he spiffs up his resume and goes to job interviews, to start his career. He gets turned down everytime because they do a credit check, see a bad 3 digit number.
Meanwhile John Doe puts in apartment applications (with deposit and first months rent loaned from family) He can’t get an apartment either on 2 accounts: he hasn’t secured employment yet, and he has bad credit.
But he can’t fix his bad credit because he doesn’t have a job!
How does John Doe turn over a new leaf? It seems like a viscious circle.
After about 20 interviews should he just be up front and say, “I’m paying back old debts and starting over anew?” Would this break the cycle.
Passive Income
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Wow that is a bad Catch 22.
Yes, I think that he should be upfront about it, so that they know he is honest. This will earn him some points plus they won’t be shocked about his scores.
This is exactly the reason that people should treat their credit responsibilities with care. Employers and landlords look to credit reports because it is a very valid and accurate method to determine a persons character during the pre hire screening phase.
If Mr. Doe is really serious about turning over that new leaf, then he should pull all three of his credit reports and see what is indeed on them. If he is infact making every effort to pay his bills, then he can start by sending what are known as “Goodwill Letters” to his creditors in an attempt to have them remove bad marks from his credit files. It may or may not work, but any improvements that Mr. Doe can make to his credit reports will go a long way in improving his situation.
Repairing bad credit takes time and a lot of determination and hard work, but the rewards of doing so can be reaped in very short order if done correctly. I dont like to link people to credit repair sites, but if Mr. Doe wants to learn as much as possible about how credit works, credit scores and credit repair, then have him visit the forums over at and start reading.
2 years ago I was in the same spot as Mr. Doe, and with the help of the people on the site I mention above, I went from not having a score to having a credit score in the mid 600’s after just 18 months. It can be done =)
Hope this helps.
If John Doe is not in a position to pay off his debts; all he needs is a little patience. John Doe needs to slow down a little bit, bad debts fall off (most of them with exceptions of bankruptcy and some others) in 7 years time.
As the debts get older the creditors do not pay as much attention, but look to see if any of the more current debts are being paid off. If John Doe is not paying any debts off, John Doe needs to get a secured credit card which reports to the credit reporting agencies and use it and pay it monthly. Secured credit cards are secured by your own personal deposits, so John Doe can get that. Limit is the same as his deposit.
Honestly, any job that pays over $20k/yr can run a credit check. I’m thinking John Doe has more than just a bad score - because I have a terrible score, have things in judements, writeoffs, repos, you name it, and although I’ve always applied for jobs that require credit checks, I’ve never been turned down for a position.
When an employer does a credit check, they are looking NOT for the score, but for something on there that would prevent that person from working for them. For example, if you owe them money… or if you owe a partner company money… and if your new job would enable you to simply “write off” your bad debt. How about this… a judgement against you for embezzling funds from your previous employer? You won’t become head accountant of this new company with something like that on your credit report.
On the other hand, apartment rentals look at how much you earn vs. how much you make. If you have a lot of bills but no job, they aren’t going to rent to you, because you’re going to not be able to pay your rent. It isn’t the amount of debt you owe, but whether or not the landlord feels you can afford the rent. They also might take into consideration any judgements from prior landlords for things like damage to your old apartments, or skipping out on your lease, etc. Those things are located on a credit report, and they are the whole reason landlords look at your report to begin with… they don’t care what your score is.