Why would a possible employer have to check your credit history?

Question

Why would a possible employer have to check your credit history?

Answer 1

Depends of the company you are working for, but they are looking to see if you are dependable, and responsible by paying your bills on time. Not saying you are, but they check to see your debt to make sure you wont steal anything from the business to pay off your bills. Even if you have no intentions of stealing, companies still do checks on their potential employees

Answer 2

Look at it this way:

When you get credit from a company, you sign paperwork agreeing to pay it back.  If you pay it back as agreed, your credit is good and it means you kept your word.  If you don't pay it back as agreed, your credit is not so good and you did not do what you said you would do.  

Now, I'm not saying that everyone with bad credit got that way just by ignoring the debt - there could be extenuating circumstances that caused it but I think many times, if you have bad credit it is because you were irresponsible in some way.  Employers like responsible people - that's why they check your credit, in my opinion.  

Answer 3

To see if you can handle personal details and money.  Why would they let you handle their money unless they were sure you could handle your own?

Poor credit = poor management skills.

Answer 4

As with the first answer, it's a measure of personal responsibility, but they may also consider you a risk for employee theft if you have financial problems.