This past weekend I was with some nannies and agencies at a conference. I was eating lunch with an agency that had been in business a long time. I was discussing with her , how at the Saturday lunch , we had a table conversation about why agencies pull credit checks on nannies, before placing them in a job. Some of the people at the table said to see if they were late on credit payments etc.
Now, I have been a professional nanny for 13 years. I don’t care if an agency pulls my credit report. If I deny them pulling it, they will and can assume that I am hiding something. I have nothing to hide.
The agency told me that the reason they pull credit checks is not to see how much you owe on your Target or Macy’s credit card, but to verify your information you put on your application. I was like oh yeah. She says they look at the addresses on your credit report, as it reports them all. Therefore if you had not told them you were living in Michigan for a year on your application but it was on your credit report. It could also tell them if you have liens out against you as well as if you have any bankruptcies going on at the time etc. She also mentioned that is a great way to verify your social security number.
If the agency sees you lived in North Dakota but didn’t list that as one of your addresses on your application, but they know you went to the University of North Dakota, they can see you lived there while going to school.
It was like a light bulb went off when she was explaining about all the additional information that is on your credit report besides how much you owe to Target and Macy’s. I know this information is on my credit report but I never paired it with the reasoning of why an agency pulls my credit report.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Steve L // Oct 6, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I used to own Buckingham Nannies in LA for many years and we didn’t do credit checks. You can find out where someone has lived in the past without doing a full credit check. Frankly, it seems too intrusive into a nanny’s private life for me. At eNannySource we don’t even offer a credit check and as far as I know not one family has ever asked for one.
Were you at NannyPalooza?
2 Pat Cascio // Oct 7, 2008 at 2:41 pm
There is another report that agencies run called an ID Verification report. That takes the address information from the credit report and allows the agency/parent see all the past addresses of the individual without viewing the account information regarding debts, credit cards, foreclosures, defaults, etc. The real reason someone would run the whole credit report would be to see if the nanny is in debt and may be more likely to ask for an advance on salary or a loan, or possibly even be tempted steal from the employer. Taking a blank check, or taking cash left in the house, etc. The desperate individual is more likely to do something that they would not ordinarily do.
3 Amy // Oct 10, 2008 at 10:19 am
My feeling is that being deeply in debt does not make one more desperate and likely to steal from an employer> I think that is a dumb conclusion to draw from reading someone”s credit report> The only thing I could see making use out of on a full credit report would be late payments
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