I am so sad right now. I need to vent and them take a break for a while.

[liberalhistorian]

52. But even in the case of jobs with

a "fiduciary consideration", there should be a consideration given to the context of less-than-great credit ratings. There's a difference between bad credit due to irresponsibility, mismanagement, theft, deliberately opening credit accounts and running up bills you have no intention of paying, etc., etc., and bad credit due to circumstances beyond your control, especially in the case of medical bills, job loss, divorce, illness and disability, identity theft, filing of false/inaccurate information, malicious filing of liens (saw it happen many times in my previous profession, a lot more than you'd think, and such liens are given just as much credence as legitimate liens, with no consideration as to their credibility), etc. A HUGE difference. Unfortunately, the fucking credit bureaus don't give a shit and make no effort at providing any context in their reports, and most employers aren't going to make any effort at figuring out the context either.

The one thing people can do, including, perhaps, the OP's daughter, is to tell employers upfront about potential issues with credit reports and make an effort to explain the context. That actually does work some of the time, and many employers appreciate the honesty of the applicant. However, in the current employer's market, it might not work as often as it normally would.

And I am off the strong opinion that it should not even be permitted to include any medical bills on credit reports. None, period. It should be absolutely illegal. I'm of the equally strong opinion that most employers do not need to, and should not, run credit reports at all, and it wasn't all that long ago that they never would have even thought of doing so. The credit bureaus, however, saw a great opportunity for increased profit beyond just their usual customer base of bankers and lenders (remember, they're all private and have nothing to do with the government, something that many people don't know or realize), and began marketing their services to employers, insurers, landlords, etc.

They especially zeroed in on employers, crafting elaborate brochures filled with scare tactics about all the horrible legal things that could happen to them if they didn't check credit reports and how they were a perfect indicator of a person's employability and worth as an employee and how anyone with less than perfect credit was generally a worthless bum, etc., etc. I used to work for one of the major bureaus, so I saw this in action in its sales department. Disgusting.