leila13

Just a thought but look into an Accelerated Degree Program - Albright has a good one with a lot of satelite locations. One night a week 6 -10 for 2 years - it is a lot of work but definitely worth it in the end. Also, your degree is the same as a traditional day student. FWIW - online degrees like Phoenix and Strayer are discounted by a lot of employers today and not accepted for many grad programs.

Maybe I can shed some light here - I have worked in the Retirment Plan industry with a focus on 401(k) plans for over 15 years... 401(k) Loans - the negative, you pull money out of your investments so you do lose the compounding interest. This was a bigger negative in prior market environments. There are also potential fees, trust me with the new fee disclosure regs these fees will be VERY visible to you. There is no reporting on a loan from a 401(k) Plan. So no impact on your credit score and no impact on your tax bracket. That would only occur if you terminated and took a distribution or missed the equivalent of 1 quarter's worth of payments. At that point a loan would be considered Deemed and a 1099 issued showing the balance as income. Potential impact on mortgage. I have seen many mortgage officers request copies of the most recent 401(k) statement and plan rules (SPD) regarding loans and hardship withdrawals. Many do consider the loan repayment in your total obligations. But in speaking with many of the loan officers over the year most are looking at the available resources - although bankruptcy or foreclosure can not attach retirement assets if a plan allows a hardship withdrawal on of the "safe harbor" reasons is " To prevent eviction or foreclosure". If you are buying a $60K house and have $250K in your 401(k) they know you can pull funds out to if foreclosure became an issue - NOTE: Hardship withdrawals are taxable and you are suspended for contributing to your plan for a period of 6-12 months. Hope this helps!

I have spent 25 years working for financial institutions and the ability to pull random credit, criminal and drug testing is pretty much standard practice. I have also seen when we changed corporate loss insurance needing to pull this reports for x% of employees covered. Depending on your employers make-up they may be subject to either OGC or FINRA controls. In either case when going through audit you are typically asked to show results of these reports - in a typical year you have enough data from new hires but in a case where the ER is going through reductions these requests may be to satisfy annual audit requirements. Especially if your employer is subject ot the new SSAE 16, although it is similar to the SAS 70 it replaces it does have some differences.

Just to put something in perspective - in 1980 when people were happy with their 15% mortgage rates - money markets were paying 12.68%. In 2002 thos same money markets were only paying 1.29%

Depending on the type of account this is coming from this may not be possible. ING is a large asset holder for many small employer retirement accounts. You could get a letter like this if you were active or sometimes just eligible for a plan like this and either the employer went out of business and abandoned the plan or a check was issued previoulsy that was never cashed and stale dated. Years ago the vendors could just turn the money over to the IRS, issue a 1099 showing a distribution with 100% withholding and you would get the money back. This process changed over 5 years ago...now if you are stuck tracking people down.

Right now - in this economy - applicants are plentiful. You can get someone well qualified with decent credit. This is just one more way to weed through the pile of resumes you get for every job posting.

It is true that no statistic is absolute and I believe in most cases a criminal background check is also done. I am going to say something that may get me bashed - it is the belief of many financial institutions that a CO or collection with an unpaid balance is in fact stealing. Following their logic is that if you stole once you will steal again. I am not saying I agree with this 100% or that I have great credit (why I searched out CB) but this is a statement I have heard in one form or another from people at various firms.

There have been statistics put together regarding the incidents of employee theft and the related credit score. As well as relating performance to past credit history. We study history in school as a way to learn from the past but what we do learn is that history has a high tendency to repeat itself. So if you are an employer - responsible for the management of your client's assets - would it be responsible of you to hire someone who has a proven track record of not being able to handle their own assets?

I think most companies are willing to listen for a reason. What they don't want to hear are things like "out of SOL", "reported wrong so I'm disputing it." Anything that would give the impression that you may not take responsibility for your actions - multiple BKs would be an issue in this regard.

Yes - curernt history is looked at more critically than prior.. The last thing we want to here is that you are disputing charge offs and SOL talk. This doesn't tell us the debts weren't yours but more that you are waiting them out to be removed or looking for ways around them... translation for a hiring manager - doesn't take ownership of issues.

Many times the credit check requirements are not simply the hiring employers but the insurance company that bonds the employees and in some cases regulatory. In this particular case it seems like the hiring manager went around the system in the hiring. I work for and have worked for financial institutions for 18 years and have been a hiring manager for at least 10 of those years - large and small companies. In no case would a hiring manager of any level be permitted to "hire on the spot" the actual offer of employement would always come from HR. That makes sure checks like these are completed up-front. As was said by others, it is not necessarily that you are being viewed as someone who would steal but as someone who has not been able to manage your personal life well. There is always a concern that this will bleed over into your professional life. I can also tell you that I know we do consider facts and circumstances in this review - sick family member, accident , divorce - all things that can be explained.

If they are looking for proof of his service you can get a copy of his DD214 (discharge papers).. This link has some good info on how to request a copy.. http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-...ce-records.html

Check the website - I did recently get a notice about electing to allow them to accept over limit charges. You will get an over limit fee - but maybe if you could pay the same day the charge is pending it might miss the fee. One other thing about HSBC.... they sometimes will hold your payment. Meaning they credit it to your account that day but do not release the amount as available to charge. I only had this happen once - I paid the card off twice within a billing cycle and they held my 3rd payment but I have seen posts from others complaining about this.

I notice you have FICO>600 as a goal. Just wondering what your credit situation was when you were hired by tise large financial services firm. (...not trying to be a d*ck. Just curious.) I actually have reached that goal but to be honest I have no clue just how bad my credit was when I came here. About 2 years after I was here was when I started working on my credit - I was however going through a divorce at the time and was honest with HR when they said they would be pulling a CR about my situation. Since basically ever bad on my report was joint they were willing to overlook it.

Just to clarify- as a hiring manager in a large financial services firm I can 100% tell you BK does not automatically knock you out of a job. A divorce is a very reasonable explanation that I have seem many times.... However, high utilization is a bigger issue that our HR screeners look at... Some statistical report somewhere decided people with high current outstanding debts are more likely to misappropriate client funds. True or not it is the premise that is operated on.