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Re: Employers checking your credit / criminal record etc What can they find out?

I'm wondering how easy it is for employers to do credit checks /

> criminal record checks on potential employees, and what can they find > out about you?

Regarding the credit check, I signed up for a free month trial with

> one of the 3 credit reference agencies a while back, and read all the > small print. I recall that they are very strict about who they release > info to, and only ever allow a check when you have applied for credit. > Also, the result is only ever "pass" or "fail". I can get all my > details, but a 3rd party cannot get anything. Am I right in thinking > then, that a potential employer will not be able to find out that I > have x overdrawn credit cards / ccjs etc etc etc unless I tell them?

The 'pass/fail' thing seems bizarre. In fact I do not believe it.

Similarly, with a criminal record, is this information easily / > cheaply available to employers? As I understand, I am perfectly free > to change my name by deed poll, and am under no obligation to inform > the courts / police of this. From online research, it seems that the > only people that will ever know, are those that I inform, and that > there is no database of any kind of people that have changed their > name.

There is no obligation to inform anyone... in fact you can have as many aliases as you wish unless used for fraud. Of course getting the banks and passport office to approve these is a different matter.

Personally, I have a couple of schedule 5 public order offences, a > conviction for criminal damage for a window that got smashed > accidentally whilst messing about with a football when drunk (I didn't > get fined for this, just had to pay for the window but I did get a > record), and a conviction for theft when (again whilst drunk) I > borrowed a bike that wasn't mine without permission, and was caught > when returning it.

An odd conviction unless bicycles fall within the remit of taking a motor vehicle without permission.

Again, I didn't get fined for this, however I did > get a record. I'm very sure, that if I was to change my name by deed > poll, and fail to inform a potential new employer of a previous name > that they would just not be able to find out at all. Can it really be > this simple? And if it is, is there any point in an employer doing > such a check?

Think about P45, National Insurance, Tax, references... obviously if you intend flipping burgers at Micky D's that will not be a great issue. Axel

Reply to
axel
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This seems to be the way that the credit reference agencies operate, when an organisation does a check when you apply for credit with them. They don't give a reason as to why you have failed, they just say pass or fail. Next time you're informed that you've failed a credit check, contact the company and ask why? They will always tell you that they were not given a reason.

I'm assuming that all the credit reference agencies work the same way (there are 3 of them, and I only know about one of them), but the information I read on one of their website when I signed up for a free months trial, was that they don't reveal any of your information at all. There's no formula for a universal credit score, so it's not like, a company contact the agency for a reference and they return your credit score. Although they will compute a score for you internally, and base their verdict of pass or fail on this.

Obviously, there is a difference between using an alias, and changing your name with a deed poll.

I think maybe you're getting confused with aliases and deed polls. You can use whatever alias you choose, but only your "legal" name, can be used for anything official like all of the above you mention!

Reply to
Jon

I have no confusion whatsoever. There is no such concept as 'legal name' in the UK. If you wanted to start calling yourself by any name you wish, then that is your name. A deed poll or statutory declaration just makes it a wee bit more official as far as certain bodies are concerned.

Axel

Reply to
axel

I have seen this proposition on here a number of times.

While there is *some* truth in it, you will certainly find that (whether called that or not), there *is* a concept of a "legal name" in the UK.

For most purposes, you can indeed use whatever name yo feel like, with little problem.

But for various official things, you really have no choice but to use what officialdom regard as your "proper" name.

In particular, things like passports and driving licences, which are documents commonly used for "proof" of ID.

You *cannot* legally get a passport in a different name to that on your birth certificate without showing them a deed poll, statutory declaration or marriage certificate.

Reply to
Alex Heney

Not entirely. There are very few things upon which one is required to prove one's name... hmff... banks, if one has an account then thney will change a name without quibble (maybe... I still have an account which is mine only and yet statements appear in the name of me and my ex-gf despite letters).

Odd since I have had passports on a different name from my birth certificate since I was a toddler without problems... no jokes or insults wanted... I was a child of the sixties.

I suspect that if I bothered to get an Irish passport that the name, although technically the same, would be rather different from my UK one... different in spelling that is, not pronunciation.

I was quite amused that when I got a driving licence in California a year ago or so, the authorities managed to misspell my name... oh well that is their problem, not mine.

Axel

Reply to
axel

Try getting a bank account these days without a passport / driving license / birth certificate. You will find it very difficult! Sure once you have an account it may be very easy to change the name, but you will have had to have used your "real" name when you first opened the account.

Reply to
Jon

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