Why employers may check your credit report and how to improve it

In 2017, Brittany Greene was on track to be promoted from an assistant to a business analyst position at her company, she says. She’d earned her master’s degree in project management and shadowed with the team. 

But Greene didn’t get the job — and says her poor credit history played a role. “I actually found out afterwards that I did not get [promoted] into that position because of my credit,” she says.

She was notified about the decision via email, she says. She then had a virtual meeting with a member of the team she would have joined, who confirmed her credit history affected the decision, she says. CNBC Make It was not able to independently confirm if Greene’s credit history was a factor in her former employer’s decision not to promote her.

Greene’s story is a reminder that for many Americans, having a good credit history matters for more than just the interest rates you can get on loans or whether you’ll qualify to rent an apartment, says Cynthia Chen, co-founder and CEO at Kikoff, a fintech company that helps individuals build and repair their credit.

About half of employers include credit reports in employee background checks for their U.S. locations, a 2021 survey from the Professional Background Screening Association found. Credit checks are especially common for hiring in financial services like brokerage firms and health-care services, Chen says.

“The impact of a person’s credit score and also credit report goes far beyond financial services or even housing opportunities,” Chen says. “It can actually impact your eligibility to be hired, to be promoted, and in some cases, if you want to work in a regulated industry, your ability to get licensed.”

Greene had a credit score in the 400s at the time she lost the promotion, she says. FICO credit scores, the ones most widely used by lenders, range from 300 to 850. Any score below 580 is considered poor, according to Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus.

“If you have anything that is below 550, employers will likely take a deeper look at your report to make sure that there’s not any specific item that makes them hesitant about giving an offer,” Chen says.

Keep in mind that employers may not see your credit score if they check your credit history, says Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Intuit Credit Karma. “They usually receive a modified version of your credit report rather than the three-digit score itself.”

“It’s important to understand the difference, because a credit report contains information about your account history and payment behavior, while a credit score is a separate calculation based on that information,” Alev adds.

Greene says her low score was due to decisions she made before she had a better grasp on financial literacy. She first signed up for a credit card just to get free pizza in college, she says, and later had trouble keeping up with payments after racking up a balance. She says part of the reason she wanted the promotion was to make more money and get her finances back on track, including improving her credit.

“It was very frustrating, very gut-wrenching, because you do all of this hard work, you go to the lengths of getting your degrees, taking the interview prep, making sure your resume is on point,” she says. 

It’s also worth noting that the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires employers to get consent before they can pull credit reports on prospective or current employees and use that information in career decisions like hiring and promotions.

As of April 18, 2026, a total of 11 states will ban the use of credit checks in employment decisions as New York joins 10 other states and several jurisdictions, including Philadelphia and Chicago, that prohibit the practice, with some exceptions. 

Now, nearly 10 years later, Greene is the head of community at Self Financial, a financial technology company focused on helping individuals build and repair their credit. Getting to a good place with your credit isn’t necessarily a “linear journey,” she says.

Here are three tips she offers to those looking to repair their credit or build it from scratch.

1. Know where you stand

The first step to building or improving your credit history is to know where you stand, Greene says. If you don’t know your starting point, you won’t know how to get better.

“I think that’s the scariest part,” she says. “A lot of people will take a step back and not look at it or avoid it as much as possible. But a good 50% of you wanting to improve your [score] is knowing where you are…taking that fear out of it.”

You can get a copy of your credit report for free once a week from all three credit reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — via annualcreditreport.com. Your credit card company or bank may also offer free credit score checks.

Your credit report won’t include your credit score, but it’s smart to check it for inaccuracies or fraudulent accounts. If you notice an account you don’t recognize or incorrect information about whether you’re up to date on payments on an account, reach out to the credit bureau directly to dispute it, Chen says.

2. Celebrate your small wins

As you’re building or rebuilding your credit, it’s important to celebrate your progress, even if it’s relatively small, says Greene, who also has a Ph.D. in human behavior.

From a psychological perspective, “You have to align yourself with the [credit] score that you say that you want,” she says. “You have to connect yourself to that score that you want, or the habits of the person who would have that score.”

When you notch a small win like paying a bill on time or paying off a small debt, “you’re automatically shifting your mental space,” Greene says. On the flip side, she says not to beat yourself up if you miss a payment or “have to make some tough decisions.”

3. Use tools that work for you

There are a variety of tools you can use to build and improve your credit. Greene says finding “resources and tools that meet them where they are” is crucial for individuals trying to build good credit history.

For some, secured cards — where consumers put down a security deposit that functions like a credit limit on a regular credit card — could be a useful option to build a credit history without the same eligibility requirements as unsecured credit cards, Chen says.

“Because secured cards typically have lower limits, they can also help people ease into using credit and build consistent payment habits over time,” she says.

Companies like Self, Kikoff and Boom offer rent reporting tools that renters can use to build or improve their credit with every monthly rent payment. Chen says this can be especially effective for folks who are “credit invisible” because they don’t have a credit history yet.

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