Credit Reports and Employers: A Story From the Trenches

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Normally I omit names when I publish email from readers. But this one comes from Michael David Smith, and as you’ll see, knowing his name is an important part of the story. So, with his permission, here’s his email:

I hope you’ll keep hammering away at the credit reporting agencies. Several years ago my then-boss mentioned to me off-handed, “We hired you even though you have terrible credit.” I was rather stunned and said, “What are you talking about? I have perfect credit, and even if I didn’t, how would you know?” He then informed me that they did a background check on me before hiring me, got a report saying I had terrible credit, but decided I was their best candidate anyway. I asked to see the report they had for me, and my boss dug it out of the HR files. It listed my name (which is a very common name shared by thousands of Americans), four different social security numbers, and about two dozen different credit cards I had allegedly fallen behind on.

So I called the credit reporting agency (I think it was Experian). It took forever to actually get a person on the phone who knew who knew what he was talking about, but when I finally did, the guy said, “Oh, yeah, that happens all the time with people who have common names. Your credit got mixed up with other people who have the same name as you. There’s really nothing we can do about it.”

Eventually, I filled out all sorts of forms contesting all the bad credit they had attributed for me and got them to send me a clean credit report that didn’t mix me up with other Michael Smiths. But it was a long, painful process.

I think this is about par for the course for credit reporting agencies. Basically, they don’t really give a shit if their information is correct. It’s always seemed to me that you should be able to sue them for libel if they distribute false information about you, but outside my own personal fantasyland I assume that’s impossible.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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