Consumer Law

Credit Report Related To Employment Verification - "Work Number"

By M. Stan Herring

This is a fascinating post by Denise Richardson related to a different credit report that can impact you - the Work Number from TALX Corp. Here's how it works:

The next time you apply for a loan or a new job, a lender or prospective employer might go online to access a database instead of calling your human resources department to verify your employment and income.

In most cases, they'll be contacting a company called TALX Corp., which developed a service called The Work Number.

Companies, government agencies and creditors, such as credit card companies and mortgage lenders, have been using The Work Number for almost a decade, tapping into a database with approximately 165 million to 170 million individual records (an employee has a separate record for each employer) covering roughly a third of the American work force, says Janet Ford, vice president of St. Louis-based TALX, which is a subsidiary of credit bureau Equifax.

Employers use TALX to handle salary and employment verifications and, in turn, share their payroll information and often several years' worth of payroll records. Employees can challenge the accuracy of any information.

Keep reading the whole story here.

You can pull a copy of your report for free every 12 months, just like a regular credit report by visiting the website here or calling 1-866-604-6570.

This credit report is like others - review the information and then if it is wrong dispute it. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this credit report or any other credit reporting issues.

Full post as published by Alabama Consumer Blog on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).