iNSTANT Employment Credit Reports
Pre-Employment Credit Checks for Employers
Screen candidates for financial responsibility before they handle your money. Results in seconds.
Reduce Theft and Fraud Risk Before You Make the Offer
When you hire for a role that touches money, trust is not a soft skill. It is the job requirement. A Hire Performance pre-employment credit check gives your HR team a clear, objective read on a candidate’s financial history so you can hire for financial trust with confidence, not on a hunch.
What an Employment Credit Report Tells You
Candidates under severe financial pressure represent the greatest risk of theft and fraud once they are inside your organization. A credit check for employment will not tell you someone is dishonest, and it should never be read that way.
What it does tell you is whether a candidate has a documented pattern of meeting financial obligations, and whether there are pressures worth a conversation before you hand over access to accounts, budgets, inventory, or client funds.
*Sample shown for illustration only. Actual reports may vary in content and format.
Used properly, an employee credit check is one of the least expensive forms of due diligence available to you, and one of the easiest to defend if a hiring decision is ever questioned. – Tim Hardie, President
THE REPORT
What’s Included in a Credit Check?
Every Hire Performance employment credit report returns the same set of fields, so your team compares candidates like for like.
01
Credit score and health score
Rated poor, fair, good, very good, or excellent.
02
Payment history
How consistently the candidate has met their obligations.
03
Bankruptcies, litigation, collections
Public record items on file with the credit bureau.
04
Open and closed accounts
Including loans and mortgages.
05
Trades and local inquiries
Recent activity against the candidate's file.
06
Address history, 7 years
Personal and address information across the past seven years.
07
Employment history, 7 years
Doubles as a cross-check against the resume in front of you.
08
One readable summary
The evidence your team needs to make an informed call.
Want a closer look at what appears on a report? Read
What Information Do You Get from a Credit Check?
WHERE IT BELONGS
Screen money-handling roles and positions of financial trust
A pre-employment credit check is not appropriate for every hire, and we will tell you so. It belongs where the role genuinely involves financial exposure.
Finance, accounting, payroll and bookkeeping
Purchasing authority and corporate cards
Executive, director and controller hires
Cash-handling and point-of-sale roles
Access to client funds or investments
Government roles with personnel security screening
FOUR EASY STEPS
How employment credit checks work
01
Add the check to your order
Select a credit check on its own or bundled with a
criminal record check,
employment verification, or
reference check.
02
Your candidate consents
They receive a secure link, confirm their identity, and provide written consent. It is captured and stored for you.
03
We pull the report
Hire Performance retrieves the credit file directly from Equifax.
04
Results land in the eScreener
Encrypted, timestamped, and stored alongside every other check you have run on that candidate.
No paperwork to chase, no separate portal to learn, and no need for your HR team to handle bureau data by hand.
CONSENT AND COMPLIANCE
Consent and compliance for credit checks in Canada and the US
Credit checks on candidates are legal in Canada, and they are also regulated. We handle the compliance so your team does not have to.
Written consent is always required
No credit check is run without documented, informed consent from the candidate, captured and retained inside the eScreener.
PIPEDA in Canada, FCRA in the US
Canadian employment credit checks follow PIPEDA and the consumer reporting rules of the province where you hire. US checks follow Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements for disclosure, authorization and adverse action. Some US states and cities restrict employment credit checks entirely, and we will flag where that applies.
Relevance matters
Credit checks should be tied to the requirements of the role. We help you apply them consistently so your process holds up to scrutiny.
The check does not damage a candidate's credit score
An employment credit check is a soft inquiry. It is recorded on the file but does not affect the candidate's rating the way applying for a loan would. This is worth telling candidates, because it removes most of the objection before it is raised.
Receive results in seconds all within the eScreener
Employment credit checks are completed and returned instantly, and delivered securely online through the eScreener for your review. Because we are integrated directly with Equifax, results come back in seconds rather than sitting in a queue for manual processing.
Hiring moves fast, and good candidates do not wait. Getting the report back before the interview is over means screening stops being the step that holds up your offer.
Employment Credit Check FAQs
Do employers use credit scores or credit reports in hiring decisions?
Both, but the report matters more than the score. The score is a quick summary; the report is where the useful detail lives, including payment history, collections, bankruptcies and open accounts. Most employers use the report to identify patterns worth discussing, not to set a pass or fail cutoff.
Why do employers run credit checks in Canada?
To reduce the risk of theft and fraud in roles with financial exposure, to demonstrate due diligence in hiring, and in some sectors to satisfy regulatory or personnel security requirements. Government of Canada personnel security screening, for example, includes mandatory credit checks for certain positions.
Does a background check include a credit check?
Not automatically. A criminal record check and a credit check are separate services. Many employers bundle them for roles that involve both trust and financial access, which you can do in a single eScreener order.
How far back does an employment credit report go?
Address and employment information covers the past seven years. Bankruptcies, collections and other public record items are retained by the credit bureau for a set period that varies by province.
Will a credit check hurt my candidate's credit score?
No. Employment credit checks are soft inquiries. They appear on the candidate's file but do not affect their credit rating.
Can we run credit checks in bulk?
Yes. The eScreener is built for volume hiring, so you can order and track credit checks across multiple candidates and multiple roles at once, with no minimums.
How do we set up credit checks for employee screening?
Request a demo and we will set up your eScreener account, walk your team through ordering, and have you running credit checks the same day.
Do we need the candidate's consent?
Yes, always. Written consent is mandatory for Canadian checks, and required under FCRA for US checks and the eScreener collects and stores it as part of every order.
Can we check credit history across the Canada and US border?
Yes. Canadian and US employment credit checks are both ordered through the eScreener, so a US employer hiring in Canada, or a Canadian employer hiring in the US, works from one account. Credit files are country-specific, so a candidate's Canadian history and US history are separate records. Tell us where the candidate has lived and worked and we will confirm what is available.
