[reaperman]

The weird thing about the credit checks is that I have horrible credit. Like about every 2 years a credit card gets sent to collections. Some old rent in collections. Etc. But its never, ever affected a hiring decision for $80-130k jobs.

So…why are they doing the credit checks??

[donor20]

If it’s credit / criminal the credit part is very cheap vs the criminal and much quicker. It can also help feed the criminal because the credit side has addresses if you do county searches. There is bad credit and then BAD credit

[delfinom]

Depending on state, it is illegal for companies to do a credit check for employment. Perhaps they are using it sell your data to some shitservice they use but it can't legally be used in your location.

[reaperman]

This is not intellectually rigorous. In locations where "it is illegal for companies to do a credit check for employment" they cannot perform one. Because they cannot perform one, they cannot be "using it [to] sell your data to some shitservice". More specific to my anecdote, I have always been in states where it was allowed to be used for employment purposes. But even if I wasn't, your speculative scenario is not internally consistent to itself.

[whstl]

Most companies I know don't really run credit or even criminal checks for jobs that pay that high. It's often a thing for low-paid. IME and YMMV of course.