Why Credit Score Mistakes Can Cost You Your Dream Job...

You finally found your dream job. After years of hard work, this new job looks like the breakthrough you've been looking for. The interview goes well and your resume looks good. But then the unthinkable happens: You lose the job because your credit score's too low.

While most people think this is an exaggeration, many big companies actually have employees whose job it is to perform credit checks on potential new hires. That's right: One of their major responsibilities is to check your credit score.

This may seem odd, but many companies view the credit score as a good indication of how responsible you are. A good credit score is indicative of a responsible employee. A bad credit score, meanwhile, means you're less responsible, and therefore less trustworthy.

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Why do employers find your credit score important? Because:

1. It is a reflection of your sense of responsibility.
2. If you have a good credit score, you're probably less worried about money, which means you're less likely to need a second job and more likely to do your best work.
3. A good credit score means less stress, and less stress means better health-and fewer insurance costs for your employer.
4. Employees with good credit scores are more likely to have a positive attitude at work.

These are just a few of the many reasons why a poor credit score can hurt your job prospects, and why a great credit score can help them. No wonder more companies are hiring specialists to do credit checks on new hires.

Because employers are looking at your credit, you should be, too. Indeed, it's especially important to review your credit report and to regularly check it for errors. Once isn't enough.

Nor is it enough to check it with just one source. In fact, there are three major credit bureaus - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax - and each may produce a credit report with different information in it. It is actually possible to have a great credit score on Experian, but a terrible score according to TransUnion. While these credit companies use the same formulas to calculate their scores, they may be using different data to produce yours.

Indeed, most credit reports have errors. What's worse, though, is that a bad credit score could cost you your job - even if it isn't your fault.

Here are credit score facts to make you think about why you should check your credit score

• 54% of credit reports have outdated information, accounts that don't even belong to you (maybe to someone of a same name) or spelling errors that confuse your actual credit.
• 30% of credit reports, almost one in three, have "open" accounts that are actually closed, or should be closed.
• 25% of credit reports, one in four, include mistakes serious enough to affect your ability to access credit, competitive loan rates or employment
• 22% of credit reports, more than one in five, have "duplicate" charges; a $12,000 car loan, for instance, could come up twice, showing that you have two loans totaling $24,000, badly hurting your credit score.

Some of these mistakes are critical. Accounts with late payments or delinquencies are supposed to be removed from your credit score after seven years, but these companies aren't exactly efficient at keeping track. So that person the company hired to check you're credit? They could disqualify you based on accounts that should have been off of your credit score from years ago.

Like it or not, it's your responsibility to keep track of your credit report. If you used too many credit cards as a college student 10 years ago, then it's your job to make sure all those negative red flags have been taken off your credit report.

Everyone talks about how mistakes on your credit report can cost you good loan rates and good credit card rates, but a bad credit score more and more often will cost you a shot at a good job, as well.

Mistakes are very common on credit reports, and they can have an impact on your employment prospects. Now more than ever, you need to make sure that common mistakes on your credit report don't sink your chances at a great new job.