Employment Background Checks – FAQ

  1. What is a Background Check for Employment?

Background checks for employment purposes can include a variety of reports, including criminal records, driving records, credit reports, degree verification, reference checks & more. See Employment Background Checks for more information.

2. Why is there no credit score on the credit report I received?

Providing a credit score for employment background check purposes is illegal. Employment credit reports will include the following information: applicant’s address, employment information, aliases used, public record information and credit history.

3. Why can Employment Verifications take up to 3 days?

Employment verifications are done via phone calls, fax or e-mail and rely on responses from the current or previous employers. AAACSS employees will continue attempts to contact the employers for at least 3 days.

4. Why do we need the applicant to provide current and previous employment information?

There is no unified data base that contains employment records for a background check company to search, so information can only be verified that was provided by the applicant.

5. If an applicant disclosed that they have a criminal record, why would it not show up on the report?

Because of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that governs what reports can be pulled, only the past 7 years of criminal convictions will be shown.

6. What are the different criminal records available with AAACSS?

  • Countywide Criminal – Misdemeanor or Felony convictions within a specific county.
  • Statewide Criminal – Criminal convictions within a particular state. (most, but not all counties report to the state databases.
  • Nationwide Criminal – An accumulation of criminal conviction records from all states (that report) to a nationwide database.
  • Federal Criminal – Criminal convictions from cases that were prosecuted in Federal Court which includes tax evasion cases, fraud, embezzlement, mail fraud as well as wire fraud and others.

7. Can AAA Credit Screening verify an applicant’s salary?

Verifying an applicant’s salary would depend on the specific employer’s disclosure policies. Some companies will release the information over the phone, some will if a signed release was submitted to the employer and others will not release the information at all. For more information on this topic, click on Employment Verification.

8. What information does the applicant need to provide for an employment background check to be run?

The following information is critical to running accurate reports:

  • Full Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Current Address
  • Social Security Number
  • Signature authorizing background checks to be run

AAACSS provides forms for applicants to complete. When verifying employment, the minimum required information is the company name and phone number. Any additional information is alway useful.

9. What is the process if employers use 3rd party vendors such as Verify Advantage/The Work Number/UConfirm to verify information?

Using 3rd party vendors will incur additional charges. If this is the case, AAA Credit Screening will notify the customer for approval on any additional charges before proceeding with the request.

10. What is Employer Verification? Why is it important?

In a world of uncertainty, it has become common for applicants to misrepresent current or previous employment and verifying employment can provide comfort in the applicant’s truthfulness.

11. If an applicant is self-employed, how is employment verified?

Income check verifications can be run to verify self-employment. This report is gathered from the Internal Revenue Service at an additional charge.

Frequently Asked Questions about Business Reports & Business Credit Reports

  1. What is the difference between business credit reports & tenant credit or employment credit reports?

Legally, the difference between a business credit report and a tenant or employment report is that business credit reports are not considered “consumer reports,” and do not report information on individuals, therefore, they are not governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Business reports will report some information on the business owner (primarily only their status as the owner, and any other additional principal(s) or key person(s) within the company). A business report’s focus is reporting information about the company. In the case of business credit reports, this includes information about that company’s commercial trade lines.

2. Do business reports require the authorization of the company to run?

No. Since business reports are not consumer reports business reports can be ordered and completed without a consumer’s authorization.

3. What information do I need to provide when ordering a business report? The following information is REQUIRED when ordering a business report:

The following information is REQUIRED when ordering a business report:

  • Business Name
  • Business Address (Street address, City, State, Zip Code)

The following information would be VERY HELPFUL when ordering a business report:

  • Business Telephone Number
  • BDA (Doing Business As – if applicable)
  • P.O.Box (if applicable)

4. What is the difference between a Business Summary, a Commercial Intelliscore, and a Business Profile?

The difference lies primarily in the level of detail given in the report. The Business Summary provides a credit report and legal snapshot of the business, with no dollar figures.

The Commercial Intelliscore provides the same credit report and legal snapshots, plus dollar amounts of the total tradelines developed and days beyond terms (DBT) that the company has gone past the payment due dates on their invoice agreements.

The Business Profile provides all of this information, plus detailed tradeline and debt information, and detailed legal filing information.

A unique feature of the Commercial Intelliscore is the Intelliscore Plus, a rating number similar to a credit score, ranking the company against other businesses within the same industry, based on its tradeline information. This report is the best for clients clients that want a quick yes or no “at-a-glance.”

5. I had a List of Similars emailed to me, what is it and what do I have to do with it?

When a business cannot be located within Experian’s database with an exact match to the information provided to us, or there are too many businesses with similar names and addresses to the company, we will send you a list of businesses with similar names and/or addresses. Upon receipt of this list, please pick the businesses that you want a report on or notify AAA Credit Screening Services if none of the businesses are a match to the company you need a report on. This can be done via email reply, fax, or phone call. If none of the businesses on the List of Similars match the company you are looking for and there are no other DBAs that you wish for AAA Credit Screening to search for the company under, the price of your report will be lowered to a lesser search charge.

6. Why didn’t the company I ordered a screening on show up in the database? Does this mean that it is not a real business?

  • 1st – The address you provided may not be the same address that Experian has on file for that business. Try to reach out to your applicant and ask if they have alternative addresses that the business has had in the past seven years.
  • 2nd – The business may be recorded in the database under another name, such as a DBA. Please make sure that you have provided any and all DBAs to AAA Credit Screening Services so all names can be searched.
  • 3rd – The business may be new and does not yet have a credit record on Experian’s files. While the scope of businesses that are captured in our business credit reports is very wide, some businesses that were established in the past year may not have an established credit history reported to any credit bureau. In this case, a business license search can be run as an alternative report to help establish legitimacy, along with an individual tenant credit report (for commercial tenant credit checks) on the principal(s) of the company.

For more information, click on Business Credit Reports.