How to Remove Something From Your Background Checks
Potential employers, landlords, insurers, credit providers and others run background checks to obtain information about applicants. Background checks include a review of credit history, driving records, criminal records, employment history and insurance claims. The information in background checks plays a role in hiring and credit decisions, so incorrect information can have harmful effects. An awareness of what is being reported and a commitment to correcting inaccurate information is important for anyone seeking employment, credit, housing or insurance.
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Things You'll Need
- Copy of your background report
- Name of organization that conducted the background check
Instructions
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How to Remove Inaccurate Information from Your Background Checks
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Identify inaccurate information in the background report. Background checks include information from a number of different sources. Review the report carefully and identify all of the inaccurate information at the start to avoid having to file successive disputes.
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Determine who conducted the background check. If the background check was conducted by a third- party screening company (i.e. not by the potential employer, insurer, or credit provider itself), the dispute should be filed with the screening company. If the background check was conducted directly by the potential employer, insurer, or credit provider, the dispute will most likely need to be filed with whoever is in charge of the databases that provided the employer, insurer, or credit provider with information.
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File a dispute with the third-party screening company that conducted the background check. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs third- party screening companies. Under the FCRA, disputes must be filed in writing. Third-party screening companies have 30 days to investigate disputes and an additional five days after that to report findings back to the person filing the dispute. Third-party screening companies must remove or correct any incorrect and incomplete information, or reports that cannot be verified from their databases.
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Go to the source of the inaccuracy and correct the information. Regardless of whether the background check was conducted by a third-party screening company or by another source, inaccurate information also needs to be corrected at its source. Correcting the information at its source will prevent inaccurate reporting in the future. Call or email courts, credit providers, and law-enforcement authorities directly about how to go about correcting information in their databases.
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Tips & Warnings
A list of "Privacy Basics and Opt Out Strategies" is available at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website. The list includes tips for safeguarding financial information and medical information, and provides information on opting out of certain informational databases.
