Have to pass Credit Check before Contract Start?

[bradkb]

so why did you personally (instead of a limited company) buy several servers on credit?

Just interested (assuming that this was how it happened)

tim

Stupidly at the time I could only raise so much of the capital required through my ltd company, and the rest went on my personal credit card.... lets just say wont make that mistake again. Still in process of trying to recover the costs from that contract, and its been well over a year.

[Mailman]

In the USA is is illegal to deliberately bounce a cheque.

(I also had a couple of other countries in mind, apart from France, but have been unabled to confirm with a quick google.)

It looks like it's also illegal in India.

Are you guys sure? because when you consider that if you write 4 cheques and have money to cover three cheques but because banks will cash the biggest cheque first this could lead to the other three cheques bouncing. Does that make you a criminal three times over?

It all sounds wishy washy simply because you could be made a criminal because of the banks policy of cashing the largest cheque first and then working downwards in order.

Mailman

[Mailman]

Righto...I have checked with a couple friends in America and here in England who are lawyers and the general consensus is that we are both right.

It is not illegal to bounce a cheque, however if you do it enough times AND the amounts in question are large AND it was your intent to deceice (or defraude) someone then yes...this then becomes an illegal activity.

The amounts of money and number of cheques various from state to state in America but a general rule of thumb is that $5000 in total is deemed a criminal offence (fraud).

Regards

Mailman

[Not So Wise]

Can confirm the illegality of bounced checks in USA, it's not a straight forward bounce and to jail unless they can plainly see you never would have had amount in your account to cover the check under any circumstances (aka fraud).

Bounce check twice in a row to same company (or few at same time to different ones) and they will generally get a warrent out on you. There really is no minium amount but it definatly not worth the extra costs that soon mount up (bank fee's, warrent fee's so forth)

Really when i think about it always susprise's me that most countrys don't have same policy

[bradkb]

Just had confirmation from the agency, because I have failed the credit check the offer of the contract is now withdrawn. Good to see that today experience and qualification means nothing, nor does your ability to do the job, but your financial background for the past 6 years states if you should get a job or not. Disgraceful.... utterly gutted and annoyed. How are people who are in the pooh money wise ever meant to get out of it. Lucky for me this just means I didnt get this contract, and there will hopefully be others, and my financial status at the moment is more than healthy, but I pity those how arent. If more and more employers decide to take this approach it could be very bad for the market.

[sparklelard]

I did a contract for a major international bank based on the South Coast a couple of years ago.

Although I did have uoutstanding credit, they were only interested if you had outstanding CCJ's - I didn't, but the bloke building PC's did and when the bank found out, his contract was terminated and he was marched off-site.

[Mailman]

Bounce check twice in a row to same company (or few at same time to different ones) and they will generally get a warrent out on you. There really is no minium amount but it definatly not worth the extra costs that soon mount up (bank fee's, warrent fee's so forth)

Its not as simple as that...and most likely if you bounce two small cheques with someone they arent going to unleash the dogs of war on you simply because in most cases it wont be worth their while going after you. I dont know of any company that is willing to spend several thousand dollars to recoup $10 worth of bounced cheque.

The other important thing to remember is that the company has to prove that the person who bounced the cheque intentionally set out to defraud them.

If however...you were bouncing cheques all over the place to the tune of several thousand dollars then yes...the dogs of war will, and should, be unleashed on you.

Really when i think about it always susprise's me that most countrys don't have same policy

Because bank policies would make most of us criminals if that was the case. Face it, when banks cash the largest cheque first and then work backwards from there AND when banks are still taking around 5 days to clear banked cheques then this makes a mockery of the calls for bouncing cheques to be illegal.

Also...I would suspect there is quite a lucrative business around bank fee's for bounced cheques. And heavens knows they wouldnt be exactly pleased to see a line of good business disappear on them over night

Regards

Mailman

[WageSlave]

Bradkb, sorry to hear about the contract. At least you know that it won't be a permanent issue; given a few years it will resolve itself.

[gtullett]

I had a similar experience a few months back i went for a perm job did really well in the first second and third interview, agency represented me and the other candidate and said i had more experience.

Anway i didnt get the job and the agent said there was no technical or personal reason why, thought that was odd but wrote it off to experience.

Anyway about 2 weeks ago i did an equifax check on myself (costs less than a tenner) i know i have a few problems on there nothing huge, missed payments mainly as i was out of work for a while in 2000, anyway right about the time of the interview there was employee credit check by Kroll ltd.

So i didnt get that job because of a check and i wasnt even asked for permission.

[dazza12]

Ardesco, it's actually 6 years from the date of default. Same period for CCJs, IVAs and Bankruptcies.

Equifax, Experian and Call Credit will confirm that. I've got a couple of defaults from 2000 that are still on my record and affecting credit decisions. To this day I can't get a business bank account because of these problems.

What I did find though is that there were a few that have been paid off but have never been shown as such. Therefore the last few weeks has been taken up by me making several calls and sending letters to various collection agents and financial institutions demanding they update my file.