What Jobs Check Your Credit Score

By Tevait Feanle •  Updated: 03/18/24 •  5 min read

Getting employment in South Africa is tough. Our official unemployment rate is well over 30%, and unemployment among youth is trending upwards of 50%. The last thing anyone wants is yet another hurdle to getting the job they need! However, credit scores are becoming increasingly important as a decision-making factor for South African employers. Here’s what you need to know.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Do Employers Check Credit Scores in South Africa?

Employers, especially private sector employers, do have the right to check your credit score in South Africa. However, they cannot legally do so without informing you fully about the process and you consenting to the screening. Even more importantly, this must be delivered in writing, not a verbal agreement. There is also a push, not yet fully realized, to confine these searches to ‘legitimate’ financial positions and not just any employment sector. There are still plenty of jobs that will not run a credit check at all.

What Jobs Check Your Credit Score

Strictly speaking, the only industries that can require a credit check as part of the employment process are those where the jobseeker would have financial responsibility. While this mostly targets high-profile professions like banking, chartered accounting, and financial service providers, it also impacts entry-level positions like cashiers.

However, as there is no strict legislation against credit checks by employers, they are often used even in industries where your financial background is irrelevant to your job performance. Here, they have become a divisive thorn in the labor arena.

Can You Be Denied a Job Because of Bad Credit in South Africa?

Regrettably, private employers can deny jobseekers work based on a host of factors in South Africa, including a bad credit record. It would only become problematic legally if you can prove it as discrimination against a protected class (for eg., race, religion, or sexuality). Being in debt, or having a poor credit score, is not a protected class under South African law, and so could be used as a reason to deny an applicant a job. They may not even reveal to you that that was the determining factor, either.

This has become a very divisive issue in South Africa. After all, how can anyone address their debt load and better themselves if they can’t find employment because of it? Employers will commonly claim that a poor credit score means employees will be more prone to corruption or theft. Interestingly, this has never correlated with scientific data on the matter, which clearly shows no such tendency exists, and TransUnion’s U.S. arm has more-or-less admitted that outright. Even if this concern was valid, it also shouldn’t apply to industries other than those where clean financial management matters, like banks and fintech services.

Additionally, some argue that this sort of discrimination should

- ADVERTISEMENT -
be banned under the South African Employment Equity Act. While credit scores themselves are not the prohibited ‘psychometric instruments’ the Act mentions, using it in this way- as a measure of ‘perceived honesty’- thrusts them into that role. There has been no legal test (yet) of this thought process, however.

Alas, all the think-pieces and opinions in the world cannot change cold hard facts. So for now, know that you can be denied a job due to a bad credit score in South Africa, even though it is widely held to be a problematic stance and wrong of employers to do so, especially in non-financial industries.

Can Debt Prevent You From Getting a Job?

As we looked at above, debt can prevent you from getting a job, regrettably. Employers can check your credit score (with your consent), and if they do not like what they see, there is no legal compulsion to give you a fair chance. 

It has only recently become standard for South African employers to run these checks, and there are signs that the information revealed is not being used fairly or even reasonably. Instead, it is often being leveraged into a kind of ‘character test’ to gauge job performance and trustworthiness, despite there being no scientific evidence for this use and this type of testing going against the spirit, if not the letter, of the Employment Equity Act.

There is good news, however. Being in quite a high amount of debt is utterly normal for South Africans, even though that is problematic in itself. The average debt-to-income ratio in South Africa is around 65%, one of the highest in the world! Having a fair, or even ‘high poor’ credit score is unlikely to be a deterrent to most employers. Nor will being in active debt review. What will stand out is multiple judgments, defaulted accounts, and other high-risk bad credit behaviors. Remember that many employers won’t even ask to look at your credit score- it is not yet a universal step in the employment process.

So don’t panic. Instead, take steps to address your debt, boost your credit score, and keep improving your financial health as you can!

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Keep Reading

Why Is My Credit Score Zero?

Why Is My Credit Score Zero?

If you are monitoring your credit report and are puzzled as to why you seem to have no records at all, this is the article for you.

How to Use Your Credit Score to Earn Money?

How to Use Your Credit Score to Earn Money?

How to Temporarily Unfreeze Your TransUnion Credit Report?

How to Temporarily Unfreeze Your TransUnion Credit Report?

Today we will look at how to deal with this circumstance, using TransUnion as an example. 

Loans Without a Credit Score: What to Know

Loans Without a Credit Score: What to Know

If this is you, what can you do? How do you get loans without the credit history needed to…well, get loans? This article is for you!

Which Subscription Will Build Your Credit Score In South Africa?

Which Subscription Will Build Your Credit Score In South Africa?

Subscriptions will not universally count towards building your creditworthiness. Let’s take a look in more depth.

How Will Filing Bankruptcy Affect My Credit Score

How Will Filing Bankruptcy Affect My Credit Score

Now let us look at the relation between credit score and bankruptcy. In the end, we should be able to see how filing for bankruptcy affects your credit score. 

Credit Score Auto Loan Calculator

Credit Score Auto Loan Calculator

The eligibility measure, how to utilize a credit rating auto loan calculator, a good credit grade for an automobile loan, the bottom-level credit grades to purchase a vehicle in South Africa

What Effect Does A Loan Have On Your Credit Score

What Effect Does A Loan Have On Your Credit Score

What Effect Does A Loan Have On Your Credit Score. We will talk more about how loans affect credit scores as we go along. 

How Many Credit Scores to Unlock GCredit

How Many Credit Scores to Unlock GCredit

What Is The Social Credit Score

What Is The Social Credit Score

But what is the social credit score? How does it work? What does it do? We are about to find out more about the social credit score. 

How to Check Amazon No Rush Credit Balance

How to Check Amazon No Rush Credit Balance

How to Check Amazon No Rush Credit Balance. So buckle up to learn more as you may be on Amazon to apply these new learnings. 

How Long Does A Credit Check Affect Your Score

How Long Does A Credit Check Affect Your Score

These and many more questions are asked about credit checks. Let us delve into more credit checks to gain some insight. 

How to Maintain Credit Score Without Debt?

How to Maintain Credit Score Without Debt?

You can boost your credit without debt. Read on to learn more about how to maintain a credit score without debt. 

How To Raise Credit Score In South Africa

How To Raise Credit Score In South Africa

In this writing, we'll go over how to boost your credit score in South Africa and why it's a pivotal step.

Can You Buy A Car Without A Credit Score

Can You Buy A Car Without A Credit Score

Although we have established credit score allows one to make a decision when it comes to purchasing. In this blog post, we will check on how one can buy a car without a credit score.