To believe that only paying the minimum credit card balance (on debt of less than £1k) will not stop you getting a job - credit check question?

[Hadenoughtoday01]

So my DH is offered a well renumerated job - starting later this month. Company offering him the job is nice big company and even better not too far (city). Means I can freelance and work from home (some of you may have read my story re.horrible boss).
Anyway last night DH gets email from new company saying that they want to carry out a credit check.
He is now very nervous because we've only paid the minimum on our credit card since the summer. To be honest we were good at using it and paying it off before I gave up my job and used it for sensible big ticket items (like new washing machine when 10 year old one gave up the ghost). His credit rating was otherwise good. Now he thinks he could lose the job because we've only been maintaning the debt. I;ve tried to tell him otherwise and we had a row about it this morning. Can anyone advise!!

They are checkign to see if you default or have CCJs.

Although I have to say, 1K debt and you're only paying the min off? jump it to an zero percent card and clear it in a couple of months

Why should ccj's or a default make any difference on your suitability to do a job? Genuine question not being goady. So if someone has bad credit are they now to be umemployable as well?

Noooo! Don’t think that would ever be an issue. It’s prob more to check he is who he says he is, if he’s been bankrupt before or has CCJs. 1000 on a cc would be a very odd thing to raise a flag.

For the future, it improves your credit rating if you pay even just £5 per month more than the minimum payment.

Get him to check his own credit score to put his mind at rest. You can do it for free at Experian, just remember to cancel it before the 30 day free trial runs out. I had to do mine recently and had a top credit rating, and have a 0% credit card that I'm just paying minimum payments for. If he's not falling behind on payments, it's likely that it won't have any effect on his credit score.

Nousernameforme - its common for regulated industries to credit check potential employees - financial services, law firms etc. I've had it done several times.

I used to have crap credit when I was younger (2 defaults, no CCJs) and never got refused a job for this (as far as I know...)

This will have absolutely no impact. As PPs have suggested they are only looking for major stuff like defaults. A standard credit check will look something like this, with a line for every loan/card/mortgage/whatever you have:
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
The numbers mean number of months late with your payment. So 0 means it's paid on time and 1 means it was late. It think it goes up to 9 before it changes into an X meaning it's a default.
It will also give details of outstanding balance, and credit available. So if you have a low balance, but a lot of available credit, that goes in your favour.
It does not show how much you last paid - even if it did, the point is that you are scoring zeros by paying on time. Doesn't matter how much.
Tell him not to worry.

Oh also meant to say quite often it's only of interest as an identity check anyway.

Paying on time, even just the minimum will just show as a 0 meaning you paid that month. They would rarely be bothered by the odd 1. They are looking for CCJs and major defaults such as 2s and 3s plus. Paying the minimum or an extra £50 will still show as a 0. A full check will show them the level of debt but 1k without defaults won’t lead to the job being pulled. They really don’t care about that.

Can't comment on how the potential employer will see it, but just paying the minimum on a credit card is a daft idea unless it's on a 0% deal. Nearly all the money you pay will go on interest and it will take years to pay off.

Look on Moneysavingexpert to see if you can get a 0% balance transfer. Whether you can or not, look at the minimum payment now, add on £1 and pay that amount by DD or SO every month, otherwise the minimum payment will get smaller and smaller and hence increase the time it takes to pay off and increase the interest charge massively.

Credit card companies put a marker on your file if you are just paying the minimum and this is taken as a sign that you are struggling financially.