As much as 47 percent of employers conduct credit reports on potential employees, and so any error, let alone the outrageous situations Oliver highlights, could lead to major disadvantages.
Advertisement
More importantly, Oliver found that many credit reports are riddled with errors: 25 percent of people had some kind of error in theirs, and 5 percent had “significant” mistakes that force them to pay more for a loan.
John Oliver thinks that the effect credit reports have on our lives is ludicrous.
John Oliver took a break from bashing GOP front-runner Donald Trump Sunday to look at the credit report industry, and the comedian’s report was far from flattering. It’s the number some employers will use to choose whether to hire you or not.
“The three major credit bureaus have the subject of the most complaints to the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) since past year”, noted Oliver in the segment.
But these errors aren’t even a secret.
“But when you are holding records for more than 200 million individuals, that 5 percent error rate affects 10 million people”, Oliver explained.
As Oliver puts it, “I’m sure it would be a disaster for the credit agencies if they were mistaken for any of these companies, but don’t worry, I’m sure that won’t happen 95 percent of the time”. In response, Oliver chose to provide some perspective. “They’re basically saying, ‘Great news everyone: We only fucked up a group equivalent to the entire population of Sweden!'”
But there’s a catch: All three of these new companies do bad things that have nothing to do with credit ratings.
Advertisement
With that in mind, the staff at Last Week Tonight, created websites for three companies with names that are “problematically similar” to the big three for people who go to check their credit scores online – but with a five percent chance they go to the wrong place. He is certain that 95% of people who visit the sites will not be confused between Experian, the credit reporting agency, and Experianne, a website that whispers verses of Mein Kampf to babies. And apparently, that’s good enough.
