Calculating the incalculable: The use of credit files for non-financial purposes (in French only)

Author

Genevieve Reed, Julien Provost

Organization

Option consommateurs

Published

2009

Summary

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the use of credit files has grown in popularity in Canada.
Originally, credit files were used to draw up an individual's financial profile; the situation has since changed considerably and credit files are now used for a wide variety of purposes. The milieus in which we remarked the highest use of credit files or credit scores were insurance, employment, and housing rentals. The credit file and the information contained within it has practically become the individual's calling card. This "calling card," however, not only announces the person's financial health, but also his potential for theft or fraud in the workplace, his ability to observe the contractual conditions of a lease and the risk he poses of making claims from the company that insures his house or car. The payments we made on our student loan or our credit card are beginning to play an increasingly greater role in our lives. It is for reasons such as these that we decided to study the phenomenon of credit checks for non-financial purposes, to report on the current state of affairs in Canada and to compare it to the situation in the United States. We also attempted to gauge the impact of credit checks on consumers, and, finally, we evaluated the current legislation with regard to the practice.
The results of our research are presented in four parts. The first is a comparative study of the legal provisions relating to credit checks in Canada and the United States. In each of the three other parts: insurance, employment and housing - we carry out a comparative study of the situation in Canada and the United States, a survey of media coverage of the problem and a compilation of the opinions of experts on the subject and of major stakeholders in the field. More specifically, we also study the legal provisions applicable in each particular case.

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French only

OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database