Background Checks: Buyers Beware

It is becoming more common to perform a background check on a potential employee or tenant. After all, you want to make informed decisions about who you are hiring or leasing to and know that you can trust them. An increasing number of companies offer background checks, but not all of them are quality background checks.

A comprehensive background check involves many different parts. Every state and every county has a different system where they store background information. Each jurisdiction requires different processes to access this information. Some background checks will also require going to different government agencies to obtain information. More often than not, you will have to put in separate requests to each agency you need information from.

There is also the need to perform both a criminal check and a civil check on a person. Most people know about criminal checks: this is the area where felonies and criminal convictions are involved. (For example, theft, assault, and even murder would show up in a criminal check.) A civil check covers court decisions that often don’t have a criminal conviction. While this may sound harmless, it is actually crucial to know this information; bankruptcies, tax disputes, breaches of contracts, restraining orders, and personal injury cases are just some of the things that can show up with a civil check.

An additional complication involves people who have lived in multiple places, especially if those places are other cities and states. As mentioned earlier, each jurisdiction has a separate process to request information for a background check. A thorough background check would need to check in every single city and state the person has lived in. That way, you can be sure that you have a complete picture instead of a potentially very limited one.

Another issue arises when people have the same or similar names. There have been instances where someone’s criminal history shows up on a completely different person’s search, or vice versa. A proper background check would make sure to verify that the person’s history that they have pulled up matches the person that they are looking into.

If all of this sounds complicated, that’s because it is.

Any background check service that promises a fast and cheap background check is often not doing all of these necessary steps. Some may just keep it to an applicant’s current address and not check any previous addresses they lived in. Others may just do a Google search. And while Google is a powerful tool, there are a lot of laws that prevent making this information that accessible to the public.

When Premium Investigations does a background check, we do everything properly. We know the processes to get the proper, accurate information that you need. Many of these processes take time and effort, especially when we have to reach out to multiple jurisdictions to make sure no stone is left unturned. While our prices are not the cheapest, they are the appropriate prices for that time and effort we have to put in. And, what’s more, if there is something that shows as incomplete information, we will reach out and ask if you want us to look further into it.

Get background checks that are accurate so you can make informed decisions. Premium Investigations strives to provide quality services so that you can be sure of your security. Learn more about our background check services here.