Pre-Employment Screening Candidate FAQ.

A company may have performed a background check on you because you have submitted a job application or request to work for the company, or you are working on their behalf.  We recommend reaching out to the company who ordered the background check to understand why the background check was performed.

You can go to our Candidate Portal (MyPortal) at https://candidate.accuratebackground.com/#/login to register or log in. Once logged in, select documents from the menu and choose the document to upload. You may also provide documents via email by sending them to customer_service@accurate.com.

Hiring decisions are made by the company you are applying to in accordance with applicable laws. We recommend contacting the company you applied to regarding employment or contracting decisions.

We make every effort to avoid unnecessary delays in completing your background check report. There are certain situations where information is delayed for reasons beyond our control, such as:

• Natural disasters resulting in court closures and/or power outages, or
• Unexpected court clerk delays

At any point, you can check the status of an order. If any item is incomplete, you can check the reason for the delay by accessing your online account. Some of the reasons for a delay include:

• Other Information Needed (i.e. Release Needed, Verification of SSN, etc.)
• Holidays
• Weekends
• Court Closures due to severe weather conditions, holidays, etc.

Accurate Background takes the quality and accuracy of our information very seriously. Background screening results are verified for accuracy and our expansive network of researchers is routinely audited to ensure accurate information is provided at all times.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Public Law No. 91-508, was enacted in 1970 to promote accuracy, fairness, and the privacy of personal information assembled by Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs).CRAs assemble reports on individuals for businesses, including credit card companies, banks, employers, landlords, and others. The FCRA provides important protections for credit reports, consumer investigatory reports, and employment background checks. The FCRA is a complex statute that has been significantly altered since 1970 by Congress and the courts. The Act's primary protection requires that CRAs follow "reasonable procedures" to protect the confidentiality, accuracy, and relevance of credit information. To do so, the FCRA establishes a framework of Fair Information Practices for personal information that include rights of data quality (right to access and correct), data security, use limitations, requirements for data destruction, notice, user participation (consent), and accountability.

For more detailed information, please read the Fair Credit Reporting Act .

Permissible Purpose is your organization’s reason for conducting background checks. In most cases, this is for employment purposes. Under Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there are certain permissible purposes an organization must have before initiating a background screening program. The defined permissible purposes include, but are not limited to:

• Employment purposes
• The applicant’s written authorization

Disclosure and authorization is a required step under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Disclosure and Authorization form is the documentation used to obtain the candidate's prior authorization for the background check. Prior authorization is required before initiating a background check on any individual.

Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action letters give the candidate the opportunity to dispute information provided in their report that they believe is erroneous. These steps were designed to provide candidates protection from mistakes as a result of human error, mistaken identity, outdated information, etc.