Working Credit Partnership Benefits Search Employees

In June 2018, Search shared the exciting news that Working Credit had been generously funded to provide its services to Search employees. Working Credit is a not-for-profit that partners with employers to provide their employees with the tools and information needed to advance their financial circumstances.

From March 2018 – March 2019, Search employees were able to take advantage of the "Make Credit Work for You" program. The goal was to help Search employees get information about how to establish, improve, and sustain a good FICO credit score.

We’re pleased to share some of the results of this program. Overall Working Credit provided four Credit Building Education workshops attended by 200 Search employees. The workshops covered the ins and outs of the Credit Scoring System. Employees also then had the option of participating in one-on-one credit building counseling and personalized credit updates every 6-months for 18 months.

Through workshops and one-on-one counseling, Working Credit was able to help Search employees improve their credit score and financial circumstances. In one instance, an employee who thought she had bad credit actually had no credit score at all. With the counselor’s assistance, the employee had a Prime FICO score twelve months later. Another employee was able to pay off multiple collections accounts and improve her credit score by 90 points.

Interviews with Search employees revealed:

• Employees liked that Working Credit was offered through Search and felt it gave the program more legitimacy than others out in the market.
• Employees really liked their Working Credit counselors and felt understood; they felt counselors were helpful, informative in a comprehensible way, and non-judgmental.
• Many employees talked about phone calls, emails, and texting with counselors. One employee texted with her counselor from a car dealership to be sure she was being offered a fair interest rate on her car loan based on her credit score!
• Many people reported having taken action such as paying down debts and opening credit card accounts and had seen improvements in their scores.

Search is grateful to have had this opportunity to partner with Working Credit. Moving forward, we continue to look for new partnerships and resources to benefit our employees.