California Credit Information Solutions Helps Creditors Make Better Decisions

In America’s consumer-driven economy, credit is gold. But creditors can’t hand it out to just anyone.

That’s where companies like California Credit Information Solutions Inc. enter the picture.

Bakersfield-based CCIS finds out if faces match names, if numbers add up and whether certain risks are worth taking.

“We get information that can help businesses make better decisions,” said Don Goldammer, president and CEO of CCIS. “We bring the experience, professionalism and technology needed to run a business successfully.”

Lenders need to be sure loan applicants are who they say they are and are worthy of credit. Landlords need the facts about a prospective tenant’s rental history. And employers want to know if job seekers are drug-free.

Goldammer and his wife, Yolanda, the company’s vice president, founded CCIS in July 2003. The business has expanded from consumer credit reporting into a wider field of background screening — a niche that is poised to grow in a security-minded world.

“It’s going to get huge,” Goldammer said. “With identity theft being one of the the fastest rising crimes in America today, verification is huge.”

CCIS, with 14 employees, is on pace to do $2.5 million in business this year at an annual growth rate of about 35 percent, said Chuck McGowan, marketing representative. The company has an office in San Luis Obispo and is preparing to ramp up operations in Fresno.

People might lie, but fingerprints don’t. The decades-old identification method is finally moving into the digital age, and CCIS is riding the trend.

The company has embraced “livescan” technology, which records clean, reliable prints with a scanner and software.

As much as background reporting can help businesses, it can be a big problem for honest individuals when inaccuracies turn up or if strikes that are irrelevant to the issue play a role in decisions against consumers.

Tena Friery, research director with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer education organization in San Diego, said background screening is necessary and acceptable — as long as the law is followed and results are true.

“Since 9-11 the numbers of background checks have increased dramatically,” she said. “We’re not opposed to background checks, but we’ve seen the harm that can come from inaccurate reporting.”

Employers are becoming more careful about their hiring. CCIS has moved into drug screening and even has its own kits to test job applicants’ biological samples for traces of drugs.

“Pre-employment screening is going to get bigger all the time,” Goldammer said.

Companies like CCIS are governed by strict guidelines, including the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and random audits by the United States’ three credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — are common. Goldammer said CCIS has passed several surprise audits in the last couple of years.

Everyone needs information. Goldammer wants CCIS to be Kern County’s premier source.

“The market is forcing us to look deeper at all types of relationships we have as businesses,” Goldammer said.