John Oliver tries to give credit-reporting firms a taste of their own error-filled, life-wrecking medicine

Your credit score is probably the most important three-digit number in your whole life, John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. In fact, "you might be surprised just how many aspects of your life your credit report can affect," he said, noting, for example, that 47 percent of employers use credit scores when hiring. And the three major credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — all encourage those outside uses, arguing that good credit scores signify responsible employees. Oliver was skeptical. "Look at me," he said. "My credit is probably fine, but I routinely waste HBO's money on stupid costumes, pyrotechnic displays, and checkered dress shirts."

Tying credit scores to character and employment prospects doesn't make sense, in part because more than half of debt on credit reports is from medical expenses, "and it seems unfair to judge someone on that," Oliver said, but also because credit reports contain "a shocking number of errors." It would be bad enough if these errors — giving you somebody else's bad credit, for example, or misidentifying you as a terrorist, or dead — were contained to these three credit agencies, but now there are also hundreds of companies that offer some sort of background check.

"And at this point, you are probably thinking, 'Holy shit, I should probably check my background and credit reports,'" Oliver said. And that's easy with the credit agencies — though good luck correcting any errors — but really problematic with the Wild West of background-check services. Oliver's staff found only a such few services that let individuals pay for checks of themselves, and HBO paid for a few staffers' checks. There were errors.

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"If only we could make this whole industry understand the jeopardy that they're placing people in," Oliver concluded, then added: "Do you know what? Maybe we can." His scheme doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but you have to credit his imagination in creating terrible, terrible companies. There is some slightly NSFW language and imagery, and some strange Neil Patrick Harris jokes. If that's okay with you, watch below. Peter Weber

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