this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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[–] clearleaf 119 points 1 year ago (13 children)

A lot of people think social credit scores are something society can't function without, but they only started in 1989.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (39 children)

I certainly have problems with the way current financial institutions operate, but prior to the credit score there wasn't a standardized, scientific way to assess lending risk. It was left to a good ol' boy process rife with racism, classism, and sexism. Sadly, we're better off with what we have now, as flawed as it is.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If it was a publicly available algorithim, then Id believe you. But it ain't, so I'm suspicious.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

It seems to me it doesn't count risk. It counts profitability. It's why it drops when people pay their loans early.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

What I hate the most is how your score goes down for paying off a loan early. Getting penalized for actually being financially responsible is infuriating. I paid off my car less than 2 years into a 5 year loan and my score went down a couple dozen points. Just because they couldn’t get more money from interest.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (24 children)

Interestingly our poster here has put the reason, I hadn’t thought about it that way, but how valuable you are to creditors is what the score is. Paying off early losses then some money, so score goes down. Hilarious. What an amazing system! ☹️

[–] 13esq 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The system isn't for seeing how responsible you are, it's for seeing how reliable you are.

They seem like similar ideas but they are quite different.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn that's really dystopian. It's a credit score that directly measures how profitable you are to others as a human.

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[–] SickPanda 91 points 1 year ago (11 children)

usually I love to shit on muricans, But Germany has something similar. A private company called "Schufa". This private company secretly calculates your credit score (no one knows realy how they calculate it) which determines if you get an apartment (for rent) or not. Living in the wrong street already kills your credit score here.

If the Schufa doesnt have information about you, it counts as negative.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As someone, who loves dunking on the Schufa, as any good German should. The Schufa-Score isn't nearly as insane as some American credit score systems. Having an registered checkingsaccount & no outstanding bills or debt payments is enough data to have a high score.

You don't need to repay debt to show, that you are able to.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Credit scores are the West's social credit system.

If we value our freedom from a controlling, oppressive system, then we should penalize the creation, selling, buying and usage of credit score data. And we should keep on top of it to include any emerging attempts to re-establish an equivalent system.

[–] InternetCitizen2 11 points 1 year ago

I wish we Americans had more backbone to push back on corporate enshitification in general.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (10 children)

For 25 years I've only carried a debt on my credit card one time, and that was for a few months under special circumstances. I have a top credit score.

It's a stupid game, but it's easy to play.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do Americans think you need to carry a debt to build credit? That is the opposite.

I put EVERYTHING on credit card, and pay everything off on time. Never missed a payment. My credit score was the highest it can be by the time I turned 21. I've never paid a penny in fees or interest.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's not what they said, and Americans, in general, do not think that.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Holy hell they sure do. A lot of Americans don't even understand you don't immediately start accruing interest. You clearly have not witnessed the absolute insanity of Americans saying that they use a debit card because they "don't want to pay interest" or they "only spend money they have".

Also the comment you're replying to was likely in agreement with the premise established by the person they were replying to.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I arrived to the US less than 5 years ago and I have top credit score. I never carry a balance, open credit cards that offer a lot of credit, benefits and bonus to increase my available credit (I have about 6 or 7 cards at the moment) and just wait. In less than a year I already had 740 which was enough to get a car loan with 1.9% apr (lowest offered was 1.85%)

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I was just considering this the other day.

Taking this logic to the extreme, wouldn't someone with liquidity but no credit score face serious issues towards accessing housing and services, as per the post?

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm in this boat and it kind of sucks. I have a lot of savings after a few decades being a programmer, but my credit history consists of nothing but a few late bill payments over the years - never had a credit card or a house or car loan. To rent an apartment I always had to get my brother or father to co-sign the lease, or else I would just rent a room from somebody (which usually never required a credit check). I can't get a credit card from a bank or even cards from stores.

On the other hand, it kind of doesn't suck since I have no debt whatsoever, and I just bought the house I'll spend the rest of my life in for cash. For the last fifteen years I've driven cars I bought for cash on eBay or Autotrader. There were times in my life when if I'd had access to easy credit I would have dug a big hole for myself, and the (very rational) unwillingness of anybody to lend me money saved from financial disaster.

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[–] PunnyName 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For the most part, it depends on the liquidity.

10k in reserves, you'll get a few chances.

10 mil in reserves, they'll let you fuck them. Rawdog.

[–] orrk 14 points 1 year ago

owe the bank 1million, the bank owns you

owe the bank 100million, you own the bank

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

FREE TO PLAY

(*Includes ~~Micro~~transactions)

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[–] patachu 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Abolish currency, revert to trading sheep and goats.

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[–] lazycouchpotato 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

By "arbitrarily take on debt for years", are they referring to myth that you need to carry a balance on a credit card to help your credit score?

If you aren't aware, that is very much incorrect. All you're doing is lining the pockets of the credit card company. Pay your credit card statement in full each month and don't carry a balance to avoid paying interest.

There are certain exceptions, but I'm considering them out of scope for this case.

[–] lunarul 21 points 1 year ago (7 children)

You need to have a form of credit, like a credit card. Even if you pay it in full every month, that's still debt. In my native country almost nobody owns credit cards, just debit cards. I've been living in the US for 12 years now, building credit wasn't that hard, but it took several years, I have almost perfect score now and own a house, but the whole idea was dumb to me too when I started. And I still need to remind my wife that the money in our bank accounts is not really how much we have, because we need to subtract credit card balances out of it.

[–] Zeth0s 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Are we from the same country? Debt is something I don't understand unless for a home or a car. If I have money to buy a tv, I pay in advance, or I wait until I have the money. I am not judging different points of view, just this is how I was raised

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Your "score" is only there to sell you more score. This is the side effect of being able to access your own credit history (how very generous of them)

Every lender has their own criteria, and uses your credit history to generate their own score.

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