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thin skin can't win |
Without the multi-quotes available here, the self righteous ignorance of all the places this scoring touches you even if you never need to borrow a dime is……… remarkable. You don’t have to like or appreciate gravity, but you should maybe consider understanding it before stepping outside and declaring all the land-standers idiots. You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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| Member |
 If you look at the stats women are way worse with money than men are but men have bought into the credit score hook line and sinker by mostly following their ego. I always hear people justify worrying about it because it saves them on this or that. I have never been asked my credit score and it’s never been looked up by anyone other than a car salesman ever in my entire life. | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
Can you show me where on this thread anyone has said your credit score is an indication of winning financially or how much wealth you have? No. So you’re simply committing a logical fallacy of straw man because no one has made the argument that you’re trying to counter. You saying you’ve never been asked what your credit score is shows you speak from ignorance; people who need to know your credit score don’t need to ask you, they look it up. Have you not applied for a mortgage or moved into a rental in the last 25 years? If so, they looked up your credit score. If you’d had a car salesman looked up your credit score as you say, then your credit score was a factor in how much interest they would have charged you. A lousy credit score will cost you more in interest payments than having a not-so-bad credit score. Just because you don’t check your blood pressure regularly doesn’t mean that the people who do know less than you do nor does it mean you shouldn’t check your blood pressure yourself. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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Fighting the good fight |
They don't just "ask" your credit score. They look up your credit report. And it is a near-impossibility that you've never had a credit check other than by a car salesman. You most likely simply must not have paid attention to it, when you were agreeing to allow them to do so (often buried within a bunch of other forms or terms of service). Every started a new job? They most likely ran your credit as part of a pre-employment background check, especially if it was a position of any importance or that dealt with money. Every rented an apartment or house from someone other than your buddy or a relative? They almost certainly ran your credit. Every been approved or even preapproved for a mortgage to own a home? They ran your credit. Ever opened a utility account (water/power/internet/phone/cell phone/cable TV/etc.), like you've had to do every time you've moved or changed providers throughout your life? They ran your credit. Ever had car insurance? They ran your credit. Etc. So even if you've never had a credit card or a car loan or gotten into the less common stuff that also triggers credit checks like applying for security clearances, unless you spent your whole life emulating Jack Reacher - wandering the country from motel to motel with no job or car while paying cash for everything - you invariably have encountered credit checks at multiple points throughout your life outside of the car dealership.  I agree with your statement that it's primarily a measure of how willing you are to take on - and pay off - debt, and not a measure of wealth. But that doesn't change the fact that your credit report plays a surprisingly large part throughout your life in today's world. Granted, bad credit history is primarily what they're looking for in many cases. So it's entirely possible to get much of the above if you have no credit history. Though while it may not result in denial, a lack of credit history can often mean additional deposits, higher rates, or limited options. Unnecessary or out of control debt is bad, certainly. But it's entirely possible to be financially responsible and still have a high credit score.This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK, | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm.  |
I'm having a hard time seeing where the problem is, then. Just a guess, but I'd bet <1-2% of people are >800. Circa 2005 I was looking for an apartment in Phoenix using a finder service. The guy said, "685?" (that's what it was at the time) "It's been a long time since I've seen credit this good."  As for high debt vis-a-vis credit scores, what has improved mine so drastically is paying it down aggressively and using less available credit. | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
Yep. Length of credit history and amount of unused total credit are the two biggest factors, besides just paying all your bills every month. It's not so much about borrowing a lot of money. It's about having the ability to borrow a lot of money (even when you don't). For example: I've had two credit cards through my bank for 20+ years. Each gets used a little and paid off every month. The bank has raised the credit limit on each card by several thousand every few years over the past two decades. As a result, I have about $50k in available, unused credit on those two cards alone. Stuff like that helps keep my overall credit utilization low, which in turn boosts my score, since even though I don't borrow a lot of money, I could... | |||
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| Member |
I should have added no one other than my first house or two cars have ever ran it. You can easily find out who has ran it without them asking. It just doesn’t happen as much as everyone thinks it does for most people. It’s a fear tactic that works amazingly well. “But it's entirely possible to be financially responsible and still have a high credit score” That’s exactly what a high credit score is. You can have 5 loans outstanding and 10 credit cards and have zero extra money at the end of every month because of that and have a great credit score. It certainly isn’t a rating if they should loan you money or not which is the way it’s presented. | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
There are other factors that also go into the decision on whether you qualify for a loan. Debt to income ratio is another other major one. Your hypothetical person with 5x loans and 10x credit cards that is living paycheck to paycheck may have a high credit score because they've managed to still keep paying all their bills (barely) and don't have any derogatory entries, but they would have a high enough debt-to-income ratio that they likely wouldn't qualify for further loans. They'd also have a high credit utilization, which would impact the decision. It's more than just the credit score. Besides, I don't know of anyone who would describe something with 5x loans, 10x credit cards, and zero cushion as being "financially responsible"... I certainly wouldn't. | |||
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| Member |
You have zero problems 4x5. The wife's and mine both dropped to low 800s then to 790s when we paid our house off and closed all but one credit card. We still got a loan to buy a condo we bought for winter months. We paid that loan off about 6 months after we got it by freeing up a few other assets. We both dropped down to the 770s - 780s after the pay off. I think it's back up to the 800s but I haven't checked. Pretty sure we'll qualify for any other loan we may need. Dropping to the 600s should be something you should take a look at | |||
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Member |
If you care about your score and you're close to paying off a mortgage, would asking cc companies to raise your limit help offset the credit score ding from closing the loan? Year V | |||
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| Fighting the good fight |
Not really. And by asking for a credit limit increase, it would trigger another hard credit pull, which could cause a small temporary drop too. Thus potentially defeating the purpose itself. Paying off a house usually results in a drop of about 30 points. As mentioned earlier in this thread, if by paying off your house you end up going from - for example - an 825 to a 793, there's basically no effect other than psychological. You're still in the "best" score range for credit qualifications. Even if it did drop it enough to put you just under the cutoff for the next level down (~750), are you going to have a need for a super-high credit score in the near future? As in, are you going to pay off your house and then turn around and immediately get a loan to buy another house or a car within the next few months? Probably not. Your credit score will rise again over the subsequent period after the initial moderate dip from paying off the house, eventually putting you back to where it was before. While I've never paid off a house, all of my previous temporary dips from paying off car loans early or getting a bunch of credit inquiries for a new mortgage ended up bouncing back to where it was before within ~2 months. | |||
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| women dug his snuff and his gallant stroll |
The one score I check regularly jumped up about 15 points to 836 about a month ago. I figured it was because I paid off my weekend car. Then this month it dropped 27 points. I guess based on this thread because I paid off my car. What a weird system... | |||
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