[tn13]

FICO is by private companies to measure your financial discipline if you want to borrow from them. You can continue to exist without opting in into FICO.

China's score is by government and it determines your mere existence. May be you end up in jail if the score goes below something. Also it is not about finances but about your opinions.

[vkou]

> You can continue to exist without opting in into FICO.

Only in theory.

For one thing, you don't opt into FICO - the company I transact with chooses to share my information with FICO, without giving me any choice on the matter.

The only way you can opt out of FICO is if you never use the financial system, not have a job, or a place to live. Unless you're an animal, or an undiscovered cave hermit, good luck.

> May be you end up in jail if the score goes below something.

Citation needed.

[tn13]

> Only in theory.

Not really. For example you can create a startup that might help banks find dependable borrowers more effectively than FICO and you can totally decimate FICO.

When I arrived in this country and wanted to borrow to buy a car I did not have a FICO score but I had a very good job. I borrowed outside the conventional banking system with a little higher APR.

FICO is like cellphones or email that has won and become common because it is the best alternative than everything else. One can certainly refuse to use cellphones but then that life would be highly inconvenient indicating how much value cellphones have brought to our life. FICO similarly has brought a lot of value to our lives so much that living without it is highly inconvenient.

BTW living without FICO is simpler and pretty much common thing in USA. How do you think illegal immigrants, students, H4 dependents etc. do financial transactions ?

[vkou]

> How do you think illegal immigrants, students, H4 dependents etc. do financial transactions ?

I don't know about illegal immigrants, but anyone in the US on a valid visa can walk into a bank, show a teller their passport, and open an account.

Also, most of us aren't so blessed as to have a landlord (Dorm housing) that will forego a credit background check.

[tn13]

Except that the person will have to sign a reason why he/she does not have a SSN and agree to provide it with N days. After that the FICO can track you.

[pavel_lishin]

> China's score is by government and it determines your mere existence. May be you end up in jail if the score goes below something.

Is this just speculation? Maybe you end up in jail?

[tn13]

That is why the word "maybe".

Of course given the way China works miffing the government actually means an existential threat. Unlike American who take for granted things like trial by jury, protection from cruel punishment, unauthorized searches etc. Chinese people dont have any such rights. By default they live because the government lets them.

We would never know he full extent of such score keeping.