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by tptacek 1895 days ago
The amount of control those three agencies have over consumers is overrated. I've lived my whole life with terrible credit (starting when I bought a shirt for my first job at Nordstrom's and screwed up the credit card thing), and apart from it being very difficult to get a credit card (amusingly, my bank wouldn't issue one to me even as the proceeds from the sale of my company were sitting in my checking account), it's had practically no impact at all.

I was for the first half of my adult life a renter and never once had a problem getting a lease; I bought a condo in Chicago, then later a house in Ann Arbor, and then a house in Chicagoland where I am now; again, no credit-score-related problems. I've been able to rent cars. Buying things on credit has been the only sticking point --- and I don't understand why people do that.
1 comments
ValentineC 1895 days ago
> apart from it being very difficult to get a credit card (amusingly, my bank wouldn't issue one to me even as the proceeds from the sale of my company were sitting in my checking account)

Not even a secured card?

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tptacek 1895 days ago
I ultimately ended up getting a secured card, just so I could rent cars from more car rental places; that card, presumably still secured, is my only credit card. I don't understand credit cards, at all.
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kasey_junk 1895 days ago
Uhh. Credit cards are pretty simple. For virtually no cost you get consolidated billing, easy access to credit, fraud protection & ~2% rebates.

That the consumer bureaus get to decide who gets access to these benefits is something we all should be concerned with.

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tptacek 1895 days ago
I don't get "easy access to credit" with debit cards. Which is the part I don't understand! There have been many periods in my adult life where cash flow has been a significant problem for me and my family, but it has never even occurred to me to use revolving credit as part of a solution to those problems.

I'm not litigating whether unequal access to financial products is a bad thing. Inequity is a bad thing. We're on the same page there.

But when discussions like this come up and people imply that a bad credit score is somehow life-changing --- that just doesn't connect with my life experience? Like I definitely didn't come up rough or anything, but I feel like to the extent that there's value in access to these particular financial products, I'm well within the cohort of people who would perceive that value. And... I just don't get it? Like: a debit card from a good bank has actually pretty solid fraud protection? And lack of access to 2% rewards doesn't seem life changing?

I have never understood credit cards.

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ValentineC 1895 days ago
> There have been many periods in my adult life where cash flow has been a significant problem for me and my family, but it has never even occurred to me to use revolving credit as part of a solution to those problems.

I don't support paying interest on credit card bills either, but some cards come with a "0% on balances for ~12 months" welcome offer [1], which might help a little if cash flow is tight, but the borrower knows that some income will be guaranteed in the coming months.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-zero-interest-credit-cards/

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