[socialdemocrat]

I know this is a thing in the US, but in Norway where I am from it doesn’t matter. Nobody gets a credit card here improve credit rating. I doubt people do they in most of Europe.

When somebody does a credit check on you they don’t get a score, only a remark on whether that person has done any negative with respect to their credit worthiness. Thus there is really only the negatives which count.

[tigershark]

In U.K. it definitely helps your credit score.

[GoodbyeMrChips]

Except we don't have a "credit score" in the UK.

Credit reference agencies instead report credit history.

The difference is a subtle but very important one, as it allows companies to assess your individual circumstances, rather than base decisions on an arbitrary score.

The above misunderstanding is so commonplace that the Redit UKPersoanlFinace sub had (has?) a bot explaining this on every UK post mentioning 'credit score'. Here "credit scores" are instead a marketing gimmick launched by credit reference agencies to get consumers to subscribe to monitoring services. The 'score' they give is meaningless.

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2021/06/martin-lewis-cred...

[ryanlol]

It works exactly like this in the US too. The numbers shown to consumers are not what big financial institutions base their decisions on.

By the same logic credit scores don’t exist in the US either. It’s just an approximation, your bank still makes their own decisions.

[fomine3]

Credit "score" isn't exist here in Japan, but higher age and zero credit history is bad because they can't be distinguished to bankruptcy person.