[BrandoElFollito]

You go to a bank (people often go their bank with some expectation of a better rate) or you use check online comparator to see what deal you can get.

Then the bank will look at your current funds, the job you have, the earnings you have and after some abracadabra they will say yes or no.

There is no building of trust the assessment is on what you have and what you are capable of.

The credit is usually 1/3 of your salary (at least in France) and you novadays have to provide about 20-30% of the total amount.

[alistairSH]

It's also worth noting there is no singular credit score in the US. There are (at least) 3 agencies that generate credit reports. The "score" is usually the FICO score, but there are versions of FICO Score, and other scores.

In France, how doe a lender know if you have other loans/debt outstanding? Or if you have a history of non-payment? Those two make up the majority of a credit score (35% payment history, 30% debt burden). And the credit score is just one piece of an overall credit report.

[BrandoElFollito]

There is the "trust" component first: in your request, you list all your credits and the fact that you have failed a payment.

Then you provide the bank with your last three bank statements and your salary. They match the money movements with what they expect to see (a salary coming in, a payment going out, ...)

Finally, there is a centralized database of failed payments.

It works well, we do no have special problems with credits and how they are paid off (what helps is that there are compulsory insurances and protections for the credit-taker)

[listenallyall]

Honestly, I have no idea how other countries' banks make loan decisions. But I wouldn't be surprised if "after some abracadabra" involves reviewing some kind of centralized credit history.

[BrandoElFollito]

(copied from a sibling comment)

There is the "trust" component first: in your request, you list all your credits and the fact that you have failed a payment. Then you provide the bank with your last three bank statements and your salary. They match the money movements with what they expect to see (a salary coming in, a payment going out, ...)

Finally, there is a centralized database of failed payments.

It works well, we do no have special problems with credits and how they are paid off (what helps is that there are compulsory insurances and protections for the credit-taker)

[listenallyall]

> some kind of centralized credit history

> there is a centralized database of failed payments

exactly what I assumed, and pretty much the same as how the US credit-check system works.

[BrandoElFollito]

The difference is that we do not have a score and that there is an implicit trust in your declarations. These declarations are somehow checked for major inconsistencies but that's all.

There is no history of credit and the note in the centralized database is removed when you actually pay (this is then rather a "database of people who are currently late in their payments")

The other thing is that we do not have the problem of "I know your SS# so I can take a credit" - it requires all kinds of bureaucratic gymnastics.

[listenallyall]

> we do not have a score

of course you have a score, it's just implied rather than explicit. how many missed payments? how much were those missed payments? that's the score.

> an implicit trust in your declarations

...but we still look you up in the central database ;-) sure, we trust you

[BrandoElFollito]

OK, let's put it another way then.

Whenever there is a hack there is panic in the US about credits and credit scores. You are provided a "monitoring" for a year in case things south (and hopefully a way to recover).

You hear about what to do to have/keep a credit score in the US.

So this is something important.

These considerations do not exist in Europe, nobody ever discusses this. It means there is a fundamental difference about how credits are apprised in Europe and the US.

I do not even mention the fact that we virtually do not have credit cards. That is cards where there is a minimum amount to pay back and the rest is credited.

So this is really different.