[tjr]

I was about the age of the original poster, and had lived debt-free, credit-card-free thus far, when I went to buy a mobile phone. The listed price was $100, but because I had such a low credit score, they were going to charge me a $500 deposit fee to buy the $100 phone.

It's totally possible to live without debt, but it seems curiously inconvenient to live without a good credit score.

[dublinben]

Just to clarify, you were almost certainly not buying a $100 phone, but a $600 phone and two year contract with only $100 upfront.

You can easily buy an unlocked phone for full price, and use it on a prepaid service with no credit check.

[tjr]

It's been some years, so I don't recall exactly, but this is probably correct. Nevertheless, the point remains: my inadequate credit score mucked with my options here.

[joelmbell]

Your inadequate credit score prevented you from being able to get a form of debt. Nobody is arguing thats not true.

And yes, cell phone subsidies are a form of debt because you are paying back the price of the phone built into the 2 year contract. If you buy the phone upfront then you can go month to month without needing to be tied into a contract.

So my point is consistent, if you plan on living debt free, the FICO score is being given way to much attention.

[tjr]

This all makes sense. Regrettably, the Verizon salesman did not explain it to me this way, and presented it as a penalty due to my low credit score. It seemed believable, too, because it wasn't that interesting of a phone. This was in circa 2002; $100 seemed like a decent price for the phone I was trying to buy -- $600 did not.

Oh well. Thanks for your comment!