After reading a good number of replies the thing that amazes me is that US banks aren't on fire right now.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
1026 points (98.3% liked)
Late Stage Capitalism
1971 readers
712 users here now
A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.
A zero-tolerance policy for bigotry of any kind. Failure to respect this will result in a ban.
RULES:
1 Understand the left starts at anti-capitalism.
2 No Trolling
3 No capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, or liberalism, liberalism is in direct conflict with the left. Support for capitalism or for the parties or ideologies that uphold it are not welcome or tolerated.
4 No imperialism, conservatism, reactionism or Zionism, lessor evil rhetoric. Dismissing 3rd party votes or 'wasted votes on 3rd party' is lessor evil rhetoric.
5 No bigotry, no racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or any type of prejudice.
6 Be civil in comments and no accusations of being a bot, 'paid by Putin,' Tankie, etc.
founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
I’m trying but those sprinklers are really strong.
You have to get the molotov behind the curtain
The shitt9est thing about credit is that payments that don't improve your credit can still hurt it when you miss.
Late on rent or your cell phone plan? That's a ding on your credit report. You can't get a loan because you haven't established that you'll pay your debts.
Pay your rent on time for 30 years straight? No credit history. You can't get a loan because you haven't established that you'll pay your debts.
Stop trying to max your credit score. You don't win any extra prizes for having an 850.
Having a good credit score (>670) isn't difficult. Have a couple of cards, keep your balance under 1/3 of the limit, and pay it on time. That's it. You'll have a 700 in short order. Getting it above 750 is just more of the same.
I get that there are perfectly responsible people who don't leverage credit to gain their needs and then are rejected by the banks when they go looking for a 200k loan. But that's not the world we live in. Bill the Banker isn't the guy whose lived in your community for twenty years and goes to your church. That world is gone and had problems too.
This impersonal world sorta sucks, but I'm not close friends with my neighbors and some of them seem like people I wouldn't get along with anyways.
The real rub of it, in my opinion, is we are subject to these standards without being consulted or, really, considered.
But honestly, don't worry about maxing your credit score.
This post is about insurance premiums and has nothing to do with credit scores.
The post is about insurance premiums, but OPs title is very clearly about credit scores
The rest of the comments, on the other hand.
Credit-based insurance score is applicable though with relevant overlap.
Think Lexisnexis instead of equifax/transunion etc.
An insurance score is calculated by insurance companies based on information in your credit report as well as your claims history.
Credit Score exists to sell you more Credit Score. This seems to have come about as a natural extension of them being required to let you see your Credit History.
It's Credit History that you want, and that lenders check. They may turn it into a score, but that score varies by lender and what you're borrowing for, and frankly they may want more than just credit history anyway if you're borrowing enough to buy a house.
If you don't have any credit history, use a credit card for your day to day spending, pay it off in full each month. As a bonus, you often get extra consumer protections that debit card boys don't get.
Credit scores include credit history and more. Credit scores are used by many lending industries. Credit history is one of the two major factors in determining a credit score. There are two less than major ones and two minor ones. But to reduce credit scores to just history is wrong.
Getting above 700 is quite easy but going above 800 without a car loan or mortgage has been pretty difficult for me and my partner. Credit cards alone even with high limits doesn't look the same to the Bureau's as a mortgage or auto loan for whatever reason.
Problem is that those "non-persons" can't stay in their lane, and have to pollute and disrupt society with their predatory tactics, instead of going to some forest and "pulling themselves by their bootstraps" alone.
These are strangers asking for money. They have no objective evidence that they are a good bet. Why would the bank give them a large loan for a long time?
I wouldn't give that person money and you wouldn't either. Hell, I wouldn't give a lot of people I know that loan. Less about them and more about me.
I would love for each person living in the USA to reach zero debt. It would probably collapse the damn system. It’s ridiculous how much of it relies on you having debt and some stupid credit score.
It's not stupid, it's actually an ingenious way to rig the system to keep the siphon tapped into poor people's bank accounts.
I have only one credit card which I charge everything to (credit limit is more than enough at over $10k) and which I pay off in full each month and have no absolutely debt, therefore my credit score is absolute dogshit.
Our house and vehicles are paid. Fuck em. They can have their credit scores.
When there's something about the model that doesn't make sense, find an alternative model where it does. It's often quite enlightening.
In the case of credit scores, the model you're probably thinking of is that following all the rules as written should make your credit score go up. But this is not the case. A better model is that credit score tells the bank how much money they can get out of you. They make more money from someone who is late every once in a while. That model is more consistent with reality.
that credit score tells the bank how much money they can get out of you.
This is the whole game, right here. It's their score for how they see you, with respect to exploiting your desire to purchase things, to make money. And to be clear, a big part of that math is how much interest you're likely to pay. If you keep paying things off, and don't usually carry a lot of debt, you're not as profitable a customer. The more you tend to pay interest for things, the higher your score.
Interestingly, a lot of this is not halal. Which means that Muslim banks have some creative workarounds for lending and helping their communities out. While I've never done this myself, it sounds like folks around here might find that an appealing alternative.
My dad paid off his mortgage and owned his vehicles outright. He had been that way for about 10 or 12 years when he tried to buy a small cabin. Even though his finances said he could buy it outright, he tried to get a small mortgage....the banks REFUSED to give him a mortgage. They said he basically didn't have a credit history. Its all made up bull excrement that screws with peoples lives for the fun of it.
"damn this guys responsible, we won't make a buck!"
heh heh I am at the point where my mortgage is paid and I have no CC debt. I have some savings and retirement accounts. But I cannot rely on this since we have the Trump Tariff Taxes. So I suppose I cannot retire this year as I hoped. I have to save more. My dh is 3 years younger than me and really wants retirement... he is a construction union guy so I tell him to make an appointment w/their funds person and we can design a plan. I will likely continue working part time for the next 6 or 7 years to cover healthcare unless the Democrats pull their heads out of their asses.
make an appointment w/their funds person and we can design a plan
"Do you have two million dollars?"
"No."
"Plan to go back to work."
Yeah cuz a credit score measures how good you are at being a credit customer, not how good you are at money.
load more comments
(8 replies)
fun fact, credit score is not a thing in most of the world.
Yeah, credit score is a social rating in the US
Just trolling, Russia has a credit score system
load more comments
(37 replies)
The real death of America is everyone drowning to death in made up fees.
load more comments
(21 replies)
And for anyone in the US, just know that State Farm is one of the worst companies for Homeowners Insurance. They will pay the bare minimum. All insurance sucks, but State Farm is on a whole other level of suck. If you are with State Farm don't make the mistake I made and quickly find another company.
Seriously, leave State Farm. By not leaving I am now paying $20k that they should have covered.
load more comments
(12 replies)
Its crazy, the only debt I've held is student loan debt and I have paid the bill every single month. Otherwise I use checks and a debit card, I had money to buy a used car upfront.
Went to get a credit card. My credit score is below 700, and I was deemed "unqualified" because, get this, I don't have a history of paying off debt, because I have not held enough debt to prove I can pay it off.
My credit rating is so bad that I had to have my brother co-sign a lease for me fifteen years ago. The landlord told him his credit rating was the highest he's ever seen. My brother (and his wife) were in debt up to their eyeballs - over $100K in credit card debt and a mortgage they were deeply underwater on. They're still in bad shape financially; meanwhile I now own my own home outright (having paid cash for a fixer-upper after saving up for a few decades). I still have shitty credit and it's not affecting me negatively in any way.
Just dealt with this. I didn't even exist in the credit system. I've even been told if I had BAD credit I would qualify for something.
Eventually I did get connected to a small local credit union and got a pretty good deal on interest as a 'first time buyer's program.
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›