Finally! It's just too bad my insurance score is still too low for me to get the required homeowner's insurance because the car company shared my driving data with insurance data brokers, and they don't like that I park in front of bars every Friday night, they don't know it's because I have a third job as a busboy. It's ok though, cause at least I'm still free to tip my landlord, and employment rates are up!
But remember. You're paying his mortgage and you can't deduct that from your taxes but he can deduct his mortgage from his taxes (the same mortgage that you paid)
>implying americans actually want a credit score
I'm honestly unsure. What is the alternative? Instead of a pre-emptive risk assessment of whether or not you can pay something, more people just receive punishments when they end up not being able to? I don't like being judged or told what I can or cannot pay back a month from now, but on a large scale doesn't this mostly protect people from dangerous debts? For the opponents, what is the proposed alternative?
on a large scale doesn't this mostly protect people from dangerous debts?
Not really. It just ends up with lenders offering far more predatory interest rates, which worsens the situation for the debtor. The system is set up in such a way that you can spiral pretty hard with a single misstep.
I’m honestly unsure. What is the alternative?
Given that there are plenty of developed countries where credit scores don't exist (and plenty more where they do but only for businesses), I think alternatives are imaginable. I would know, I live in one such country.
If you want a mortgage here, the bank will:
The US consumer economy is very highly dependent on short-term/credit debt, and that is absolutely crazy to me. Some Americans say they "need" a credit card to defer payment on some purchases, and as someone raised in culture where debit is king this sounds absolutely insane. Y'all have been propagandized, here it is perfectly normal to not have a single credit line open before shopping for a mortgage and if anything your banker will commend you for it.
I have good credit but I cannot buy a house.
My husband and I bought ours in 2019, and I feel like we did so in the nick of time, and that's with being on two programs and taking an additional loan for the down payment, and that's because paying the mortgage was lower than renting an apartment at the time.
People can't afford housing anymore. I feel guilty even owning a house because it's gotten so bad (even though the bank technically owns this shit).
Don't feel guilty! Congrats on the house. Enjoy it.
Thank you.
Buying a house was what pushed me from Bernie flavored socialist to full on leftist. We were lucky enough to find and qualify for a community land trust and it is such a better system than anything else in America. It should just be how housing is done available to everyone, not just people who qualify.
Same. Alternatively, turn that guilt into the drive to attend community meetings.
Yeah I'm pretty involved locally, although action is pretty limited here where I live in South Dakota
You need credit and money. Ironic eh?
The sadder thing is that Chinese social credit hasn’t actually even been implemented, and doesn’t seem like it’s going to. There are only limited local experiments, most of which are allegedly largely irrelevant.
Whereas there are multiple credit score companies currently tracking literally everyone who has a bank account.
How do you think it came to be that most Americans believe that in China you can have your home seized for being impolite?
I got rejected just last week for something pretty inexpensive that I can afford to pay off in installments. My credit score is good and I've never defaulted on any payments before. I live in the UK, not in China.
AFAIK the social credit system that westerners like to mock was only trialled and never implemented. I, on the other hand, have actually been screwed over by my own country's credit score system.
In the US, I think you would be entitled by law to know the reason why you were rejected ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Credit_Opportunity_Act ).
Does the UK have something similar?
We tried personally evaluating people for loans on their individual merits, and shocker, there was rampant racism and sexism. Having strict metrics, instead of relying on the whims of a dickwad loan agent, is a good thing.
The new system isn't perfect, and yeah, it completely favors people who have parents who know how the system works. But at least it's not explicitly racist or sexist (again, there are of course systemic issues that feed into it).
I get that it's frustrating to, for example, need to have debt in order to qualify for more debt. But in other contexts this is pretty standard
it's essentially "financial experience."
But yeah. It sucks that you should pay expenses with a credit card rather than debit in the USA. Personally it doesn't matter to me (I pay them off every month), but it sucks for merchants who get stuck with the credit card transaction fees.
The rise of check cards and normalizing paying for everything on plastic was a big tipping point. There's even a Monopoly game that uses electronic cards these days. It lets activity tracking run rampant and of course the banks get to skim a fee off everything.
Franky I see it as having nothing to do with fiscal responsibility (can't overspend the cash on hand) and more just a way to funnel more to those with means than anything. It's funny how cash advances on cards charge a higher rate than purchases despite neither offering a security interest to the card issuer.
You can live without a credit score, even get a mortgage. It's not exactly easy, but it's not that difficult. Once you have a mortgage, you have a good credit score.
I'm no fan of credit scores but let's not act like its the same thing as Chinese social credit
course not credit scores actually exists and social credit does not since it was just a trial
Does anyone not how to a Bookwyrme review through a Lemmy link ? Anyway : https://books.theunseen.city/book/192913/s/weapons-of-math-destruction