Nothing irks me more than someone telling me that I am not financially responsible based on my credit score. Basically, if you never borrow money, then your credit score is 0. This makes sense: if you never borrow money, then you don’t have a credit rating. Personally, I’ve never taken a loan from a bank and have never owned a credit card. I haven’t checked, but I expect my credit rating to be non-existent. My lifestyle does not depend on a “good” credit score. The only loan I intend on taking is for a house. Other than that, I will acquire goods and services using the money that I have attained.
Unfortunately, this is a mindset not shared by the majority of Americans (including our Government, a topic for another time). The mindset of Americans says that everyone will need to borrow money at some point, so to ensure that you will be given money, you need to borrow money ahead of time to prove your worth. Proving your worth ensures a good credit score, which in turn ensures your financial success. A majority of Americans worships the credit score. A majority of institutions rely solely on the credit score to determine a person’s financial responsibility. This brings me back to my opening statement: Nothing irks me more than someone telling me that I am not financially responsible based on my credit score.
Consider the following example. Someone with no credit score wishes to rent an apartment. This particular landlord depends solely on the credit score to determine whether his potential tenants are financially responsible. Upon seeing no credit score, the person is denied the opportunity to rent the apartment. Why is this a flawed situation? Because what the landlord doesn’t know is that the potential tenant has enough money in his bank account to purchase the entire apartment complex!
At this point in the process, I did not realize that AT&T was solely using my credit score to authorize me for service. Later I would find out differently.