excuse my ignorance, but what's a credit score and why does it matter? I can see it's a Bad Thing to have a low one, but in what way does it impact someone?
Other places, like in Denmark for instance you are by default considered a trust-worthy customer and only if you start not paying your bills does it affect your ability to get a loan etc.
If my car dies, I won't be able to get anywhere, because I can't get a loan for a new one.
When we move to a new apartment, they won't allow us to have Internet service. I am not exaggerating in the slightest. AT&T U-Verse already denied me once in the past, before I got my score to 760 --- they refused me service. Completely. No alternatives. It didn't matter to them whether I had $10, $1,000, or $10,000 in the bank. The computer told them "unknown risk", and so they would not do business with me. There were no alternative internet providers. I would have been completely screwed, but my wife (who was my fiancée at the time, thankfully; credit score of one person will reflect on both of you after marriage) was approved.
We will not be able to get a house, if we choose to. We might not even be able to live in a specific area we want --- apartment complexes check your credit before allowing you to live there.
All over $80, due to the messed up health insurance system. Blergh.
I sincerely hope you're able to get things sorted. Thanks for the explanation
In the Netherlands we have the "Burea of Credit Registration" which registers most debts, storing:
- amount
- start date
- expected end date
- actual end date
- type of credit
- miscellaneous notes
Note that this only tracks loans to individuals with a duration longer than 3 months and over a certain minimum amount.
The basic idea is that everyone who has not failed to repay a loan is considered creditworthy, actual loans are based on the above info, income (plus certainty of employment) and collateral.
The idea being that Nigerians usually have vowels on both ends of their family names.