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I mean, to be clear, we have a kludge for credit(that’s what a credit score is). Information on how to feed yourself is widely available and you can usually tell when someone uses it. Employment I’ll grant you is harder, but still.
That you need a credit score to function in society as a whole should be illegal.
Yes, yes, I know, I know. I'm very well aware of how and why credit score functions. I get it.
I was still very well put out when I had to go purchase a new car unexpectedly, only to have the guy who went to check my finances come out and stare at me like I was some lost crytpid and blurt out 'You have no credit score.'
Yes, because I grew up around adults who abused credit cards and paid the consequences and who had no desire to go down that road, thank you very much. Only to find out late that, gee whillickers, if you want to function as an adult in society for some things, you actually need a credit score, and for that, you need a credit card.
Why, yes, I'm still salty about that. How could you tell?
(And before you ask, all my previous vehicles were old, used, family hand-me-downs.)
Boo hoo- credit scores show good breeding and conventionality. Of course people want to see them. Wouldn’t you?
I'd rather live in a society that I don't need to borrow to function, thanks.
Were you trying to purchase the car straight-up full cost and they still wouldn't sell it to you ? Or were you trying to get financing on it?
Financing.
As an aside, it's really flattering that you guys think I'm successful enough to just buy a car outright when needed. I wish.
In the end, I just had my father co-sign the note with me, which is something that's done when you either have no credit or bad credit. Not great, but not terrible.
Come on man, your expectations aren't reasonable here. You wanted to borrow money, so of course your credit history was relevant. That isn't "needing to borrow to function", that is "needing to borrow to build confidence that you can be trusted to borrow more".
Why wouldn't income history be enough to build confidence that I can pay shit back? Naturally, someone who gets paid in cash under the table can't provide one, but even in the land of Freedom such inconveniently physical dealings are rare in the year of 2025 on a high enough salary level... right?
Because income is only one part of it. Yes, you need to have sufficient income to pay back the loan, but lenders want confidence that you actually will, rather than just defaulting by choice. Your question doesn't make sense to me - if some rich guy came up to you and asked to borrow $10,000, would you lend it to him just because you know he has the means to pay you back? I certainly wouldn't, as I don't know the guy or his character. So I don't see why professional lenders would be any different in wanting some kind of validation that you are the kind of person to actually pay back a loan.
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