• PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    The first time I applied for a loan, I didn’t have a credit card yet. And they were like:

    How can we know you’re responsible with money?

    Because I haven’t needed credit in the past and I’m still alive, idk? Having enough liquidity to not need credit would seem to suggest I’m good with money.

    But maybe your parents are paying for everything

    Ok? How does using a credit card change that?

    • bunchberry@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      They are NOT looking to see if you are responsible with money. They are looking to see if they can make money off of you, so they want you to be a heavy credit user. Before I bought my house I made sure to take out two credit cards and just buy random shit on them for a few months because that boosts my credit score drastically which then made it easy to get the loan. Banks HATE people with limited debt because it means you are not a loyal customer that they could make money off of. Yes, it makes no sense but that’s just how the economy works. Even if you don’t have any reason to buy things on credit, you still should. Even if you are very financially responsible, you should always have “stupid debt,” by that I mean debt for the sake of debt, because banks love that shit and it’ll help you out if you ever actually do need a loan for something.

      • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        Because people that quickly pay off their principal and avoid accruing interest don’t make the Credit Card companies as much money. They prefer people that are bad with money, sort of like how police departments don’t accept applicants that do too well on the tests.

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        16 hours ago

        That’s the impression I get too

        But it’s plausibly deniable enough because you can still get decent credit score if you pay off your credit before you pay interest. It’s a numbers game for them, I expect, but still.

    • filcuk@lemmy.zip
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      22 hours ago

      Considering how much data they can get on anyone, this process seems pointless and outdated, except to give them somewhat arbitrary power over who can get a loan.
      Not that I like such private data to be available at any institutions fingertips, but so it is these days.