Okay, sorry, perhaps my point is different. It is irrelevant whether you have any credit cards, or whether you have a bad credit rating, or whether you care.

Okay, sorry, perhaps my point is different. It is irrelevant whether you have any credit cards, or whether you have a bad credit rating, or whether you care. If you have a mortgage in the US, then Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have your number. They have your number, they have mine, and they have brownbat's. Now, other people have my number. And the only way I could have avoided that was to have paid cash for my house and/or had a fairly limited set of landlords forever. So the OP's point still stands, but I strongly agree with patio11's comment that my credit rating cares about me irrespective of how I care about it. EDIT: sp