"In some countries, loan providers can only look at your official credit score, which is based on your financial history: how much money you have in your bank a

"In some countries, loan providers can only look at your official credit score, which is based on your financial history: how much money you have in your bank account, whether you have outstanding loans, and so on. Credit scores aren't perfect, but at least they're based on information relevant to the question at hand: whether you could repay a loan." Some things wrong with this: 1. There is no single 'official credit score'. Credit scores are calculated using different data and different methodologies by (i) credit bureaus like Equifax, and (ii) lenders. To say that loan providers can only 'look at your official credit score' is equivalent to saying that lenders cannot create their own scoring models, which is obviously wrong. 2. Most credit scores do not depend on how much money you have (or had) in your bank account. Credit scores are based on money you owe or owed. So a bank account would only be relevant to the extent that it provided a credit facility, or went negative at some point. 3. As mentioned in another comment, information other than credit/financial history is useful for credit decisions. For example, a common thing that unsecured loan providers look at is whether you have a job, and how much you earn. This information is verified through payslips, reference calls and/or bank statements. Whether you have a job now doesn't affect your credit history (it's in the past) but it sure is useful.