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Yup. Until recently, Australia only had negative event reporting. Still, you’d regularly have kids that had been brainwashed by US-centric personal finance guru

Yup. Until recently, Australia only had negative event reporting. Still, you’d regularly have kids that had been brainwashed by US-centric personal finance gurus (and American media more generally) asking how they could boost their “credit score”. Fully willing to sign up for and use credit cards as an 18-year-old student to juice some system they had been led to believe existed in the first place.

Ekaros 4y ago
I think in Finland having too many credit lines would actually hurt you with loans. However well you have handled those. As important factor is total amount of loans or capacity to get them.
- endless1234 4y ago
  Yeah, amount of credit cards & the total available credit limit is used as a negative signal when applying for a loan. But I think you'd have to have some completely silly amount for it to _really_ affect the outcome. You can easily show that you've not used the cards, for example. If you have 10 credit cards which you use constantly, it would affect your ability to get a loan. To me this makes sense, but of course, it's what I'm used to.
  - Ekaros 4y ago
    10 cards, with average of 3000 limit. Would mean you could take a 30000 more loans at high interest rates very quickly. It is not about having used and paid them, but capability to get loans beyond what you can manage very quickly.
    - skissane 4y ago
      It turns into a bit of a pointless ritual though - “I need a mortgage, I’m going to cancel cards I don’t use and slash my credit limits to maximise my borrowing power” - but no sooner have I bought the property, I will apply to increase them again, and they are unlikely to say “no”-even if the credit card is issued by the same bank as the mortgage. Or at least, that’s my personal experience in Australia
smnrchrds 4y ago
How is the system in Australia now and why was it changed?

Ekaros 4y ago

I think in Finland having too many credit lines would actually hurt you with loans. However well you have handled those. As important factor is total amount of loans or capacity to get them.

endless1234 4y ago
Yeah, amount of credit cards & the total available credit limit is used as a negative signal when applying for a loan. But I think you'd have to have some completely silly amount for it to _really_ affect the outcome. You can easily show that you've not used the cards, for example. If you have 10 credit cards which you use constantly, it would affect your ability to get a loan. To me this makes sense, but of course, it's what I'm used to.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  10 cards, with average of 3000 limit. Would mean you could take a 30000 more loans at high interest rates very quickly. It is not about having used and paid them, but capability to get loans beyond what you can manage very quickly.
  - skissane 4y ago
    It turns into a bit of a pointless ritual though - “I need a mortgage, I’m going to cancel cards I don’t use and slash my credit limits to maximise my borrowing power” - but no sooner have I bought the property, I will apply to increase them again, and they are unlikely to say “no”-even if the credit card is issued by the same bank as the mortgage. Or at least, that’s my personal experience in Australia

smnrchrds 4y ago

How is the system in Australia now and why was it changed?