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> After all things seemed to work fine before credit scores. Perhaps we put too much "stock" in them in the first place. There has to be better ways to manage t
by alexb_ 3y ago
> After all things seemed to work fine before credit scores. Perhaps we put too much "stock" in them in the first place. There has to be better ways to manage this.
The old way to do it, pre-credit score, is that they would take a look at your zip code, take a look at the color of your skin, and decide if you were a "trustworthy individual"
- lazide 3y agoNow now, don’t be nasty. They’d also look at the quality of your suit, or lack thereof, your accent, and try to guess your religion.
- Aloha 3y agoOr you'd have tot take out a literal letter of credit from your bank - who would use all of that, plus some other stuff to assess your worthiness.
- winrid 3y agoThat's just ridiculous. Modern countries like France do not use credit scores. They just look at your last few bank statements.
- judge2020 3y agoFrom what I can find online, is it true that “Fichiers Banque de France”, owned by the French Government, has a de facto credit system to log credit defaults (so that lenders can deny you if you’ve missed payments for too long in the past)?
- hakfoo 3y agoA actual state-run system has at least some legal accountability. When a politician gets a loan denied due to bogus data, I'm sure heads would fly. It's probably also subject to whatever their equivalent to FOIA and whistleblowing laws are over there. The private sector gives us the worst of everything: it's an obnoxious panopticon, PLUS being incentivized to be untransparent and seek out eternal growth.
- int_19h 3y agoAnd they still do that.