The careless errors of credit reporting agencies

Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by mikeash on Sunday September 11, 2016 @10:09PM (#12476775)

There are two basic scenarios that credit card companies want to avoid with their customers. There's the scenario where the customer buys a bunch of stuff they can't afford and then can't pay their bill, and there's the scenario where the customer can pay their bill but just doesn't feel like it.

Both scenarios are fundamentally impossible with a debit card, so I really don't see how there's any relevance here. It's not the purchasing end that they're interested in, it's the paying-it-back part.

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Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by ThomPete on Sunday September 11, 2016 @10:52PM (#12476885)

You are way too tied up on the credit vs. debit part.

Thats not really important here.

You are not suddenly going to become financially irresponsible just because you get credit and yes you can determine someones financial responsibility by looking at their debit card usage that is why you can actually convince someone if you get rejected to look at your case again to show them additional information. This is why you can get a credit card in citibank if you have 25K in your savings account for 3 months straight and so on.

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Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by mikeash on Sunday September 11, 2016 @11:58PM (#12477096)

And you're not nearly tied up enough on the credit vs debit part. The whole point of a credit report is to determine your suitability for credit, which is something that simply doesn't apply to a debit card.

A ton of people suddenly become financially irresponsible just because they get a credit card. It's a massive problem, and that's why companies want to see some history. Being responsible with a debit card where there are hard limits on how irresponsible you can be doesn't mean a whole lot for how you'll be with a credit card.

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Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by ThomPete on Monday September 12, 2016 @10:55PM (#12485333)

Yes I am aware of what the point is. What I am telling you is that it's not necessary which is witnessed by other countries who have no problem not using credit history to give people credit.

The problem with people using the credit card lies as much in the incentive structure of getting points, building credit etc.

And it's obviously speaking against your claim that so many american have issues with their credit cards given that the very test your claim is necessary is failing on so many.

So no I understand the balance pretty well.

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Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by nommm-nommm on Monday September 12, 2016 @01:29AM (#12477393)

>You are not suddenly going to become financially irresponsible just because you get credit

Uhhhhhh... You haven't been in the United States for very long, have you?

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Re:The careless errors of credit reporting agencies by ThomPete on Monday September 12, 2016 @10:52PM (#12485321)

No only have I been in the US fairly long now I have also lived other places and only the US is asking me to create debt to get a credit card and be able to rent an apartment. Other places they actually do look at your non credit card history to assess if they are going to give you credit.

But you can't see the forest for the trees.

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