News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by pavel_lishin on Sunday September 10, 2017 @09:23PM (#15215220)
> how about just keeping a log of loans and payments

Why does my landlord need to know how much my student payments were ten years ago? Or what sort of car I drove then, and how long it took me to pay it off? Or that I once owed money to deplorable-sex-dungeon.com, or whatever other arbitrary thing they find offensive?

Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by convolvatron on Sunday September 10, 2017 @09:31PM (#15215251)
As someone who is always on the receiving side of this nonsense (I have no credit, never take on any debt and have always paid my bills), I'm completely with you.

if I were* a creditor, I'd find it pretty valuable to know if a prospective lender was a deadbeat. just trying to find a middle ground here. my score is awful because I never borrow any money. i think that should be qualitatively different to a potential creditor than someone who doesn't pay their bills.

for some number of years that meant traveling (car rentals, hotels) was a huge effort. getting leases on apartments was easier because of references. a mortgage was possible in the seedy 2000s, but not any longer.

Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by Malician on Monday September 11, 2017 @12:45AM (#15215986)
A landlord is taking a tremendous risk by letting you rent.

Things renters can and will do include not pay rent, incurring several months (or worse) while being evicted, trashing the house.. if they behave badly or just can't quite keep up with timely payments and you have to rollover to a new renter that is pretty expensive, too.

This isn't to say credit scores are perfect, but they are so effective a predictor of conscientiousness, insurance companies rely on them to predict someone's likelihood of a car accident - on average, they work.

Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by pavel_lishin on Monday September 11, 2017 @10:44AM (#15218869)
I'm not arguing against credit scores, I'm arguing against my landlord being able to see a detailed history of my non-cash purchases.
Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by colejohnson66 on Monday September 11, 2017 @01:13PM (#15220177)
They wouldn’t see your credit card transactions; They’d see your credit card payment history. Big difference.
Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by zo1 on Monday September 11, 2017 @08:19AM (#15217927)
Those are all instances that can be abstracted behind random account names: Account 1,2,3,4,5. And amounts as simply "payments" into an ongoing credit account.

Sure, could I deduce that $1200 a month is for your rent? And that $250 is your student debt repayment because you've been paying it for 10 years?

Anywho, there are different ways to present your credibility as a debt repayor without leaking too much. Not that I'd mind giving out detailed information, as long as they ask my permission first.

Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by djrogers on Monday September 11, 2017 @01:07AM (#15216070)
That landlord is allowing you to move into her property and if you decide not to pay your bills (or to airBnB the place out for drug parties) said landlord will be out of pocket somewhere around 6 months of rent (eviction takes a long time) plus legal fees and repairs.
Re:Our entire credit bureau system is broken by PKop on Sunday September 10, 2017 @11:00PM (#15215577)
Because it's a good proxy for knowing whether you will make your lease payments