Re:What happens after a bank closes all of your credit cards?
by jltsiren on Saturday April 10, 2021 @04:19PM
(#26764765)
In many European countries, credit bureaus only report negative credit history. Most people have empty reports, which is the best possible result. Lenders may ask aggregate statistics about other debt (total debt €X, total payments €Y/month) directly from the person, but they have no right to more detailed reports.
Also, it's my impression that people in the US often overestimate the importance of the credit score, as opposed to the detailed credit report. Major lenders tend to use private scoring systems anyway. Far too many people know how credit scores work and how to game the system, making public credit scores less useful than secret scoring systems.
Edit: the Dutch bkr, for instance, has recently been sued for charging users to access their database of payment histories. This is important because that record is provided to companies wishing to make credit decisions about an individual. It's also noteworthy that the Dutch in general don't really go in for credit cards the way Americans do, so they interact with that part of the financial system less. That in turn makes for much less interesting "credit reports".