With or without credit scores, banks are going to be assessing you for whether you’re likely to pay back the loans they provide. Even if you deleted all credit scores overnight so everyone had to do individual assessments, you’re still getting assessed and a credit score in all but name will emerge. If you’re a high risk, banks will just put a big mark on your name that says “Don’t lend to this person, they don’t pay their debts” like they do in Austria.
The only real difference between the US Credit Score and the Chinese Social Credit is that the Chinese Social Credit takes other factors into account in whether you are considered worthy enough to have a loan, which isn’t aaaall that different to how it’s done in the UK, where registering to vote makes your credit score go up, but then again lenders in the UK don’t tend to use credit scores for things like mortgages, they use their own checks.
The only time you need to borrow money from a bank is of you are buying a house, really. Remove the strong incentive to buy a place to live and then a credit score becomes a vague thing that only people working in finance know or care about.
banks are going to be assessing you for whether you’re likely to pay back the loans they provide
Actually, this is not quite accurate. It’s more accurately a score that summarizes how much the banks would want to lend you money. It is designed to make sure you are profitable not just in your ability to simply pay back a loan, but also to make them money.
And, statistically, it’s also systemically racist.
It was systematically racist before credit scores as well. Before credit scores, whether you got a loan was dependent on the bank manager ‘liking you’, and by that I mean if you stepped into that room with skin any darker than the sheets the bank manager wore at the weekend, you weren’t getting a loan.
With or without credit scores, banks are going to be assessing you for whether you’re likely to pay back the loans they provide. Even if you deleted all credit scores overnight so everyone had to do individual assessments, you’re still getting assessed and a credit score in all but name will emerge. If you’re a high risk, banks will just put a big mark on your name that says “Don’t lend to this person, they don’t pay their debts” like they do in Austria.
The only real difference between the US Credit Score and the Chinese Social Credit is that the Chinese Social Credit takes other factors into account in whether you are considered worthy enough to have a loan, which isn’t aaaall that different to how it’s done in the UK, where registering to vote makes your credit score go up, but then again lenders in the UK don’t tend to use credit scores for things like mortgages, they use their own checks.
The only time you need to borrow money from a bank is of you are buying a house, really. Remove the strong incentive to buy a place to live and then a credit score becomes a vague thing that only people working in finance know or care about.
Actually, this is not quite accurate. It’s more accurately a score that summarizes how much the banks would want to lend you money. It is designed to make sure you are profitable not just in your ability to simply pay back a loan, but also to make them money.
And, statistically, it’s also systemically racist.
It was systematically racist before credit scores as well. Before credit scores, whether you got a loan was dependent on the bank manager ‘liking you’, and by that I mean if you stepped into that room with skin any darker than the sheets the bank manager wore at the weekend, you weren’t getting a loan.