it seems to me that credit score is used as a way to know if someone's responsible or not. I mean, you can't just ask someone anymore, if they will pay for anything. You can make them sign contracts. But honestly none of it matters because people have many ways to get out of it/them. Honesty? LOL. Unfortunately honesty is a thing of the past, and we glorify it. Real sad.
I have and always will try to do right and is one of many reasons I've been able to make a decent living doing what I do. My mechanical skill isn't perfect and neither is my communication skill. But I do my best to do right in all situations. But....(keeping this tractor related), at the tractor dealer I worked at, I (as the tech, service manager at one point, former business owner, head tech, assembly tech, parts tech, forklift driver, etc) was often looked down upon, particularly by customers who did not understand why labor costs $100+ per hour. They'd amuse themselves by asking how much of that $100 I get, and they never believe me when I told them less than 1/5 of it. They often labeled me as a liar. It was 100% true. Nobody ever wants to go to the shop to have anything worked on because there are a small number of people out there that call themselves mechanics that take advantage of people, which gives us ALL a bad reputation. So automatically since labor and parts cost, and they saw on the news that some mechanic shop overcharged someone, I'm the bad guy and I have lied to them, cheated and/or stolen from them which is simply untrue. Now what the company did, was out of my control. One of many reasons I left.
But with all that said, 100% of the people can't be trusted 100% of the time. So credit ratings give those who need to know a reason whether or not to trust, be it a employer, finance company, whatever. Generally speaking, if one has a low credit score, there is good reason.
My advice to anyone who might read this, take care of your credit. Even if you have no money, take care of your credit.
I don't finance anything hardly. One vehicle, no two in the last 30 years. And my house. That's it. I have a credit card that I use about once a month for small stuff, and pay it off early. Just to keep my credit up. So when I went to the Ford dealer the other day looking at Mustangs, I flat out told them that my credit is great, I have the money to buy outright, and I am undecided what I want. I ended up financing a used Mustang, just to keep the credit up to date. If you don't buy something on terms once in a while they kinda look at you funny. The salesman asked me if I knew my credit score and I told him it was 850+. He said yours is 6 points from perfect, what do you want to buy, with that credit you can buy anything you want including the entire dealership. Finance guy said he NEVER sees people with a score that high, and with that I was able to get the lowest possible interest rate. Top notch credit can help your buying power among many other things.