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Apparently having good credit isn’t enough, unless you’ve already pledged loyalty to the debt system. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Camzing@lemmy.world to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml

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Just went through a mess trying to finance a used car. I haven’t borrowed money since 2012, no debt, no credit cards, just living within my means. When I applied for a loan, I was told I was refused. Not because of bad credit, but because I hadn’t used credit recently enough.

The dealership advertises “no applications refused,” but apparently if you don’t have an active debt history, you’re too much of a mystery for the system.

Co-signer? Not allowed. Using my own bank account for payments? Denied. Their solution? Open a joint account with my dad just to satisfy a bank’s paperwork, pay hundreds in fees over 6 years just to make it work.

The credit system says you can't borrow money unless you've already been borrowing money, like somehow living within your means disqualifies you. It's not about good credit, it's about loyalty to the debt game. Screw you for standing on your own feet, I guess.

Just needed to get that off my chest. Anyone else run into this nonsense?

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[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago

Soft checks don't matter as much as hard checks do. A lot of places that will check your credit score hardly care about soft checks, if at all. I think I have heard that soft checks don't negatively impact one's score at all, but I'm not too confident on that. But even if it did negatively impact your overall score, it's important to remember that places that are checking your credit aren't just getting the score — that's mostly just an abstraction to help us to get an overview. Lots of hard checks on your credit do end up having a significant impact on your credit rating, but mostly because it paints a picture of someone who is desperate to get credit and is perhaps not managing money well. A potential lender will be able to see what the checks are for, and they can evaluate that in context.