The ultimate life hack the government doesn't want you to know

I think it was clear that I meant they were not part of the government.

I think you're overlooking that they are publicly traded companies.

The opposite of private ownership is not publicly traded companies, it's state owned companies, or government organisations.

It's a bit of a stretch to say that because they're publicly traded that means things are a-ok with them assigning scores to people. The most vulnerable of which never would even own stock in any of those companies, and even if they did, not enough to ever be able to influence their practices.

Capitalism friend, profits first, everything else second.

In conclusion, these companies need to be regulated since they basically control people's destinies through a non-democratically controlled system.

There's a difference between bad credit and no credit. Some places refuse both, but you can find places that will deal with no credit.

Basically, but they call it a thin file (aka no credit history). If you don't have someone to cosign, they'll start you off with a secure card, where you pony up a couple hundred bucks and borrow against yourself until you establish good history.

No teenager should be given a credit card under any circumstances. That's a great way to find yourself bankrupt.

Edit: Guys are we talking about credit cards or debit cards? There's a significant difference between the two and there's a lot of people telling me they had credit cards as teenagers, which seems unthinkable to me.

In my case, it was with the bank I already had a checking account with and the credit limit was like $500. They normally start you off with a super low limit and a high interest rate.

Where I'm from almost no one under 25 gets a credit card, because most non-online/prepaid/crypto credit cards have an age or income limit.

Everyone over the age of 12 has a debit card here. I think it promotes healthy spending knowing you have a set limit and immediately see the amount of money change. Overdrafts are also not enabled by default and require an extra package.

Venmo/Cashapp etc are also uncommon here.

The fraud prevention page for my mastercard debit card is the same page as the credit card page.

However, what I really recommend is you can get travel cards that you load with minimal money and are entirely disposable. You don't need to only use them overseas. I have used them for online payments and in person payments and they're disposable. That is I can get two more unique cards with unique numbers at any time. Minimising my personal risk since they can't be used as ID and I limit the money on the card to just what's needed. If it's stolen skimmed or tried to be used fraudulently I might at most lose 50 dollars but I also probably know who within a margin of error skimmed it since I rotate them with new cards every so often.

I'm also in a place where losing 50 Australian dollars won't financially bankrupt me if it was stolen. Because I'm pretty sure there is lots less fraud protection on those travel cards.

Anyway there's alternatives for those who can't or morally object to credit cards. Like me. Mine is I'm bad with money, I morally don't trust myself since I went into 10k debt at 18.

That's kind of irrelevant when you have modern tech like mobile payments to safeguard you. But yeah, if you're still using magnetic stripes, you're kinda fucked.

As an European credit scores sound so weird to me 😮

Probably the best advice I've gotten was "it may be a loan and someone else's money but you best treat it as your own money because it will eventually be your money and you have to pay for everything"

What does "treated it like cash" mean?

You put normal monthly expenses on the credit card, then you immediately pay it off. Do this for a while and build your credit score. Use your higher credit score to get approved for loans/mortgages/bigger credit.

All credit is is a way to buy something expensive that you can't afford right now. Figure out what you want to buy, then build the necessary credit to be approved for the big purchase.

I use mine for cash back. I've been watching this finance channel on YouTube and the amount of Americans with thousands and thousands of credit card debt at sometimes over 30% interest is fucking insane.

When you pay with credit card it's bank's money. When paying with debit it's yours.

I pay everything on the internet with credit card. It's safer.

Maertro crowd isn't so lucky. And rental companies don't advertise this.

Juicy cashbacks with AmEx.

Not having a credit card is giving up free money in cash back and rewards. Just be disciplined and it's a net positive in every way, including security

So like, hypothetically, how much would one have to steal to get a 350... or being a Loch Ness Monster would be enough?

My wife literally defaulted on 2 or 3 credit cards last year (she got a head injury at work and literally couldn't remember whether or not she'd paid them) and while her score dipped into the 400s it's back up to the low 600s thanks to regular payments on our mortgage and car loan.

My brother in law apperently managed to drop into the 300s though. He has relatively high income from his factory job, his mother helped him buy a house and he spends all of his money so every payment is late or missed and he's constantly on the brink of defaulting purely because he doesn't know how to manage his money

I just said no takebacks. If someone steals my identity, they have to keep it and whatever additional debt they rack up.

I don't. There's not many more shady industries than the credit card industry. You have to sign up on a website to NOT get offers.

Every store you go to tries to sell you one these days.

Comically high interest rates.

It's not something I want to even dignify, because frankly it's insulting.

FYI my savings account earns 4.55% p.a.

Also, I know that the money I'm investing is being used ethically, which helps me sleep a bit better

You do know where that cash back is coming from, right? Everything you buy has credit card fees baked into the price. The business pays anywhere from 1-5% on every transaction to accept your payment, and a small percent of that is returned to you as "cash back" rewards. Its why I've switched back to using cash and any coins I get as change go into a jar. That earns much more than %10 "cash back", and some shops even make the customers pay the CC fee here in aus so I get a small "discount" too.

Most of what I said comes with the implication that instead of paying interest, you're putting that money into a savings account, instead of racing to 0.

You don't need a get-out-of-jail-free-card(with-interest) when you can just pay to leave like the gigachad saver you are.

I will never own a house, it's not an option for me - it never will be.