Ahhh… the power of numbers. It reduces a person’s entire life to an easily quantifiable, easily measured, and easily compared value. It’s useful to determine your self worth, your social standing, your standard of lving, your ability to provide for your children, and your future success in life. If life were only so simple.

How did it come to this? Why are so many preoccupied with asking, “Is 659 a good credit score?” or “Will a 639 credit score hurt my chances at getting a job?” or “Can a 670 credit score get me an apartment?” It wasn’t always like this and it won’t be like this for very much longer. Yet too many just go along with it. Why?

Playing the Credit Card Game.

With credit cards everywhere, even at grocery stores and fast food places, the banks have infiltrated just about every aspect of our lives. There was a time when people would pay using a check or cash. If they had enough, they would make the purchase, If not, they would wait. This is the way things worked for the first 200+ years of the United States.

This all changed in the 1980s. Everyone began using credit. And, it spread, and spread, and spread. First, it was the department stores. The credit card was used for luxury. Then, there was the gas card. It was used for fuel. Then, there was the debit card. It was used for food. Slowly but surely, credit cards went from being a luxury to a necessity. That is not a good development for your personal finances.

Credit cards rely on interest, fees, penalties, and lots of people going into debt. That means the borrower (you and me) is obligated to essentially work for a credit card to repay their debt. It leads to overconsumption which drives up the price of everything. People become less disciplined in what they purchase leading to a tremendous amount of waste. Yet, this is exactly what the credit card companies want. It is how they make their profits.

Playing the Numbers Game.

The credit card companies have managed to infiltrate every aspect of our daily lives. This includes food, fuel, health care, education, and even where we live. To keep track of who are the best borrowers, who is the most lucrative, who is the most risky, the credit card companies use the credit reporting agencies.

In a world where everyone relies on debt to get through their day-to-day lives, the credit reporting agencies have a TREMENDOUS impact on our lives. No one elected them to this position. No borrower chose them to do this. It was all the work of the credit card companies and other lenders. Their goal was to reduce you to a simple number, to basically determine the type of life you get to have.

So, we have this preoccupation with numbers. Is 550 a bad credit score? Is 710 a good credit score? It’s getting to the point where no one asks why these numbers should have any meaning to us. Instead, we just chase after the highest score or obsess about getting a better score.

Understand one thing, credit is a zero-sum game. Where one person gains, another loses.

This Cannot Last.

Never in the history of this country have so many been dependent on debt to survive. It is unprecedented. This is because we have built so much of our lives around going into debt. Living a life of debt always leads to disaster, ultimately. It may be 5 years, it may be 10, it may be 20… but it always ends the same. You are financially ruined!

The only way to protect yourself is to use debt (i.e. credit) responsibly. It means improving your access compared to others. It means becoming informed and knowing that CREDIT CARD COMPANIES ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND!

This is a business. This is about profit for them. Get your credit score. It is absolutely important that you do this as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter how good (or bad) you think your credit score is. Get it in writing!

You need to monitor your credit score. Remember, today, credit means life. The more access to credit you have, the more access you have to the things you want and need! Since credit scores change all the time, you need to be sure what is being said about you, over a period of time.

Is Credit Here To Stay?

Quite simply, yes. However, your access to it is now determined by the magical credit score. As long as this continues, you need to know everything it says about you. The credit score may not last much longer, but it is relevant today. So, use it to your advantage instead of having it used against you!

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