My dad paid off his mortgage and owned his vehicles outright. He had been that way for about 10 or 12 years when he tried to buy a small cabin. Even though his finances said he could buy it outright, he tried to get a small mortgage....the banks REFUSED to give him a mortgage. They said he basically didn't have a credit history. Its all made up bull excrement that screws with peoples lives for the fun of it.
And for anyone in the US, just know that State Farm is one of the worst companies for Homeowners Insurance. They will pay the bare minimum. All insurance sucks, but State Farm is on a whole other level of suck. If you are with State Farm don't make the mistake I made and quickly find another company.
Seriously, leave State Farm. By not leaving I am now paying $20k that they should have covered.
The real death of America is everyone drowning to death in made up fees.
The shitt9est thing about credit is that payments that don't improve your credit can still hurt it when you miss.
Late on rent or your cell phone plan? That's a ding on your credit report. You can't get a loan because you haven't established that you'll pay your debts.
Pay your rent on time for 30 years straight? No credit history. You can't get a loan because you haven't established that you'll pay your debts.
Stop trying to max your credit score. You don't win any extra prizes for having an 850.
Having a good credit score (>670) isn't difficult. Have a couple of cards, keep your balance under 1/3 of the limit, and pay it on time. That's it. You'll have a 700 in short order. Getting it above 750 is just more of the same.
I get that there are perfectly responsible people who don't leverage credit to gain their needs and then are rejected by the banks when they go looking for a 200k loan. But that's not the world we live in. Bill the Banker isn't the guy whose lived in your community for twenty years and goes to your church. That world is gone and had problems too.
This impersonal world sorta sucks, but I'm not close friends with my neighbors and some of them seem like people I wouldn't get along with anyways.
The real rub of it, in my opinion, is we are subject to these standards without being consulted or, really, considered.
But honestly, don't worry about maxing your credit score.
Its crazy, the only debt I've held is student loan debt and I have paid the bill every single month. Otherwise I use checks and a debit card, I had money to buy a used car upfront.
Went to get a credit card. My credit score is below 700, and I was deemed "unqualified" because, get this, I don't have a history of paying off debt, because I have not held enough debt to prove I can pay it off.
heh heh I am at the point where my mortgage is paid and I have no CC debt. I have some savings and retirement accounts. But I cannot rely on this since we have the Trump Tariff Taxes. So I suppose I cannot retire this year as I hoped. I have to save more. My dh is 3 years younger than me and really wants retirement... he is a construction union guy so I tell him to make an appointment w/their funds person and we can design a plan. I will likely continue working part time for the next 6 or 7 years to cover healthcare unless the Democrats pull their heads out of their asses.
I would love for each person living in the USA to reach zero debt. It would probably collapse the damn system. It’s ridiculous how much of it relies on you having debt and some stupid credit score.
When there's something about the model that doesn't make sense, find an alternative model where it does. It's often quite enlightening.
In the case of credit scores, the model you're probably thinking of is that following all the rules as written should make your credit score go up. But this is not the case. A better model is that credit score tells the bank how much money they can get out of you. They make more money from someone who is late every once in a while. That model is more consistent with reality.
On the topic of the title: In my own case, I didn't even pay all of my debts, all it took was to pay off my student loans. My credit score dropped 30+ points from that and has never recovered since.
And to all the liars who said some variation of "it's just a temporary drop" ... You are liars. That is simply not true, at least not for everyone, and you lied. Maybe consider stop giving advice about things when you're clueless.
And to anybody who might consider listening to those clueless liars, please note that a whole lot of the advice you might read from people online is coming from clueless liars.
Okay, I'll end my rant there.
I have only one credit card which I charge everything to (credit limit is more than enough at over $10k) and which I pay off in full each month and have no absolutely debt, therefore my credit score is absolute dogshit.
Can you please not repost X content on lemmy?
So... I have a guess as to why this is. It might be entirely wrong, but it kind of makes sense to me. I would bet the bank also partially insures your home when they hold your mortgage, and so the two insurers/policies split the liability in that case. When your mortgage is paid up, the bank no longer has stake in the home and doesn't insure it anymore, meaning the full liability falls on your insurance policy alone now. So they likely raise your premiums to account for the hightened risk on themselves. That's not necessarily a justification and it obviously sucks for you, but, it does make some amount of sense IF my guess is correct.
Either way, paying off your mortgage is a big accomplishment and removes a big burden from your shoulders. So kudos on that at least.
Anecdotally I haven’t found this to be true. I’ve had mortgages, car loans, etc and times in between without debt. Credit score never really wavered more than 10-15 points.
We know you're good for themoney now you don't have the extra outgoings!
You can't make this up
Makes it up.
Maybe they were saying that you can't make it up, but they can because they are more imaginative.
Gotta g get that $ somehow
