The Cholesterol - Credit Complex

The first thing we notice about moving back to the US is that no one will rent us an apartment unless we fill out an application form & pay a credit company $25 (each) to give us our ‘credit score.’ But even once we obtain that all-important credit score, we still won’t know what it means! Pages and pages of stuff, which could probably have been easily summarized on just one page: no big outstanding debts or other financial commitments, no bankruptcy, credit card bills paid on time, etc.

And from looking at the three big credit rating companies, it seems that everyone also knows their credit rating, based on a ticker much like the Dow Jones. So why would people want to opt to spend even MORE of their hard-earned $$, to keep track of their own credit rating? Do some people really pay $5.95/month just to keep up-to-date with their credit score?

It feels eerily similar to the late 1980s, when everyone I worked with suddenly knew their own cholesterol levels. I was in my mid-20s then and had no reason to be interested in my cholesterol, so I felt rather left out when everyone would stand around chatting about how it was going up or down, and what they were cutting from their diets to improve their level. All that talk about “good” and “bad”cholesterol, too, was rather over my head. Perhaps it has to do with just having something in common to talk about, and is probably less “offensive” (if not particularly interesting) than discussing religion or politics!

Anyway, the credit rating industry (and yeah, by the looks of things, it is a full-fledged industry) is pretty much a rip off--just a way to milk people for the “service” of confirming that they aren’t, in fact, in financial trouble. Or perhaps it just reflects the fact that, once again, the US has overextended itself with regards to credit? (We won't mention the military, or other areas where we're also bitten off more than we can figuratively chew!).

Maybe that’s the main difference between cholesterol levels and credit rating companies: the former has both “good” and bad,” while the latter doesn’t.