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?
Unfortunately this is one of those cases that you have to have foresight to game the system intentionally. You can bring up your credit pretty quickly, but nothing beats some long running lines of credit.
The financial system benefits greatly from people taking out loans and being unable to pay off the whole thing. They don’t get any benefit from a person who just pays their debt off right away. Profits over humanity every single time.
Yep, paid off my car 2 years into a 4 year loan and my credit score went down. Having the money to pay for something in full early is proof of financial responsibility, but you get penalized instead because they get less interest from you.
This has to be a newer thing. It didnt used to be like that.