In the U.S., every one has a social security number (SSN). This SSN will follow you for your entire life. If you screwed up something, it will be reported to the HOGAN system. This system is so powerful that all the info about a person’s debt, credit card number, bank accounts, etc can be inquired from it once a SSN is entered. One thing I need to mention here is the credit card late payment issue. If you have only just one late payment (less than 90 days), maybe your credit score is not going to be affected. But for a late payment of more than 90 days. It will be a big problem for your credit score and credit report. Sometimes you will get a 100 points deduction from your credit score if you make a mistake like this. One of my friends once forgot to pay his credit card bill and this late payment (more than 90 days) made his credit score drop from 708 to 604 in a month. When he found this big mistake he made, he paid his credit card debt immediately. But it still takes a while for him to restore his credit score. Actually, the people paying all his credit card debts every month will not get the high credit score. You credit score will be better if you just pay the minimum payment every month. Because you will need to pay for the interests if you choose to pay the minimum payment of your credit card bills. This is the way the banks and credit card companies like most. It is like a debt which takes forever for the credit card holder. But lots of American people like to pay the credit card bills this way. 🙂
About the credit check and credit inquiry: I don’t recommend people to apply for too many credit cards in a short period of time. Because you will get a hard credit inquiry every time you apply for a new credit card. You credit score will be affected if you have too many credit inquiries. In the U.S., every one can get a free annual credit report (with no credit score in it) and the web site is: www dot annualcreditreport dot com (The AnnualCreditReport Dot com website is only accessible through ISPs (Internet Service Providers) located within the United States and its territories.) You can check this web site if you are interested. If you have the question like “whats my credit score?”, you can use the free trial from CreditReport Dot COM or MyFICO Dot COM. From CreditReport Dot COM, you can get a 7 day free trail of 3 bureau credit monitoring and credit score tracking. For the MyFICO Dot COM, you can get your free FICO score and credit report, 2 free Equifax FICO scores and credit reports, 90% of the largest U.S. banks use FICO scores. (Score Watch 30-Day Free Trial)
Credit score and financial crisis: I think a very important reason of this financial crisis is the banks’ not caring too much about the applicants’ credit score. Because of this, the people with very low credit score can still get their housing loans. Even the people who has bankruptcy records in his/her credit report can still get his/her house mortgage. Sometimes they can get the 0% down payment too. This is too risky for the banks. When the housing price drops, these people will not be able to pay their housing loans and the banks will be affected too. Now the banks require the applicants to have a credit score of at least 700 when applying for the housing loans. They also prefer the applicants with a clear credit history. Although the housing price dropped and lots of people think this is a good time to buy houses, to get the house mortgage from the banks is another story now.
Credit score and microfinance: I once had a intern in Grameen Foundation and my work is about the loan applications from the poor people. In the U.S., the poor people will not get a very good credit score. (or don’t have any credit score) Because of this, the banks do not want to lend them money. All they can ask is the microfinance organizations. I saw lots poor people, they really need money from the banks. But they are not able to get loans from them because of their bad credit score and credit report. The good thing about this microfinance is that they will not consider things like credit score or credit report at all. It cares more about the applicants’ personality. If the applicant is poor but he/she is honest and confident about his/her future, he/she can still get loans from these microfinance organizations. In my point of view, this is not just about money. This is about giving hopes and chances to the poor people. Although it is not smart to lend money to the poor people with band credit score in most American people’s mind, the poor people still need a chance to pursuing better life in the realistic capitalism system.