If I Never Want to Borrow Money, Should I Care About My Credit Rating?

PasturesNew

I come from the generation where we didn't have credit scores. I have no credit cards.

There are many threads on here about improving credit scores, but ... if I never plan to ever borrow money for anything, should I care?

I've no idea what my credit score is; I really don't care. But should I?

drbesty

If you ever want to get a mortgage, maybe borrow some money for a new car then yes you should care, if you already have a mortgage and never want to borrow money for anything then I don't think theres any point bothering about your credit score

PNPSUKNET

I would say no, I like the idea save and buy

PasturesNew

I've enough cash to buy a house and already bought a car for cash this year. As I said, no need to ever think of borrowing money.

I was really wondering under the umbrella of "you can't know what you'll want in 10-20 years' time".

The only thing I might want to borrow would be greed money, to get a posher house if one caught my eye .... but I am not planning on being greedy.

fozmcfc

My mother who is 68 has gone through life without credit, she firmly believe people should not spend what they don't have.

If you have a well paid job and property and savings, then your bank is almost certainly going to give you credit if you ever needed it IMO (someone will probably disagree though).

Degenerate

PasturesNew wrote: »

I come from the generation where we didn't have credit scores. I have no credit cards.

There are many threads on here about improving credit scores, but ... if I never plan to ever borrow money for anything, should I care?

I've no idea what my credit score is; I really don't care. But should I?

I think you should re-examine your whole aversion to credit on a rational basis. There's surely a credit card out there that would have attractive features for you. Some are gimmicks, but others are significant gains. You could be getting a cashback bonus on all your spending, gaining legal protection for your purchases against dodgy dealing and consolidating all your routine monthly spending into one neat monthly bill with typically 25 days to pay, which can neatly timed to fall due after the following month's wages. All this at absolutely no cost to you, with the right credit card managed in the right way.

The credit card business works by playing the averages - at the opposite ends of the spectrum they make no money from those with such financial discipline that they never carry a balance, or those who are so poorly disciplined that they default. In the middle are the masses who make their payments but carry a balance and pay interest. As someone who clearly has the financial discipline to manage a card to your advantange, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would prefer to miss out on these benefits.

CLAPTON

on the other hand there is no harm in having a good credit rating

LandyAndy

One day you just may need to borrow money. At that point you might just regret never establishing and maintaining your credit worthiness.

One of the easiest ways is to take out a cc and just use it, say, once a month to buy petrol. Pay it off in full each time, job done.

LandyAndy

CLAPTON wrote: »

on the other hand there is no harm in having a good credit rating

I suspect lenders would take a very suspicious view of someone who appeared never to have had any sort of credit in the past.

lisyloo

I would totally agree with the principle of saving for things in advance.

However credit cards have very good features and you can pay them off in full monthly.

1) The card company are jointly liable, so you get protection for example should a firm go bust or should something not be delivered.
2) Reservations can be placed on cards which is very handy especially when hiring a car. If you don't have a credit card then most hire firm would want a hefty deposit (in the order of £500) in case you damage the car. This is not required if they have a card. You might be thinking you will never want to hire a car ever, but you never know if yours might be in an acciednt or off the road etc.
3) Many offer cashback. For example I have accrued about £120 on AMEX.
4) Many offer extra benefits - such as extended warranties, price matching, insurance. Some of these are gimmicks, but others could be a godsend.
5) Mine helps me manage my finances. I don't need to keep a large cash float for spending. I can simply put all my spending on cards and pay off when I get paid at the end of the month. The lack of a cash float for an unknown amount of spending means most of my money can be saved/invested and work for me. Of course I have an emergency fund, but I don't need a monthly cash float.

If you have a current account with overdraft or a mobile phone contract, then you may have already have credit accounts and credit history without specifically requesting credit.

Tixy

You might not want a credit card or to borrow money but even if you wanted to change to a new current account with full debit card you would still be credit checked for this (unless it was a basic bank account).