The credit industry has such a major influence over our lives that it’s hard to imagine not needing it when making major life decisions. But what if you didn’t need credit?
What if there was a way to get around the stresses of maintaining a good credit score to buy a car, own a house or even rent a car? How would you be able to get away with living a no credit life?
Here are a few ideas…
1. Win the Lottery
If you were able to win the lottery – but not just any lottery, the big lottery – you could have enough money after taxes to pay cash for a home and car. Not only this, but you could pay off all of your debt so that if you wanted to use your credit again, you could.
2. Get Government Assistance
If you really want to remove the need for credit from your life, you could simply quit your job and ask the government for assistance with housing, food and more. If you can manage to convince your employer to lay you off, you may be able to get unemployment benefits (if they’re available) and COBRA benefits as well!
Never mind your family who will likely want to kill you for giving up your job in this tough economy. Once you explain that you did it to sidestep the use of credit, they’re bound to understand, right?
3. Move Back In With Your Parents
After your spouse and children leave you for quitting your job, you might try moving back in with your parents. There, no one will be trying to score credit. The pressure will be all on your parents. They can buy you a car, get you credit cards and more. Even better, you may still qualify for some government benefits, so give it a shot.
Anything to avoid the pressure of improving your credit score.
4. Assume Someone Else’s Identity
Of course, we’re not here to promote identity theft as an option, but suppose you somehow were able to assume someone else’s identity for a little while. If you could pull this off, you could get your hands on a credit loan and maybe establish your own online credit without worrying about your own credit debt because you could simply work with someone else’s.
But hey, we’re not recommending it or anything. It’s just a thought…
So do any of these ideas appeal to you? If not, then it looks like you’re going to have to play by the rules and take the time to understand your credit report and score so that you can improve them and essentially take advantage of credit cards, home and auto loans and more.
Getting On Board with Your Credit
If you’re committed to getting a better grasp on your credit then it’s important to start with getting a free copy of your report and score. By doing this, you have the opportunity to see what’s on your credit history then see what score lenders and creditors see when you apply with them.
Here are some more steps to take when getting on board with your credit:
- Understand what the report says: Reports from the three credit bureaus often have conflicting ways of reporting, which is why it’s a good idea to learn what the information on each report means (the details are usually listed at the bottom of each report).
- Understand your credit score: Once you get a copy of your credit score (the FICO score is most relevant to lenders and creditors), it’s important to understand where yours falls in the spectrum and what actions you could take to improve it.
- Dispute your report: While you don’t want to dispute everything you see, by reviewing your report, you have an opportunity to correct information that may be inaccurate. In doing so, some items may be removed, which will improve your score.
- Clean up / improve your credit: Once you’ve reviewed your score and report and disputed what was inaccurate, it’s time to pay down the debts you have and establish good credit. But as you clean things up, be aware of your credit utilization ratio so that you don’t lower your score while trying to improve it.
Of course, life would be easier if card credit and other forms of credit were not an issue in our lives. But since they are, if you’re not willing to avoid needing credit, then you’ll need to get on board with ways to improve it – and fast.
