It is a crazy world we live in.

[Chainfire]

Earlier this month, I paid off my house mortgage five years early. It left me with no debt. My credit score dropped 50 points.

What are they trying to tell me?

[onethatcares]

1. that the Murikin dream

requires you to be in debt.

F.... Em. from here on out, on the day you would have made a payment, give the bank the finger and laugh.

3 years running for me and I couldn't really care about my credit rating.

Congratulations.

[Chainfire]

2. Thank you.

The only credit I may need in the next few years would be to buy a new car. I am a car dealerships worst nightmare. I buy a car new and drive it until the wheels fall off, so, the current one may make it longer than I am able to drive.

My wife told me about the credit rating just a little while ago. What was odd, is that all of our credit has been joint, but her credit rating only dropped about five points. I think that must be because she has had a credit card for the last 12 years. We only use it on occasion and that is to keep it from being cancelled. When we do, we pay it off the same month. I got a credit card a few months ago in order to maintain some kind of credit rating and last week they notified me that if I didn't use the damn thing they would cancel it. I will probably use it to buy groceries this week and will pay it off at the next billing cycle. I have had it with the loan sharking bastards and their 20%+ interest rates. I learned that lesson decades ago, the hard way, and it is not something that I will repeat.

It is odd that that the only way to maintain a good credit rating is to be in debt, but then I am not well versed in the world of finance.

The subject of predatory lenders brings to mind the story of a good friend of mine, now dead and gone. Cliff knew that he was dying and that he would most likely not make it another year. He was living on Social Security Disability and didn't have two nickels to rub together. He had no family to benefit after his death. His last financial dealings were to triple mortgage his house, accept every credit card offer he could find, and ran up a glorious debt buying toys that he always wanted but could not afford. When I went to his viewing, I know what the slight smile on his face was about! He stuck it to all of his creditors. He was my hero!

[onethatcares]

4. those hard learned lessons.....

we only need to learn them once.

24% default rate tied to the price of mangos in DuBai on the third day of the 34th month. You don't want to be late on that payment.

I look around and people are actually financing 60K trucks, $1200.00 phones, vacations and cruises never thinking that all it takes is a small accident and that credit rating goes to hell . Not like we've ever seen USPS trucks upside down in a ditch with mail blowing up and down the highways.

[Chainfire]

5. I was in my 40s making a ton of money (for me)

And we bought stuff that we didn't need on credit and spend money like water. The job situation changed, the money stopped flowing and when we woke up, we had $30,000 in high interest credit and income divided by two. The mighty fell fast to the tune of collections calls and lawyer threats. It took three years to fight our way out of that. I may not be the brightest apple in the barrel, but that taught me a good lesson while I still had the ability to recover from it. Now if I can't pay for something out of pocket, I have learned not to lust after it. As a result, I have a economically stable retirement. The only thing that I fear any more is runaway inflation.

[onethatcares]

7. about the same situation but

we had decided to re fi our mortgage and made a appointment at the bank. Sitting down with the loan officer we went over our finances and she asked, "Do you have any outstanding credit card debt?" I said, "yeah, about $1200.00", my wife said "Yes, about $28,000.00".

I hadn't a clue. I thought she was spending part of her inheritance when buying things and our going on vacations.

Let's say we've come to an understanding about that stuff. Like I took over the household finances. Things are better this way.

[PJMcK]

3. I don't worry about my credit rating

We own our home.

We have very little consumer debt. We pay off our credit cards almost every month.

We pay cash for our cars, our vacations and our expenses whenever possible. If we assume some debt, we pay it off as quickly as possible.

Why support a corrupt banking system?

[Johnny2X2X]

6. 50 Points is meaningless

You have no debt and own a home outright. You can now save enough so credit isn't a factor for you. But I suspect you have really good credit even after the 50 point drop.

After you own a home, credit rating is not all that important.

[Chainfire]

8. One thing certain, I will not go in debt to improve my Equifax score. ;)

My father died owing his soul to the company store. I won't do that.

[anarch]

9. I always like to point out, your credit score is not some measure of your trustworthiness

or even your financial stability. It's a measure of how much profit the credit companies can likely make off of you in service charges and interest. They like it when you carry a bunch of debt and make regular payments.