You're assuming that "take on debt" means literally taking on debt that you don't pay back quickly. Building credit doesn't require actually going into debt; you just need to have a credit limit available to you, that you don't abuse. Absolutely nobody "_has to_ take on debt for the sole purpose of building a credit score", as you put it. Someone building credit should only use credit that they can pay off immediately. You don't "go into debt"; rather, you funnel/proxy money you already have through a creditor.
Building credit means you could put yourself thousands of dollars in debt... but you don't. 90% of building credit is demonstrating restraint NOT to use credit dangled in front of you. In the rare instance where you take advantage of the ability to use more credit than usual, you pay it off within a reasonable amount of time. The credit industry is predatory, to be sure. But that's only for the idiots who believe they're "able to" or "expected to" use all the credit afforded to them. It's about seeing all that possible "green" in front of you and NOT using it, or using it sparingly and responsibly.
>> Some of us would prefer not to utilize debt at all
So don't. Build your credit by buying groceries on a credit card, and paying it off every month. You're not really going into debt; you're just postponing paying your groceries by a week or two. You can build a near-perfect credit score without ever paying a single cent of interest.
> You're assuming that "take on debt" means literally taking on debt that you don't pay back quickly.
No, I'm saying I don't want to have anything to "pay back" to anyone. _You_ are free to live differently, I just want the option to complete my transaction at the time and move on. Yes, paying back debts on time prevents bad outcomes, but so does not taking on the debt in the first place. And objectively it's a much more rock solid way of making sure your finances don't get out of whack. I've never met anyone who says "I'm bad with debt," but yet many American's have suffered bad consequences from debt.
> you funnel/proxy money you already have through a creditor
A service I don't want, get no value from, and increases the cost of the goods I consume because they aren't offering it for free.
> Building credit means you could put yourself thousands of dollars in debt... but you don't.
Not quite, you could actually be carrying debt you aren't able to pay back, but are able to make payments on. In fact - it's in the credit industry's best interest for you take out lots of loans that you _can't pay back_ but _can_ make payments on because the (often massive) interest is the money maker. Soon you'll have paid more in payments than you were actually lent. This has gotten so bad the government has had to get involved multiple times. I'm worried that credit scores are tools to create that situation, because of this alignment (think it about like this - are you the customer/priority? or is it the lenders?). Sort of like casinos wanting you to think you're "up" or close to a big score when in reality you're in the red. (And don't get me started on the opaqueness of the systems, lack of recourse for errors, and oh yeah - the security negligence that leads to large scale losses of sensitive data...)
> "You're not _really_ going into debt;"
Aw come on, if you have to put "really" in italics you already know I'm not gonna buy it. :-)
I get that I can have a good credit score, I get that lots of people don't mind having one. To each their own. I'm just annoyed that I can't opt out. That "not having a credit score" is increasingly not a choice I can make, nor can my children.
Building credit means you could put yourself thousands of dollars in debt... but you don't. 90% of building credit is demonstrating restraint NOT to use credit dangled in front of you. In the rare instance where you take advantage of the ability to use more credit than usual, you pay it off within a reasonable amount of time. The credit industry is predatory, to be sure. But that's only for the idiots who believe they're "able to" or "expected to" use all the credit afforded to them. It's about seeing all that possible "green" in front of you and NOT using it, or using it sparingly and responsibly.
>> Some of us would prefer not to utilize debt at all
So don't. Build your credit by buying groceries on a credit card, and paying it off every month. You're not really going into debt; you're just postponing paying your groceries by a week or two. You can build a near-perfect credit score without ever paying a single cent of interest.