I think most people who have been on the MyFICO boards for a while realize that you need to set up a specific plan to meet your specific situation. No one plan fits all. You also have to be willing to amend your plan as your situation changes.
Where I think some people are helped by Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman is where they need an authoritative person to lead them out of their problem. They need to stop doing the wrong things that got them into their current mess.
I think if you have the discipline the advise you get on these board will lead you on a straighter path to fix your problem and keep you out of trouble.
@UncleB wrote:
@tsu1112 wrote:I also listen to Dave quite a bit and agree with much of what he states. My concern is that he believes in a zero credit score. He says you can still get a mortgage with specific lenders but he never addresses the fact that some employers check credit before hiring you as well as setting up phone, cable, utilities, insurance, and the list goes on and on. Without a score you will either be di ied or have to pay a higher amount in deposits or monthly service.
+1
I've personally known people who had little to no credit (but no bad credit); they simply paid cash with everything.
Life quickly became a hassle, though, when it came time to get utilities (as you mention) or do something as mundane as rent a car. There are agencies that will let you rent with a debit card - I did when I was rebuilding - but you have to keep enough money in your bank account to cover the deposit, which not everybody can do.
People who live "off the credit grid" are able to 'get by', but it requires a level of planning and effort most of us don't have to deal with.
That was me dude, I wore the numbers off my BOFA debit card.
Then sitting in a Corner Bakery two days bfore my registration date here talking with a buddy over breakfast, realized I could never afford a house without credit, and went to do something about it.
Could've paid cash for a house in some areas of the country, but nowhere close to all and not where I live in S. Cali. My condo is 1/3 the price of the houses in the good school districts, and I couldn't have covered that marker in cash still would've been short by ~50K, and finding the additional 700K (by which time prices would have moved again) well yeah. On the flipside I was pre-approved for something like 1.1M based on income / downpayment / credit, so could've been done there leveraging credit if it had made sense to do so.
Hard to live a cash-based existence here anyway unless you plan on renting forever: that's not necessarily a deal killer, but sooner or later financially think it's way way better to get into the housing market especially while we still have our mortgage interest rate deduction anyway.
