@kczchwcz wrote:
@ScoreSensei wrote:It's interesting how financial compatibility is such a big deal in relationships these days.
Women in the U.S. couldn't open bank accounts without a male co-signer until 1974, so to me, it makes sense that the issue of financial compatibility wouldn't start bubbling up until a while after that.
Sorry, gotta call B.S. on that; my grandmother was widowed during WWII and opened many bank accounts, and started several businesses on her own before she ultimately got remarried in the late 1960. Then there was my grandmother's sister, never married, had several bank account dating back to the depression.
@FireMedic1 wrote:Hi. My name is FM1. You are? Nice to meet you. Your very attractive. Single? Why yes. Would you like to go have lunch one day on the beach? Sure! Noon at Joes Crab Shack? Sounds great! Bring your MyFICO 3B report. 750's your in. 500's. Had a great date. Nice company. Had fun. Next.
I was bankrupt when I got married. Bankrupt and facing legal problems.
I'm better now. You know, if my spouse had judged me based on one moment in my life, they would have tossed a perfectly good man away who has always had their back and made sure that they got everything they needed and built us both up.
Not everything is what it looks like.
You can come across a person who has an 850 FICO that's a complete......Psycho? The High FICO Psycho. Turns out the guy is a gigantic fake and a con man who is living on debt and it all comes unraveled soon after you marry. 
It's not unheard of.
A year before that mess I had an 806 FICO and nothing going wrong. What if we met then? Would I pass at that point? A year later my FICO score was 492. Today it's 711. I mean, these are just numbers that can end up anywhere depending vaguely on what's going on that moment.
The way a lot of people care about their FICO is temporarily while they spend a few years sweeping everything under the rug to get a mortgage and then it all goes bad again.
It doesn't surprise me that as people fail financially a lot, their FICO scores have never been higher.
Every year, things get worse and FICOs get higher. Why?
Well, for one thing, the industry tried to spend forever making sure the consumer never knew what was on their credit report, or their score, or in a position to challenge anything. Now everyone knows more than ever about what goes into a score and can get regular credit updates and sit there and watch it and dispute things, and work the system so it looks like they're effectively managing trade lines.
I mean, Thufir Hawat in Dune (1984) said, "The first step in avoiding a trap, is knowing of its existence." Back in the day, if someone said something bad about you on your credit report and it was wrong, you didn't even know it was there or how to fight it.
Today, even with my bankruptcy crap, I went down the list going "This is wrong, that's wrong, that's illegal, this is wrong. That's wrong."
Lenders put down a lot of sloppy things on negative information, including incorrect removal dates, illegal post-bankruptcy reporting, you name it. And it has absolutely increased my credit score to fight back and make them correct it.
