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Due Credit
Emily Baron Cadloff’s article “Discredited” (June 2022) illustrates how credit scores are an imperfect solution to a problem that is difficult to resolve. Allowing creditors a simple method of determining the reliability of borrowers creates efficiency while making the system incredibly impersonal. Pushing for a holistic approach to judge loan applicants based on employment and education would humanize the experience and allow borrowers with poor credit some pathways to improve their scores. Additionally, increasing transparency in how the scores are calculated and creating more room to dispute inaccuracies would help raise confidence in the system. At the moment, credit agencies are functionally an oligopoly, but if credit scores become more of a political issue and policy makers push for the creation of a government agency devoted to credit scores, they might be more willing to reform further.
