> The reality is that credit rating has a strong correlation with responsibility.
No, the reality is that responsibility is but one component of credit rating - another, moreso, being 'how attractive are you as a customer to credit providers'.
This is why your score might drop when you pay off an account, or close it. Defenders of the system and CRAs will say "well, there's less information to assess your creditworthiness now that that account is closed", as if, say, you had ten years of on time payments on that account, but they mean nothing.
No, the reality is that responsibility is but one component of credit rating - another, moreso, being 'how attractive are you as a customer to credit providers'.
This is why your score might drop when you pay off an account, or close it. Defenders of the system and CRAs will say "well, there's less information to assess your creditworthiness now that that account is closed", as if, say, you had ten years of on time payments on that account, but they mean nothing.