The credit industry is very difficult to understand.
I don’t have the highest number available, but I am in that group and close.
I own everything outright...house, lots of land, cars, etc. More cash than most and a sound investment program.
Yet I am considered a risk because I have rarely and infrequently borrowed money.
I am now retired, but when I was working I looked for buyers who had that financial history.
I think credit ratings are a rip off. Anyone in business that cannot make his own decisions as to who to sell to is not competent.
To anyone trying to borrow money, it is a big deal. But the answer to the question posed is not, in my opinion, a clue to the condition of the economy.
“I don’t have the highest number available, but I am in that group and close.”
Some of the tricks to get a perfect score are counterintuitive. Let’s say you have a score of 840 and mortgage, credit cards you payoff each month, but no car loan. Getting a $20,000 car loan could actually bump your score to 850, because your types of credit factor went up. You would think, adding more to my debt total would make my score go down.
The credit industry is not that hard to understand. With fractional reserve lending you’d have to be dumb as a box of rocks or extremely unlucky to lose money as a banker. Still some of them manage.
A few years ago, I was surprised to learn I had no credit score at all. At that time, I needed a score urgently (long story). To get one, I had to put a deposit down on a credit card (yes, you read that correctly). Then, each month, I charged a small amount to that card and paid it off in full. And I still had to wait close to a year for a score. When I finally got one, it started around 710. Eventually, it has crept up to about 740 (AFAIK). So, if there's been a big boost to credit scores, I didn't receive it.