Just wondering, who says she doesn’t have good credit???
Do you have a cell phone? When I got my cell phone, they needed my ID, my SSAN, my picture ID, and a credit card. They then ran a credit check on me, right there on the spot. It takes about 15 minutes to get 'approved'.
You see, you can run up a HUGE phone bill in a very short period of time. Don't believe me? Think how long you can call China, Brazil and download data while you are travelling across Europe. There are verified tales of businessmen who rang up over $14,000 on a European business trip - because they forgot to turn off a feature on their iPhone that checked their email every 5 minutes. Now, if you don't pay up - your phone may be turned off after 2 months. Who eats that potentially ~$30K bill?
Everyone should have a credit score, when you are married, you take your combined income and you have a score based on your family's income. If this woman has no credit score, this would indicate that she has never had a credit card, nor applied for a loan. At the very least, she should have some source of verifiable income.
A business WANTS to sell their products. But you only want to sell to a customer who is willing and able to pay. Just because you can get seated and order the Filet Mignon and Lobster meals - doesn't mean you can pay for them. In this case, the phone company simply wants to know that they have a reasonable guess that when they give a woman a cell phone, they will recoup the bills when they come due.