What Good Is a Good Credit Score?

In many contexts, the word good means the course that ought to be chosen when confronted with a moral dilemma between good and bad. Good is normally understood to be the polar opposite of evil and is of particular interest in the study of philosophy, religion, ethics and morality. It is used to refer to things that are desirable or gratifying, while bad refers to those things that are unpleasant, disagreeable or destructive. In addition, good and evil may also mean true values independently of other people’s opinions. For instance, people may regard killing as good while another may regard it as evil.

The concept of good and evil became prominent in ancient Greece, when philosophers like Plato and Aristotle propounded different ethical theories. Plato believed that right and wrong were absolute, and that there could be no grey area in between them. According to him, virtue was the supreme good, while vice was the main evil. For Aristotle, justice was the only good, and virtue the only evil, while he distinguished between happiness and misery, saying that the former was a product of virtue and the latter a product of vice.

A more secular context in which to talk about good and evil was provided by the writings of William Shakespeare. He described virtue and vice as “the alternation of good and ill”, and used the terms good and evil to contrast the lives of great characters like King Lear and Othello. He even pointed out how these two types of characters experienced joy and sorrow at different times in their lives. Thus, according to Shakespeare, virtue was the one that was shared by the characters on either side of the law, while evil was the one that was sole to be experienced by the anti-heroes. The Oxford Dictionary definition of the term has good as its base word, while evil is one of its variants.

In terms of political philosophy, Edmund Burke defines virtue as, “a form of practical and social wisdom, which tends to increase the happiness of man”. According to the common Oxford definition, however, a virtue is “the observance of rules or laws, founded on the ideas of right and justice” and “the willingness and sincere avidity to comply with such rules or laws”. In light of the definitions of good and evil, perhaps we can see the difference between personal ethics and public ethics.

However, what is important is not just personal ethics (rightness) but rather a good credit score, which is rooted in financial considerations. When your credit history shows consistent payments of all your debts, then that is a sign that lenders see you as a responsible borrower. If not, then lenders are more hesitant in offering loans. But what kind of impression do good credit scores leave on future creditors? A good credit score leaves a good impression on future lenders that a borrower is a safe bet.

In addition to the credit score, lenders will also consider the type of lender that you choose. The conventional lenders usually target borrowers with low credit scores and offer them unsecured short-term loans. However, non-conventional lenders sometimes look down on borrowers with bad credit histories and offer them secured loans that require collateral. It is important for borrowers to realize that even if they do have bad credit scores, they should still apply to at least two or three conventional lenders. This gives them the opportunity to negotiate the terms of their loan and get better terms and interest rates than what they would get from a hard lender.