¶ … Laise, Eleanor. (22 Apr 2008) "Racking up points on your credit score; as lenders tighten standards, potential borrowers focus on ways to raise their ratings: Joining the 700 Club." Wall Street Journal. pg.

Given the current credit crisis, more and more consumers of credit want to be members of the '700 Club.' This means that their credit scores are above 700, making them a 'good credit risk' in the eyes of a lender. Once upon a time, people with good credit who had never defaulted on a loan gave little thought to their credit scores. Now, these consumers are charging on little-used credit cards, keeping open old credit cards they barely use, applying for credit cards they will not use to show that they have a great deal of available and unused credit, are paying off loans, and only allowing a few lenders to pull credit reports when shopping for loans, because more inquiries can lower a score

Lenders are demanding higher credit scores because of the skyrocketing delinquency rates, and consumers are learning to 'work the system' by which their scores are calculated. And "these days, a clean credit record isn't just important if you're shopping for a loan: It could even affect your career. Potential employers, landlords and insurers routinely examine credit reports" (Laise 2008). However, lenders are getting 'wise' to consumer manipulation and new scoring systems may complicate consumers' efforts to monitor and improve their scores. New models place "more emphasis on having a variety of credit types, such as installment loans and revolving accounts like credit cards, while increasingly penalizing people who use a big chunk of their available credit" (Laise 2008).

There seems to be something strange about a system that rewards consumers for having lots of unused credit cards. This is supposed to show the potential borrower is not using all available lines of credit. While paying off debt is certainly a sign someone is a good risk from a lender's point-of-view, other aspects of the system seem to encourage borrowing rather than sound financial management. Putting a greater emphasis on consumers who pay their bills on time, for example, might be better for both lenders and society at large, when calculating credit scores, than rewarding consumers who have revolving, unused access to credit and who have taken out a variety of loans, even if they pay those loans on time.