A score is not a person

According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), credit scores usually range from 300 to 900, and the higher the score, the better. It is calculated from your file: how long you have been using credit and what kinds, whether you pay on time, how much you owe, how close you are to your limits and how often you apply for new credit. Paying on time is the most important factor.

The FCAC itself says so: a weak or limited history can make it harder to borrow or get a card, and can even hurt your chances of renting a home or getting a job. Yet the score measures past use of credit, not honesty. A newcomer, a young adult or someone who has prudently avoided debt may show up with an almost empty file. And if some groups had less access to credit in the past, a tool that looks neutral can prolong the gap.

In 1624, the English poet John Donne published meditations written during a serious illness. In the seventeenth, he states that no human being is an island, that each is a piece of the continent. The image echoes Ubuntu without merging with it: Donne's meditation is born of a man alone facing his death, whereas Ubuntu is an ethic lived in community, in which we become fully persons through others and the obligations we have toward them. A lender, landlord or employer who takes the time to look beyond the number is doing exactly that: recognizing a person where the system saw only a file.