I love it how your credit score is such an integral part of society, that anything under a 600 is considered disastrous to your financial wellbeing. But the fact of the matter is, if you are working poor, you can never expect your credit to increase in a meaningful way.
Case in point, My credit score (canadian), according to TransUnion is 541. in the poor category. It's not from missing rent payments, or declaring bankruptcy, or fraud. No, it's from carrier hopping. For those who do not know, Carrier hopping refers to switching providers, primarily Cellular or Internet, rather frequently because you cannot afford the bills. When you are working poor, you sometimes have choose between food and internet, food or cellular service, or even, between cellular and internet. Even back in 2019 (when this started to happen), when things were at least slightly better, my phone bill was $150 a month for a singular cellphone and a basic 6 GB data plan. (I am Canadian, yes these were the prices back then), even though at the time my employer has a 30% corporate discount with the company.
When you make minimum wage, and rent takes up 85% of your rent, for a singular 2 bedroom apt, you will have to carrier hop. You don't think about device balances, or past due bills, as you need the service in the modern age to do practically anything. So, you switch, and then your provider dumps your device balance, which is already exorbitantly high because the CRTC, which governs the telecommunications industry is corrupt, and appointed by the major 3 cellular providers (yes, this is real, i am not joking.) now imagine doing this a few times as you fall in-between jobs, your rent goes up, food goes up, and you can barely exist.
Now i have a steady job, working 11 hours shifts, 4 days a week, and i want to get things corrected. i feel like i can apply at least $100 a month to get this resolved. it will take time but i should be able to do it. And i had the great idea of getting a personal loan, one that would allow me to lump sum all of my debts to cell carriers (which is why my credit is 541), and then pay that every month or paycheck if i could swing it, as i get paid 2-3 times a month depending on month (every 2 weeks). There's just one problem:
**I KEEP GETTING DENIED DUE TO BAD CREDIT**
Even at places that state we give loans to people with bad credit, i am denied. i always ask why, and they state that they take a look at my TransUnion history and say i'm, not qualified. This is even though:
I've already paid off some balances owed to 2 companies and have only 3 left.
I pay my rent of $1600 on time, and even report it to Transunion and Equifax through a credit monitoring subsidiary.
I'm gainfully employed and make 2100 a month.
I've never been arrested, or even charged for things like Wire Fraud, Identity Theft, or any other crime for that matter. I don't even go out at all most days besides for work and largely just stay home after work unless I need groceries.
I've even tried asking for less, enough to just clear 1 balance, which was just under $900. I know that is not entirely ideal in this scenario as it is just swapping 1 debt for another, but nope, still not qualified, not even with a co-signatory.
How exactly am i to rebuild my credit? i'm doing everything right, everything i can think of to get ahead and bring my self up, but literally nobody seems to care, nor to be able to offer a lifeline. I'm at my wits end and it's absolutely disheartening and soul crushing.