This is a great 99% Invisible episode about how credit cards came about, and what it was like beforehand, where you would be interviewed at length by a store before being given credit to buy, for example, a piece of furniture. Credit cards were designed to outsource checking of credit-worthiness, stop intrusive interviews with stores and avoid embarrassment of being rejected in-store. Lax digital storage of information and consolidation in the credit rating industry seems to be the problem here, not credit ratings per se.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-fresno-drop/

Everyone seems to like the idea of friendly local stores these days, but I also remember reading an interview with someone who was around when large chain supermarkets were starting. They loved the fact that they were relatively anonymous so people weren't able to gossip about you buying, for example, condoms.

There's clearly a balance to be struck here, and it's well away from a sensible middle ground at the moment.