a credit score locks people out of an entire tier of purchases that could reasonably be paid off over time if they weren't entirely opt-ed out by credit, it isn't just fancy phones and internet services.

i've known home-owners that can't get financed for things like air conditioners because of medical debt -- and they were home owners -- and large appliances like that constitute large purchases espescially for those on fixed incomes; this essentially means there is a group of people that own homes, , likely retired so they're working on a fixed income and could surely use the flexibility of finance options, need to finance the repairs, and can't because of unrelated medical debt.