Mortgage

A close friend of mine—we’ll call her Lena—used to freeze every time a financial form asked for her credit score. She’d glance around, embarrassed, and mumble something about it “not being great,” hoping no one would press further. She had a steady income, no extravagant spending habits, and had even paid off her car—but years of medical debt and missed payments in her early twenties had left her score bruised and stubbornly stuck below 600.