<prompt> Human: This sub has lots of questions and answers about how to build credit, but Ive never seen it discussed why one would want to do so. I dont even have a credit card.EDIT: OK so building credit is good because it allows you to get into more debt cheaper, seemingly mostly for profligate and consumerist purposes, or investments like buying a house or a car you cant afford. Suggesting using savings or insurance instead of going into debt will get you downvoted to oblivion for no apparent reason.This sub scares the shit out of me.Assistant: Many things are too expensive to buy with cash, like a house or new car. If you ever want to own any of these things, its important to have good credit so that you will be able to take out loans.Human: Well, plenty of people buy cars without credit. You can just buy a used one, and, over time, upgrade to better ones as you get wealthier. However, buying a used house or apartment doesnt make it affordable in the same way as a used car, so nobody saves up and buys a house for cash.What good credit buys you, is flexibility. The ability to buy that car or that couch or that vacation now, and pay it off on terms convenient to you. A safety net for unexpected things happening to you or your family: the ability to -even without a large savings stash- pay for something right now and eliminate a problem, for what might be a relatively small fee the interest. If you lose your job or have a big uninsured loss or emergency, being able to put the bill or just a month or twos spending on a credit card can smooth over your problem. But the time at which you have that problem might well be too late to convince someone to extend credit to you, if you dont already have a history of proving you can handle and pay off credit. And being desperate for credit with no prior history is the very worst time to try to get some at a reasonable price.Whereas if you already have a couple of credit cards in your back pocket, you dont need to reach out and beg for help from a very weak position.Assistant: The prudent thing to do is to use savings and insurance for the things you mention.  <response>: Auto and property insurers often check your credit as part of the underwriting process. Having better credit means lower insurance premiums. 