“I’m sorry, Elias,” his mortgage broker, Sarah, said with a sympathetic wince. “Your application was flagged. There’s a series of late payments on a high-interest retail card in your name. Your score is in the basement.”
Elias blinked. “I don’t own any retail cards. I use one debit card for everything.”
By the following spring, Elias sat back in Sarah’s office. She pulled his fresh file and smiled. “Clean as a whistle. That townhouse is yours if you still want it.”
Elias took the keys, but he also took a new habit. He set a recurring alert on his calendar for the same day every year. He realized that while the report was free, the peace of mind it provided was the most valuable asset he owned.