credit score in Israel - looking for seasoned advice

[whybe]

So, word on the town here in Israel is, Israeli Ministry of Finance will roll out a plan to make Israeli citizens' credit scores public for the first time. Credit scores were an internal calculation of the bank and as such, not shared between banks or other money lending bodies (nor the state, until one was already default on their loans). The bank's clients werent privy to their own scores. So, of course having access to this info is better than not having it under your control at all. But what are the pitfalls? What does US experience say about this and the way one should behave if they know your credit score is being constantly monitored by external commercial entities?

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

In the U.S. it's simply a gauge of how likely you are to pay back a debt. Nobody following the advice on this board should have a bad score for long.

[BicycleB]

Banks make mistakes. 

In the US, the law gives you the ability to learn the factors that contribute to your score under various circumstances.  So you should periodically check the score and the information underlying it, to make sure that false information isn't damaging it. 

[jlajr]

Nobody following the advice on this board should have a bad score for long.

Amen, ShoulderThingThatGoesUp.

Hello whybe. Nice to meet you. I've lived in Israel for more than 18 years, after living in the US for the first 26 years of my life.

I do not know whether a central credit score system has any pitfalls, but I'm not knowledgeable about the issue.

I imagine that the goal is more competition and transparency in the banking sector, and if that happens, I guess that would be a positive trend.

I am glad that there isn't credit-score sharing (yet?) between US and Israel. A few years ago, that would have been an issue for me. Don't ask.