As the other poster said, it really isn't as bad as everyone here is making it out. There are some ways that the system sucks - in particular if you get caught up in some kind of issue with fraudulent information, etc. But for the most part the system works and is a fairly accurate measure of how likely you are to pay back your debts.

If you are a fairly reasonable and responsible person, it is not hard to keep a good credit score. When I first moved out of my parents house, I got a credit card, used it to pay my bills and buy groceries, and set up "automatically pay the balance each month", and ended up with an 800 credit score after a few years, which is considered excellent.

These days, I have a house where I rent out some rooms. As such, I check the credit score of my prospective tenants. Per the law in my state, I can legally reject someone from renting from me if they have a score lower than 600, which may seem harsh until you understand that having a credit score under 600 is a gigantic flashing red flag. Passing this threshold doesn't mean making a few mistakes, so much as it means consistently making gigantic fuckups.

As an example, I recently moved in a guy who had a 560 credit score. He had multiple different credit cards that he'd maxed out, and then completely defaulted on paying. But he seemed like a cool guy, and he was trying to straighten out his financial situation, he'd just moved to the state and was going to school to get his nursing degree and had a couple part time jobs lined up, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Well, after living here for a month, he had still failed to pay his deposit, informed me that he would have to pay the current month's rent (already late) in installments, and was actually going to move out, back to his mom's house on the other side of the country, at the end of the month because he couldn't afford both tuition and rent with his part time work. And it's like - jesus christ dude, you picked up your whole life, moved across the country, signed a lease, enrolled in classes, found a job, but never bothered to do the math and figure out how much it would actually cost??? And now the only solution is to rip up all that groundwork and start from scratch at your mom's house? I'm not even saying that moving in with your mom to save money is a bad thing - but this guy just absolutely fucked himself pulling the trigger way too early with absolutely no forethought. And that is pretty typical for people with bad credit scores - they have bad credit scores because they are, in fact, very bad with money.