Credit scores are supposed to indicate how likely it is that someone will pay back money they borrowed. And credit scores matter — a lot. If you want to participate fully in this economy, you’ll probably need credit to buy a car or get housing and, in some cases, even to get a job. And yet, the current credit scoring system leaves lots of people out in the cold. About 26 million Americans are considered “credit invisible,” meaning they have no credit history.

“Anything that starts with good intentions, but that doesn’t have a whole lot of public accountability around it, will go off the rails,” said Frederick Wherry, professor of sociology at Princeton and director of the Dignity and Debt Network. Today’s credit scores were designed to make lending more fair by using data to determine who should have access to credit. But there’s still lots of inequity baked into the system.

On the show today, we delve into the mystery behind credit scoring and why some people think it’s time to rethink how we measure creditworthiness.

Share how your credit score has affected you with our sister show, “Marketplace Tech.”

And, there’s still time: Sign up for the “Make Me Smart” newsletter (or any other Marketplace newsletter) by Feb. 28 and be entered to win a signed “Vintage Kai” T-shirt.

Here’s everything we talked about today: