What do you mean they operate worldwide? There are many countries that operate without credit scores.

The credit score provided by someone like Equifax is just a number - cheap and quickly requested via an API. And yes, bureaus don't have operations in every country - but my point was that credit scores don't just exist in the US.

Take the Netherlands, they don't use scores; rather you would request a report that details any known factors that influence creditworthiness.

The difference is: - the score is a simple weighting (0-1000) that is systematically calculated by the bureau. - Without a score provided, you have to make a judgment yourself on that individual's creditworthiness from their report.