The "Chinese social credit" system is vastly overblown.

I'm living here (China, Beijing and Jiangsu) now, and there are exactly two cases in the past eight months where the "social credit" system has had any impact at all:

- To open "take first pay after" vending machines. These are vending machines which are basically big locked fridges; if your credit score is high enough, you can open the machines, take whatever drinks/snacks you want, and they'll use (I presume) computer vision to charge you afterwards. If you don't have a high enough credit score, tough, you can't use them. (But there's almost always normal pay-first vending machines nearby).

- To borrow mobile charging packs (powerbanks). Some operators will let you "swipe your credit" (check your credit score) to take one without paying a deposit. If your credit score isn't high enough, you first pay e.g. a ¥99 deposit (~$15USD) which gets returned when you return the powerbank, not a big deal.

That's...it. My credit score is high enough on only one platform (Alipay), so I get to try what happens with both "high" and "low" credit, and I can confidently say these are the *only* two cases where I have even been asked to show the credit score. I have taken multiple train trips, bought lots of stuff in stores and restaurants, etc. without ever touching the "social credit score".

P.S. I literally don't even know how to raise my credit score, and neither do many of the folks who live here - again, not that it matters, because the score is simply not that important.