Prospects with no FICO (a national American credit rating) score, no credit cards and no checking account just look like risk to a bank.

FORBES: BBVA Pursues Profits Among The Unbanked Using Nontraditional Data

California has the worst credit rating (no shocker there.) And Texas is home to the lowest percentage of high school graduates over age 25.

FORBES: The Worst Run State in America? Not California

If after gathering all of that information you are brave enough to send it off through the mail, the packet that you get back will simply summarize your credit rating, with absolutely no information about your insurance score.

FORBES: How An Insurance Company Determines Your Premiums

Bank shares are under terrible pressure as Greece has been given a credit rating of CCC, which means no institution limited to investment grade paper can continue to hold it.

FORBES: A Bankrupt Greece Could Be Europe's Lehman Brothers

Credit ratings are no longer the concern of only the 100 or so German companies covered by leading rating agencies.

ECONOMIST: Financing Germany's Mittelstand

European authorities need to avoid a further sovereign credit rating downgrade of Greece, which would put it in default, as this would make Greek bonds no longer good enough to be held as collateral by the European Central Bank.

FORBES: Voluntary Greek Debt Restructuring Still Constitutes Default, S&P Says