How A Bad Credit Report Affects Your Life

Summary: A low credit rating or bad credit report can negatively affect virtually every aspect of your life. Whether you are consistently late on your mortgage or utility bills or you are over your limit on your credit cards, bad credit can make purchasing on credit virtually impossible, and it can limit your lifestyle in many different ways. Though over time you can recover from a bad report, there are still many aspects of your life that can suffer from poor financial management and...

A low credit rating or bad credit report can negatively affect virtually every aspect of your life. Whether you are consistently late on your mortgage or utility bills or you are over your limit on your credit cards, bad credit can make purchasing on credit virtually impossible, and it can limit your lifestyle in many different ways. Though over time you can recover from a bad report, there are still many aspects of your life that can suffer from poor financial management and low credit scores. For instance, if you are planning to purchase a new or used car, it may be virtually impossible to secure a financing loan if you have a low credit report rating. Even if you can obtain a loan, you interest rate may be up to one hundred percent higher than it would if you had excellent credit. Rather than paying six or seven percent interest, you could end up with a fifteen or sixteen percent interest rate. Having bad credit can cost you thousands of dollars over the course of paying back your car loan. Not only will you not be able to get that new car you want, but you will also end up paying much more for the old car that you have to choose instead. If you are interested in purchasing your own home, you will have to take out a mortgage. If you have perfect credit, you can secure a low interest rate of around five percent or even less. This will make your monthly payments rather low. However, if you have bad credit, you might only be able to secure a loan that charges nine or ten percent interest, making your monthly payments much higher, and costing your thousands upon thousands of dollars over time. Credit card debt is one of the causes of poor credit, and it is also one of the ways poor credit can cost you the most. If you have several thousand dollars in credit card debt, and you are paying up to twenty percent in interest, it will be virtually impossible for you to ever pay off your debt within your lifetime. One the other hand, if you have excellent credit, you may be charged rates as low as eight percent, or possibly even lower still. Poor credit report ratings can affect not only your loan and credit card situations, but they can also affect your car insurance premiums! Though it seems unfair, automobile insurance companies sometimes consider people with bad credit as high-risk drivers. Having poor credit can cost your hundreds of dollars per year in car insurance premiums. If you are renter rather than a homeowner, some landlords and property management companies run credit checks before allowing you to rent from them. If your credit report shows a low score, you can be denied housing. If you do end up being able to rent, you might not be able to turn on utilities in your name, especially if you have been negligent in paying your bills in the past. Bad credit report ratings can affect virtually every aspect of your life, from your car to your house to your insurance premiums. Because of this, it can certainly also affect your health. Financial worries are a leading cause of personal and relationship stress, and this stress can lead to mental and physical health problems. There are many consumer credit counseling services that can help you gain control of your finances and get you on the right track toward good credit. Many of these companies are non-profits with their sole purposes of existing being to help people get back their financial and mental health.