Breaking news: a bad credit rating can really hurt your chances of getting a mortgage, credit card or another loan. Okay, okay. So that is hardly breaking news. Everyone knows this. But what you may not know is that having a bad credit rating can hurt you in ways that go far beyond just financial ramifications. Oh, yeah, having a bad credit score can start to creep under the skin of so many different areas of your life and we are going to highlight some of these. It isn’t to scare you, though, it is to help you understand why it is so important you take the steps to improve your rating.
Rocky Relationships
As we all know, having a poor credit history is going to put a halt to borrowing any more money from a lender, which is why so many then turn to friends and family. However, while being late on something like a credit card payment will damage your credit score, failing to pay back a friend on time can very quickly destroy a relationship. You may think this isn’t too bad, and that you’ll come through it, but research says that financial disagreements last longer than any other, while they also create more negative environments too.
Bad Basics
When you think about basic requirements in the modern age, mobile phones, cars, and utilities all fall within the bell-curve. They are also all things that can be affected by bad credit scores. As such, you may have an arduous journey to find someone who will take the risk on you. It could be that you have to get specific pay monthly phones for bad credit, or a specialist car insurance company with jacked-up rates, or even a utility company that demands an upfront deposit in order to act as your provider. Either way, the basics can become a lot less basic to get hold of.
Forget Mortgages
We all know that credit scores are one of the main factors that affect getting a mortgage, but did you know that your credit score can also stop you renting a property too. With such a high demand for properties these days, almost all landlords will check a potential tenant’s credit rating and that is often the deciding factor. They want to be paid and they want to be paid on time. It doesn’t matter how nice you are, or what an ideal tenant you will be, or what your references say; if you can’t pay then you won’t get a home.
Crushed Career
Yes, there is a swell of disagreement surrounding the fact a potential employer can use your credit score against you and deny you from getting the role on that basis but, right now, they can. And even if the law does change, there is nothing to stop them saying you didn’t get the job for a different reason knowing full well it was your credit rating that did the damage. To put it to you plainly, 42% of people go through a credit score during a job application and 13% of them don’t get the job because of what the employer finds. That means you could fail to get your dream job and embark on a career that you know you’ll succeed at.
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