Things You Can’t Do With Bad Credit

Your financial health hinges on managing your credit. However, are you aware that blemishes in your credit or a bad score can keep you from getting a variety of things you need in your day-to-day life?

Not to mention bigger things, like car loans and a home loan. That said, you might be surprised at the options that will be closed to you if you have a low credit score. Here’s a quick look at a few of them. 

Renting An Apartment

You might not qualify for your mortgage loan because of your credit, but you’ll still be able to rent an apartment, right? If you have a 580 credit score, many property management companies, and even private property owners won’t rent to you. These days, it seems as if their credit requirements are becoming ever more stringent.

Buying Or Starting A Business

If you’ve ever wanted to be an owner of a franchise, such as Baskin Robbins or Subway, you’ll need to have good credit. Poor scores can keep you from financing a franchise or result in a down payment that’s out of this world. Additionally, it can keep you from getting a commercial lease. 

If you wanted to take out a bank loan to start a small business, that’s out too. For a bank loan for a startup, you’ll need to have good credit. Startups aren’t exactly inexpensive and most people need to take out a loan of some sort to finance one.

If you have a credit score lower than 650, a bank will nearly always turn you down.

Getting A Mortgage

Just to make this clear, you’ll still be able to purchase a new home if you happen to have the entire purchase price just sitting in your bank account. However, not many of us have that kind of money and will need to take out a mortgage.

If this is you, the difference between having an excellent credit rating or a mediocre one can cost you more than $10,000 over the life of the loan in interest. It could also get you denied.

Employment

More often these days, employers are conducting credit checks on prospective employees. Pre-employment credit checks are especially being done for financial or government jobs. Again, this is becoming increasingly common. So, if you want to get a decent job, you’ll need to have good credit.

Get Married With Bad Credit

When you decide to get married, your debts become those of your spouse. This means that the person in question might be more than a bit wary of taking on out-of-control debt and inferior credit.

Car Loan

You might want to take out a loan to purchase a new vehicle, whether you do it from a dealer or from your bank. If you don’t have good credit, you’ll more than likely have to pay exorbitant rates for interest and you may have to put down an abnormally large down payment, and you may even be denied outright.

If you have a score lower than 550, you’ll likely need to have someone cosign for you.

Student Loan

Some federal student loans don’t take your credit score into account, but many of them do require you to have good credit. Even if you get one while having imperfect credit, you’ll pay thousands more in interest over the life of your loan.

In Conclusion

Everyone knows having good credit is a good thing. However, not everyone knows all of the challenging things about having sub-prime credit. These are just a few of the disadvantages. You also might not be able to get a personal loan, car insurance, financing for dental care, and more. 

Do you know what your credit score is? Go to CreditNerd now and find out.