When people lose their homes, the dark times in their lives can eventually be overcome. By hard work, attention to bills, and saving when possible, a good credit score can be rebuilt. However, what people are only now realizing is a bad credit score doesn’t just prevent you from buying a home. Now low scores can prevent affordable purchases, dictate that you’ll live somewhere bad, and even stop you from getting a job.
Let’s say you need a car to get back and forth to work. A low score doesn’t necessarily mean you CAN’T buy one, it means that you’ll pay out the nose on your higher interest rate.
A low credit score and foreclosure will also be found if you’re renting an apartment or house. Savvy landlords check your payment history because they don’t want to become another statistic on your list of nonpayments.
What’s even worse – in my opinion – is that now employers check those scores, too. MSNBC.com reports that bad credit can become a barrier to finding a job,
There are no hard numbers on how often poor credit reports thwart someone’s effort to find a new job. Many applicants will never know; employers aren’t required to explain why a candidate was turned down for a job.
But a recent survey by the Society of Human Resource Management found that many employers use credit checks to screen job candidates. Of the roughly 350 employers who responded, 60 percent said they checked credit histories for some or all job applicants. That’s up from 43 percent in 2004 and just 25 percent in 1998.
A friend of mine just lost out on a job because of her credit score. She has worked for me in the past so I know from personal experience that she is smart, dedicated, and relentless in getting the job done. I’m sorry she won’t have the chance to prove this to the other would-be employer.
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