Bad Credit

  

Categories: Bonds, Banking, Metrics

A credit score or credit history that makes lenders unwilling to lend money or to only offer high interest rates.

How bad does your credit score have to be to be deemed bad? It depends on the lender, but generally anything below 400–500 ain't pretty. There are lots of "bad credit" credit cards and loans out there that promise to help people who are in this situation, but they usually come with lots of limits and very high costs, so credit carder, beware.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What are Collection Agencies?12 Views

00:00

Finance, a la shmoop. What are collection agencies?

00:06

All right so sometimes when a man and a woman have trouble getting pregnant well [A couple kissing]

00:13

the guy has to go to one of these places, oh wait that's a different kind of [Stop sign appears]

00:18

collection agency, sorry just kidding. All right well a collection agency in the finance world

00:23

is seeking a different form of currency that is literal currency, greenbacks [Lots of money being counted]

00:29

cashola, whose money are they after exactly? Deadbeats, anyone who made a

00:34

promise to remit payments to pay back a mortgage, to pay off a credit card, to pay [Wads of money]

00:38

out for a jewelry thing at the mall, to pay for a tattoo down there as well. [Someone getting a tattoo]

00:43

You name it and then they defaulted on that promise to pay back the vendor, yeah

00:48

because when you sign your name on the dotted line and agree to pay back a

00:51

lender for their generous loan or extension of credit or agree to buy [Someone signing a contract]

00:56

something and pay someone 30 days later for it, paying them back is really not a

01:01

suggestion... Once you fall behind enough in your [Woman who is owed money does not look happy]

01:05

payments and you're a real deadbeat well they call a collection agency who then

01:10

tracks you down delivers nasty threatening letters to your mailbox and [Letter being posted]

01:14

if it's a New Jersey collection agency well they usually send someone to break

01:18

your kneecaps with a billy club, yeah they still do that... If the message still [Guy opens his door to find a man in a suit with a bat]

01:22

isn't getting through to you well the next step is for the agency to set the [Truck wheels]

01:26

wheels in motion that will result in the repossession of your home, your car, your [Repossessed notice being nailed to a house]

01:31

treasured signed set of Big Bang Theory trading cards you swore would be buried [Gravestone with the trading cards sticking out of the ground]

01:35

with you. So yeah if you choose not to make good on your obligations well you

01:39

shouldn't expect the people you owe to forget about you, or to go easy on you

01:44

like why should they would you do that for them, because they will stick a

01:47

collection agency on you, which is not a good feeling when you're up to your [Guy stood in a pile of bills]

01:51

knees in debt, or if you live in New Jersey up to your thighs... [Guy who has had his legs beat off in a pile of bills]

Up Next

Finance: What is a Line of Credit?
133 Views

What is a line of credit? A line of credit is kind of like a loan. A bank gives a borrower a line of credit, which basically says they can borrow â...

Finance: What is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?
1 Views

What is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the set of rules that debt collectors follow. These rules...

Finance: How Do Credit Card Companies Work?
116 Views

How do credit card companies work? Credit card companies are, in a way, lenders. They give consumers a rectangular piece of plastic that allows the...

Finance: What is Debt-to-EBITDA?
58 Views

What is Debt-to-EBITDA? Debt to EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is a ratio that calculates Debt to net earn...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)