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micha8st t1_je8q85o wrote

How are you penalized by a low credit score?

A: Only if you want to borrow more outside your existing debts.

The credit score is there to make it easier for potential creditors to rate you. So they don't have to spend a half hour asking about your salary and your first born and what elementary school you went to.

If you're not going open a new debt anytime soon, your credit score isn't a big deal.

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bury-me-in-books t1_jedqxvn wrote

To add to this, it can change fast as well. I had a score that was rather low, because I was barely making enough to pay my bills, and because I was carrying balances. I was seeing my score sit pretty still around there for awhile. Now I got a full time job around months ago, and my score shot up probably 200 points. Same bills, but the score changed because the circumstances changed.

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micha8st t1_jef2yzr wrote

yep, it can change fast.

But it can change slow, too.

I once "broke the utilization rule" and went way over 30% across all my credit cards. My score dropped like 40 points all at once, and then came back most of the way when I paid off the balances in full, by the due date.

I've heard that you won't recover quickly from is delinquency. If you keep paying late, or worse just skip payments altogether, that is hard to correct.

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