If you have bad credit, you’ll have a hard time getting credit cards, which means you’ll end up paying cash for everything. It may not be a nuisance until you need to do something like renting a car and you will have to pay an extra deposit if you don’t because you don’t have a credit card.

Repairing your credit includes paying off those debt collection accounts. Until you do, you face relentless calls and letters from debt collectors. While you can take action to stop debt collector calls, collection accounts often move from one debt collector to another. When a new collector gets your debt, you’ll have to go through the process of sending letters to stop the calls all over again.

Home-ownership has always been the American Dream. Bad credit is the nightmare that keeps you from realizing that dream. Many banks won’t finance a mortgage until you’ve repaired your credit and those that will approve you with poor credit will charge you a significantly higher interest rate.