Introduction
Mark started his first year of college as a freshman and got his first visa card. In a very short period of time he had maxed out the card limit and making the monthly payments was not a priority to him. He always let the calls from the credit card company go straight to voice mail on his cell phone. Eventually the calls stopped and he forgot about it. A couple of years later he was a senior and wanted to move off campus. The apartment complex he wanted was not really crazy about student tenants. They required credit checks for all applicants and turned Mark down. They gave the defaulted credit card debt listed on his credit report as the reason.
This is a true story. The apartment complex was probably using Mark’s credit report as an excuse because they really didn’t want college students anyway but it was completely legal. This type of situation is very common! The individual circumstances and details may be different but the basic scenario of a young person getting their very first credit card or loan and then messing it up happens all the time.
It’s no wonder… because we all go through years of schooling but no one ever teaches us the very basics of credit. It is usually trial and error, learn as you go. There are many eBook guides that attempt to teach people how to repair bad credit… but the purpose of this guide is simply to present the very basics of credit within different categories such as credit cards, auto loans, etc.
Because once you learn the basics it will go a long way to helping to avoid bad credit to begin with.
And… if you already have damaged credit… taking the time to learn the basics will make things much easier when you do attempt to repair it!