The lowest credit score you can have is a 350. I am fairly certain that if the Devil had one it would most certainly be the worst possible. How does one generate such a low score? Well, like Satan himself, indulgence, greed, envy, lust, gluttony and being a debtor with outright disrespect to the creditor can earn you a bad credit rating.

I have personally never seen a 350 credit score but supposedly they do exist. If you have bad credit did the Devil make you do it? Not hardly, you probably did it to yourself. Things happen. Life happens. People lose their jobs, go through divorce, lose retirement and savings in the stock market and are forced to avoid creditors for no other reason than survival.

Then there are those with devilish instincts that purposely rack up those credit cards, flee the repo man, and even stay under that roof until served with eviction for non payment of rent or mortgage. Until recently you could do all of the above, file bankruptcy and wash all the debts away, then two years later do it all over again. Sounds pretty crummy huh? If you were one of those people I need to ask you a simple question. How would you feel if you loaned your buddy $1000 only to never be repaid. Would you appreciate that? I know that is a dumb question but it works both ways.

Having a low credit rating happens for a combination of the following reasons:

You are consistently late on any or all of your obligations. Your credit limits are tapped You have exceeded your credit limits You are constantly trying to get more credit You spend more than you make

Some of you may have a low credit score and not even know it. I have known several people that had an ex spouse wreak havoc on their credit without with out any warning signs. This one friend of mine found out after the divorce that she had a four wheeler, collections to Bass Pro Shops and various other bills that her red neck ex had put in her name and never made a payment on. When she went to buy a car and was denied the loan extreme frustration set in. What could she have done to prevent this?

Others find out way too late that their identity was stolen. The latest reports show that over 10 million people were affected by some type of identity fraud. I was actually one of them. While vacationing in Mexico someone back in the U.S. was buying clothes at the GAP with the same card I was buying margaritas with in Playacar. Fortunately I flagged it with my next months statement and the charges were removed. A more serious type of fraud happens when a new account is opened, charged to the max and never paid. This can go unnoticed for months and wittle away at your credit report.

It's a cruel world we live in and there will always be those that over indulge, lust for everything and live by the motto that greed is good. It is too bad that we can't all just live by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. We must monitor our credit on a regular basis, or pray that we don't become a victim of credit and identity fraud.