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A house, a car, furniture, etc. are all items that you can buy on credit. Many of these things are not available to someone who has bad credit. Bad credit might not remove the ability to buy an item, but sometimes it will cause that item to be quite a bit more expensive. The worst mistake that a person can make financially is to have bad credit. Credit is a very delicate thing, because only a few mistakes can make a credit score bad. Good credit takes hard work and a sequence of events that prove a person can be trusted with credit. Bad credit only takes a few mistakes and a person can be hurt for a lifetime.
The quickest way to turn a person's credit bad is not making payments on time, or not at all. One or two late payments will not automatically turn a person's credit bad, but anymore than two and a person's credit score will start to slip rapidly. Another way to lower a credit score is to request a large amount of credit in a short period of time. Creditors get shy to give credit when someone is amassing a large amount of credit in a short period of time.
Credit scores are based on a scale from 300 to 850. An excellent credit score is any score over 750. A very good credit score is 720 or more. An acceptable credit score is 660 to 720. A bad credit score is anything less than 660. To illustrate how badly a missed payment can affect your credit score, one missed payment can drop a person's credit score anywhere from 50 to 100 points. Your credit score is based on a number of criteria that include 35% on your payment history, 30% on the amount you currently owe, 15% on the length of your credit history, 10% on the number of new credit accounts you have opened or applied for, and 10% on the mix of credit accounts you have. The only good thing about having bad credit is that you can fix your score over time by practicing good credit habits.