The Cost Of Bad Credit

The costs associated with poor credit are difficult to calculate, but utterly astonishing once revealed. By only modestly improving your credit score, you can easily realize thousands of dollars of savings in interest payments.

Home Mortgage

Let's assume that you have an outstanding mortgage of $150,000. A quick look at these numbers illustrates the benefit of good credit.

Credit Score Rate Monthly Payment Total Cost of Bad Credit Extra Amount Required to Pay Debt

Excellent 5% $805.23 $0.00 $0.00

Average 7% $997.95 $192.72 $69,379.00

Poor 9% $1206.93 $401.70 $144,612.00

As you can see, a poor credit score can easily cost you tens thousands of dollars when making a major purchase such as a home. As we have illustrated above, bad credit can be very costly, while the savings of optimal credit are astounding.

Automobile Financing

Let's take another example. Let's assume that you have an outstanding car loan in the amount of $15,000. A quick look at these numbers again illustrates the benefit of good credit.

Credit Score Rate Monthly Payment Total Cost of Bad Credit Extra Amount Required to Pay Debt

Excellent 7% $297.02 $0.00 $0.00

Average 10% $318.71 $21.69 $1302.00

Poor 15% $356.85 $59.83 $3589.00

As you can see, a poor credit score can easily cost you thousands of dollars when making a major purchase such as a house or car. These examples show the hidden costs of making major purchases with less than optimal credit. A few percentage points of extra interest can easily cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of extra dollars in additional interest payments.

Credit Card Payments

Let's assume that you carrying $8,000 in credit card debt. Additionally let's assume that you commit $175 per month to service this debt. Below we can see how terrible the effects of high interest cards can be.

Credit Score Rate Monthly Payment Total Cost of Bad Credit Extra Amount Required to Pay Debt

Excellent 8% $175.00 $0.00 None

Average 15% $175.00 $5,070.00 29 Months

Poor 21% $175.00 Infinite Infinite

Consumer's budgets are finite, but unfortunately the ravages of credit card debt are not. As the example above demonstrates, it is possible for a consumer with damaged credit to be stuck in credit card debt forever.