It's a fact of life, credit is a necessity. A healthy credit score is vital in today’s environment to make life altering purchases. Better credit equals better interest rates equals money saved. Everything from your house to your car,  require good credit to get the best interest rates. In the long run, a good credit score will save you lots of money whenever you need to take a loan for a large purchase.

On the opposite end, having a poor credit score can burden your life by increasing the cost of living through interest rates. The difference between a good credit score and a poor score for a 30 years mortgage can cost you thousands of dollars.

Numbers like this make it easy to see the financial burden created by poor credit, but the real cost is more difficult to measure. Poor credit affects more than your finances, it can also attack your sense of security, and limit your personal freedom.