There are many times throughout life you will need your credit. When making big decisions and life altering changes, often time your credit will be ran and cross checked before a finalized answer is sufficient.
One time your credit is used is when you move your place of residency. When choosing to move into an apartment or condo complex, your credit is always checked. The reason being that your credit report shows your financial history, any debts you may owe, and how well you've kept up with your monetary obligations. Your credit also comes into play when moving into and purchasing a house or town home. It is usually unlikely to get approved for a mortgage loan if you have delinquent debt and/or a low credit score.
Another time your credit is pulled is when you are in the market for a new automobile. Once you have selected the car of your dreams, you then need to worry about the money that goes into purchasing it. Unless you have a large sum of money to pay for the automobile up front, you will again be turning to your credit to help you out. If your credit isn't exactly stellar, then there is always the option of going at it with a co-signer who does have good credit.
Yet another occurrence in which your credit assists financially is when people go to college. Often, students enrolling in college don't have the necessary funds to pay for their tuition. Very few students have enough finances set aside to afford the years of schooling they will go through. In turn, they must rely once again, on their credit. A commonality among students is presented at this point, which is that they need to borrow money from the government and organizations that assist with financial aid. Unless their credit history is excellent, they will likely need a co-signer with good credit to be approved to take out such large sums of money to help pay for their tuition.
So when thinking about credit, I like to think of it as a shadow. It can vary in shades of dark and lightness and no matter which path you chose to walk, it will always follow you.
