Disclosure: collaborative post
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all in some way or another. Hopefully, dear reader, you haven’t been grievously affected by the virus directly. Hopefully, this post finds you and your family in good health and (tentatively) good spirits. But even if you’ve been lucky enough not to suffer or lose someone close to you as a result of the virus itself, the pandemic has likely wrought huge changes to the way you live.
Across the country, there are legions of people without work, struggling to get by on meagre government benefits. This is much harder if our credit rating is less than stellar. Still, if you have bad credit you can and will get through this crisis. Here are some ways in which you can get through the lockdown with bad credit.
Talk to your bank
First of all, banks are under tremendous pressure from their customers to take appropriate steps to ease their financial burden as a result of the pandemic. As such, many are introducing a range of measures to help including suspending loan repayments and waiving interest charges for overdrafts.
While you should think twice about prolonging your debts (you may have to pay more interest in the long run), you should absolutely talk to your bank, explain your circumstances and see what they can offer you.
Turn clutter into cash
A neat, tidy and clutter free home will be tremendously helpful to your mental health, allowing you to focus when you’re working and relax in your downtime. But don’t make the mistake of throwing your old possessions away. One person’s trash is another’s treasure. All those ornaments, clothes, books DVDs and records could be very valuable to some people.
Every day you’re hustlin’
Even if you’ve been let go from your job, there are still many industries for whom life is just “business as usual”. You may find that by turning your talents to freelancing or even starting up your own online business that you’re able to turn a hobby, passion or skill into a lucrative career. Yes, it may take you a while to become profitable… but look at it this way, you’ll probably never have this much free time again in your working life. Why not turn this crisis into an opportunity?
A crisitunity, if you will!
There are also so many ways to save money as a family that you may not have thought of.
Don’t assume that you only have bad options
Bad credit doesn’t mean that you only have bad options. Avoid predatory, high interest loan companies. There are always better options, whether you need a new credit card or even Car finance for bad credit. A little homework will reveal that you had more options than you may have realised.
Consider consolidation
Finally, if your debts are getting too difficult to manage and your credit score never seems to improve, consolidating your loans and credit cards may help. This reduces all of your debts to a single monthly payment, which is much easier to manage. What’s more, because all your existing debts are effectively repaid and replaced with a new one, this can even improve your credit score.
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