http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Jayh1 opinions, life and more.. en-us http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Jayh1/29598 <p>Everybody&nbsp;knows that a low credit score costs you more on a loan or a credit card in terms of interest repayments, but very few actually take notice of the other insidious effects a credit rating has on our lives.</p> <div>In a sense, credit ratings have become a new form of class filtering and&nbsp;those with bad credit ratings are placed right at the bottom, below are some of the&nbsp;areas where&nbsp;for them a bad credit rating means a higher premium:</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><b>Insurance</b></div> <div>Insurers believe that if you have a good credit rating, then you must be carefully, likewise, if you have a bad credit rating, you&rsquo;re risky and more likely claim, therefore you don&rsquo;t get offered the cheapest premiums available.</div> <div><b>Car loans</b></div> <div>As with other loans, the higher the risk you&rsquo;re, the more interest you&rsquo;re likely to get charged when you apply for a car loan.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><b>Renting</b></div> <div>Some landlords are wary of potential renters who happen to have bad credit ratings, some will ask for a higher deposit or reject the renter altogether.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><b>Utility bills</b></div> <div>Gas and electricity suppliers also band their customers, those that can&rsquo;t pay by direct debit often end up paying more.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thankfully, a bad credit rating is not something you can be stuck with for life, things like <a href="http://www.breadmarket.co.uk/credit/creditcards-with-bad-credit.php">credit cards for bad credit</a> can be used to improve one's credit rating, the most effective way to increase that score, however, is&nbsp;paying&nbsp;down your debts as much as possible.&nbsp;</div>