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To my mind, there are two parts to this question:

1 - Avoiding a bad credit rating; and
2 - If you have a bad credit rating, what can you do?

AVOIDING A BAD CREDIT RATING

One of the major pitfalls of our modern society is this overwhelming need to consume. Technology improves at such a rapid rate that today's latest gadget is going to be obsolete before or at around the same time that its warranty expires. We are continually being bombarded on television, the print media, the brochures delivered to our mail boxes, billboards, the car radio - buy, buy, buy.

Consumption is rampant and exacerbated by goods with an ever shrinking shelf-life. Remember the good old days when things used to be built to last? It's not all that long ago. Durability was as important as quality. Nowadays, manufacturers know that the goods they produce will be obsolete within a few short years and, driven by the need to keep earnings per share at a level to satisfy shareholders, quality is intrinsically linked to technological lifespan. This might sound a bit on the dodgey side, but it is really just common sense. Why would you build a DVD player or television to last 10-20 years, which will cost more (and possibly render it non-viable in the market), when you know full well that something better will be on the market within two?

Additionally, computer gadgetry is in so many things nowadays and the fact is, the more bells and whistles on a product, the more things that can go wrong and the greater the likelihood that it will break. It's like a law of physics. Actually, I think it is encompassed within the gamut of chaos theory. The product breaks and what can you do? Repair or replace? The days of being able to solder a wire or replace a diode, or to tinker around with the family car, are disappearing. Nowadays, anything breaks and it is an expensive job requiring experts or the product needs to be replaced altogether.

All this planned obsolescence means that you need to keep replacing or repairing these goods. These are costs that don't tend to be factored into the family budget, if the family even has a budget (which sadly, from my days as a commercial finance boffin in a major bank, is not very often). Combined with readily available credit in the name of ever burgeoning credit card limits, more flexible equity loans (secured by the family home), and lengthy interest free periods on store accounts, it is easier than ever to update or upgrade that old car, washing machine or home theatre

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