The Joy of Bad Credit

Once upon a time, having bad credit really didn’t mean too much of anything. You could still do all the things you wanted and needed to do, you just had to deal with those annoying bill collectors and be sure to keep a co-signer in your back pocket.

But oh how times have changed!

These days, bad credit can ruin your life. You can’t rent a car, you might not be able to get an apartment on your own, you’ll be denied new credit, and that dream job of yours just might slip through your fingers. This post is called “The Joy of Bad Credit”, not because having bad credit is good thing, but because I’m actually taking quite a bit of joy out of the bad credit situation of a co-worker. I know, I know. I’m terrible.

A woman I work with, let’s call her “Maria”, just started working in my department about a month ago. Immediately, she rubbed me the wrong way. I can be pretty hard on people, so I thought to myself, “lighten up Coco, just be nice to the girl!” So that’s what I did. I tried to be nice. But as I started talking to people, I realized that I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like Maria. Three other people in my department told me that Maria had also rubbed them the wrong way and they didn’t particularly care for her. Once I realized that my initial judgment was justified, all niceties went out the door.

When Maria was first hired, we ran a background check on her and her credit was HORRENDOUS. It was so bad, I was surprised that her credit score wasn’t in the negative numbers! She had almost one hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt that was in collection and charged off. The list of her credit card accounts both open and closed went on for days. Her car was repossessed, she defaulted on student loans, it was the pits. I honestly had never seen anything like it before. The director of my department was extremely alarmed by this and was adamant about not hiring her. In his words, “if she’s this irresponsible with her own money, how responsible can she be if we put her in charge of a budget?” A very good argument I must say. My manager really wanted her though. Supposedly, Maria was the best candidate we interviewed so my boss fought hard to bring her on board. When confronted with her sketchy credit past, Maria claimed she wasn’t able to pay her bills because her father was ill and she had to take time off work to care for him, causing her financial hardship. But that doesn’t quite explain why someone making $50K a year charged $30K to Pottery Barn. That’s not called hardship, that’s called LIVING BEYOND YOUR MEANS! And more importantly, why would someone living in a one bedroom apartment in the Bronx charge $30K to Pottery Barn? Did she personally furnish every unit in her entire building? Or did she just get overzealous with throw pillows and book ends?

Anyhoo, my boss eventually won and Maria was hired. But once she came on board and started acting like a bitch on a power trip, I started reminiscing about her messed up credit. And every time she did something that irked or annoyed me, I took a low blow and said something completely ridiculous under the guise of just making small talk.

“Did you see Grey’s Anatomy last night? What’s your FICO score?”

“Ya know, people with bad credit shouldn’t buy coffee from Starbucks. It’s just not a wise investment.”

“I find it amusing that people with bad credit continue to apply for credit cards. How funny is that!”

“Did you know that if you have bad credit, you can’t adopt a puppy from a shelter?”

“People who have bad credit shouldn’t throw stones at glass houses…or something like that.”


I WISH you could have seen the expression on Maria’s face when I would make these seemingly random comments about bad credit! She has no idea that I’m privy to her financial situation, so I’m sure she finds it odd that out of the blue I’ll say something like, “Do you happen to know what time it is? Man, I’m so glad I don’t have bad credit.” I know, it’s childish, immature, and I should definitely know better. But it’s also hilarious! When you’re dealing with an insecure, passive aggressive woman that has proven herself to be conniving and untrustworthy, it’s awfully hard not to stoop to her level. I realize that I’m being just as bad as she is by constantly saying these things, so I’m putting forth an effort to curtail my behavior. But seriously, people with bad credit shouldn’t throw stones at glass houses.