[phil21]

If you don't need to buy a house or finance a car, living with bad credit isn't super horrible. It can be quite inconvenient, and more expensive overall though.

Cell phone plane? Yeah, you're on pre-paid. Have fun paying double (although this has been getting better!).

Electric/gas/internet hookup? Well, in most (all?) places in the US, the gas/electric/phone company are required to serve you but probably will require a deposit of a few hundred bucks each. Cable might be a crapshoot - probably the same deposit deal though.

The real issues are finding a place to rent and getting a decent job. Almost all decent jobs require credit checks now, and that's a travesty.

So yeah, if you have money it's not too bad. I lived with horrible credit (defaulted on some small credit cards and a lease after I lost a job) for quite some time, but I also happened to be in a career that after a couple tough years I was making enough that the lack of credit wasn't really something that I worried about.

Now I have good credit, and really the only major difference so far is I qualify for credit cards with perks. I have yet to buy a house, and I buy my cars cash.