Cooking the Books podcast: How to fix a bad credit history

Things you don't expect can make it look like you've got a bad history with debt. Photo / 123RF

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's why your history with debt matters, even if you think you've got it under control. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Debt can be the scary bogeyman under the bed.

We all know debt isn't a good thing, but when life gets in the way, it's an easy shortcut to fixing certain problems.

But if that debt starts to spiral out of control, the response from many of us is to ignore it.

Pretend the mounting credit card bill isn't a problem, that the car isn't in danger of being repossessed, that we're not actually losing sleep at all.

Even if you don't have a problem now, you should still put a debt plan in place. It's much easier to think about an action plan before problems crop up, and emotions get in the way.

Once we face it, and figure out what the situation is, there are ways to put the debt bogeyman back in his place.

The first step is figuring out how bad things have become, or could get, and that means checking your credit score.

For the latest Cooking the Books, I talked to Dan York from Harmoney.

We discussed what hurts your credit score, the unusual things most people don't expect, and the easy ways to fix it.

For the interview, watch the video.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.