There are many, many people who think that having a bad credit score means that they can never get credit. They go around feeling that their life is a mess and they can see no way out. But this is not in fact always the case and it is still possible to get loans / credit even if you do have bad credit. The trick is to utilise all the various routes that are open to you.
Whenever you apply for credit the lender will invariably check with one or maybe two of the credit bureaus to obtain your credit report, and this report is the main criteria that the lenders use in their decision making. However it is important to note that the records held by the credit bureaus maybe out of date or even contain errors.
So the first thing to do is to obtain your credit report from the main credit bureaus, if you live in the United States you are entitled to have one free copy of your report each year (see the FTC website for more information). Go over each report and check for errors or out of date information, if you find something amiss, you can challenge the report. However you should only challenge one error at a time and be able to prove that it is an error, do not make frivolous challenges as this will harm you r credit even more.
Once you have done this you may well find that was all that was needed to get your credit score to a good level. However as this process can take some time you should also become disciplined in both your spending and making repayments on existing credit. Make sure that you meet ALL the minimum repayments each month and wherever possible make more than the minimum payments. After a few months of doing this you will find that your credit score will start to increase, making it more likely that you will be able to obtain more credit.
However for some people the ability to make these repayments is just not there as they do not have enough income to meet these repayments. But even in these situations it is still possible to obtain credit, and this where you really do need to become disciplined, you should only take out more credit in order to pay off your existing debts and not go on a spending spree not matter how tempting that might be. By doing this you can reduce the amount you are paying back each month, but as it is spread over a longer period of time you do end up paying more in the long run. It also has the advantage that as you start to make the repayments in a timely manner your credit score will again start to improve.
By taking out one of these bad credit loans, using it to pay off your existing debt and been very disciplined in paying back this loan, you will once again start to have a good credit report and be able to obtain future credit with a lot less bother.