"They look at 620 and anything below that as 'forget it,'" said Dorothy Pientka, vice president at Community First Bank in Stevens Point, who has seen similar slides in scores in central Wisconsin. "You're not going to get a loan."

If people are unable to get vehicle loans, mortgages or even credit cards, the economy could continue to stagnate without that spending power.

"If individuals aren't able to access credit, it does create a drag on the economy," said Randy Cray, professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and director of the Central Wisconsin Economic Research Bureau. "It has a real negative impact on consumption and spending."

Both Cray and Pientka recommended the first step for anyone who thinks they have a low score is to find out why. Everyone can request one free credit report a year, Pientka said. Once someone identifies which of the five factors in a FICO score are dragging it down, they should work diligently on improving it.

The two biggest factors are payment history and amounts owed. The first, which accounts for 35 percent of the score, is based on things such as making payments on time or past bankruptcies or suits. Amounts owed, which accounds for 30 percent of a score, besides simple totals owed, looks at the proportion of credit lines used.

"Typically, if you have a line of $3,000, try not to get your balance to more than half of that," Pientka said.

FICO scores are also made up of the length of credit history, types of credit used and any new credit.

"Low credit ratings will come back to haunt an individual," Cray said.