He can try to get an extension or loan from work, if his reasons are good enough. But that adds stigma to his record there. Do not let him get a "payday" loan or anything like that--they're sharks and the interest will kill him. Also: furniture rental places are total ripoffs.

He can charge the furniture if he still has credit cards, or he can just wait, and ask everyone he knows for donations, and hit salvation army and stuff. Most people have extra house stuff.

He's going to have a hard time getting any kind of loan with a $2K default on his credit report.

If he's looking for furnishings, maybe something like Aaron's would be a good place to start. AFAIK they don't run credit checks, but they do report to credit bureaus so it could help establish a good report to counter the bad mark. But he absolutely has to do something about the default, whether it's wait for 7 years until it drops off, or get the creditor to settle for less, or even put a letter in his credit file explaining the circumstances that led to the default. Just sitting there festering isn't doing him any good.

On preview, amberglow is pretty much right about furniture rental places (which Aaron's is, for the most part) but I have had friends who were able to establish credit by starting there. It just depends on how determined your friend is to get his credit turned around.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but if he has to take out a loan to afford it then...well, he can't afford it. Your friend should suck it up and wait until he has the money in hand before he moves/buys furniture. He's already experienced debt issues, does he really want to take on more?

He should try to get an Ikea card. Then he can furnish the place off Ikea, pay it off on time, and have credit that way. Sometimes store cards are easier to get than just plain credit cards.

cali, the debt issues he's had were from his late teens-early 20s. He's now approaching 30 and wayyyyyyy more responsible.

The urgency behind the issue is the rather shockingly rapid decline in the mental health of one of his roommates; he fears for his own personal safety and wants to get the hell out.

(aside: I can no longer count how many times I've had a friend or a FOAF who's had a codergodtype roommate rapidly decline into what seems like paranoid schizophrenia--what's up with that??)

If he is moving into a new apartment, it's likely that the landlord has run a credit check on him prior to offering a lease, so his credit probably can't otherwise be so bad that he can't borrow more. While I don't recommend taking on more credit card debt given their onerous terms, store credit cards may be a good stopgap measure. Ikea's stuff is generally good value for the price.