Credit Rating Blog

What did you learn in high school? When you get to college, this is a question that many freshmen ask themselves. College is a completely new world to them, one of freedom yet more responsibility, of growth and most importantly of learning. Yet, many incoming college freshmen, indeed many upperclassmen as well, don’t know much about credit, the importance of credit or how to properly handle it.

Certainly we’ve all heard the horror stories some college students have experienced as a result of predatory practices involving a credit card or bank offering. We all know Joe who signed up for a credit card on campus because Bank A was offering free pizza or a cool new bag to anyone that signed up. The next thing you hear is that Joe is in a large amount of debt from things he bought with his credit card not realizing what he was doing. But, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Credit literacy, as I like to call it, is a necessity in today’s world. What I mean by credit literacy is to understand and recognize predatory offers and practices, don’t over spend using your credit card, learn to read your credit report and know what your credit rating means for you later in life. That is Media literacy.

That is why it is important to research everything out there involving your credit before you purchase or commit to anything that will put you in debt. If you know how one thing affects the other and how to access everything to put your credit in perspective you’ll be in good shape. Going away to college is the perfect time to see what is available, to compare one thing to another and to determine what best suits an individual student.