Saturday, June 23, 2007

How to build credit -

I am a 19 year old. College Student, Author, and hope to get into opening a business in the next year. How can I build a strong score and establish credit.

Get a credit card from local bank and pay it in time. You also can use this service to avoid common mistakes while buiding credit and pre-estimate future scores for different scenarios of payments - credit-report-score.10001mb.com

Given what has gone on with many of the grown-ups in this country stemming from bad credit habits, it s refreshing to hear from a young person who is determined to build good credit from the get go. If I could distill my thinking on this into one sentence, it would be this: Don t charge it if you can t pay for it when the bill arrives. But it actually isn t that simple. While it s good for your credit score to pay off your balance each month, there s more to it than that. According to Manisha Thakor, one of my favorite financial gurus, the most important thing for you is to get a credit card right away if you don t yet have one. Under the provisions of a new law, The Credit Card Act of 2009 (slated to take effect February of 2010, or as early as December of 2009), credit card companies will not be able to issue cards to those under the age of 21 unless their parents serve as co-signors or they can show proof of independent means of payment. So unless you ve got a trust fund or can prove that you ve got a solid job history, you ll be out of luck.Here s what else you should do:Get one or two credit cards, maximum. Too many credit cards can show that you have the ability to shoot yourself in the foot. But having two cards can be helpful. You can use one card as your primary, but it will help to occasionally use your other card, charging something on it once a month and paying it off promptly and in full.Pay all of your bills on time, not just your credit card bills. The formulas for calculating credit scores aren t public and each credit bureau has its own method of calculation, but it s not just credit cards that come into play. They look at everything from utility bills, cable bills, library fees, and even parking fines. Get in the habit of requesting all three credit reports (Transunion, Experion, and Equifax) every year at www.annualcreditreport.com and correcting any mistakes that show up. Order one every four months rather than all three at once. That way you are keeping a continuing eye on your file. By the time you re ready to start that business, you should be in solid shape.

One article (see source) I was reading over the weekend said, essentially, that you should not use debit cards for checking into hotels. So, if you plan on staying at a hotel in the future, just get a credit card.

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