Why You Should Raise your Student Credit Score
Your credit score will be a major reason why you can do anything financially in your life. If you do not have credit, this will mean that you will have to pay for everything in cash, which can make life very difficult.
This affects everything within your financial life. Your credit score will determine whether you can rent an apartment, buy a car without paying cash, get a mortgage at a decent rate, or even get certain jobs. You must have good credit to allow yourself to live the best life without having to overpay for credit.
If you are discouraged about your credit, take heart in a new study which was done by Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus in the United States. This study was just completed recently and it showed that many individuals were able to raise their scores significantly. To give you a little background on how a credit score is determined, it is based upon certain factors such as paying your bills on time, how much you owe compared to your credit limits, and if you have any negative public information such as collections.
The study which was published on October 16, 2007 showed that roughly one in six people with a credit score of 600 to 649 (rated as fair) was able to increase their credit scores fifty to one hundred points. This is a significant jump and this occurred in only six months. The study also found that twenty-three percent of individuals saw their score drop by fifty points or more in a six month window this year as well. Forty one percent of people did not see any change within their credit report.
You have the opportunity to make a difference in your credit score in a relatively short period of time: six months. Developing new and good financial habits and breaking old ones will be tough but you can see that the reward for doing that does not have to wait for a great deal of time. Six months of responsible and consistent financial behavior can make a great deal of difference in your life.
Hopefully this article has given you some hope into that fact that if you have bad credit, you do not have to remain in this predicament forever. Take heart in what the study has to say that you may improve your credit score but you must also take away the other lesson: it is just as easy to see your credit score decrease.
As a side note to end this article, do you completely understand your credit report? If you do not understand what makes up the good and the bad, take a look at the different credit bureau's websites. They will often have good tutorials so that you can have a better idea of what goes into your credit report. Having the knowledge allows you to create consistent financial behaviors which will result in a higher credit score.
