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Author: Chris
Shropshire
 When it comes to students and credit, parents have
nightmares of this topic. The reason is because the topic has
gotten a lot of bad press with all the things that can go on with
their child’s credit history. But as I know from personal
experience it is something that definitely needs to be taken more
seriously. Parents of students need to realize that there are more
benefits to a student establishing a good credit history while in
college rather than graduating with no credit history at
all.
I know that
students are practically given credit cards upon entry to college,
but if a student can responsibly handle and learn how to manage a
credit balance they can obtain a valuable lesson on life by having
good credit. Some benefits to having good credit is that your
application for an apartment will have a better chance of getting
approved, you can obtain a discount on car insurance, as well as
have the ability to finance major purchases like those brand new
laptops, mobile phones, or a new car that you might want to get
after a few years of good credit management. Students need to
understand the value of credit, a good definition of credit is
having the ability to pay for a good or service in the future while
obtaining the good or service during the present.
Some
ways to help students work on having good credit is
to:
- Give
yourself a monthly allowance that you can pay off within that
billing period (often times this is about 20% of one’s
budget).
- Only use
your credit card for small purchases when you first receive a
credit card (reason being because small purchases can be paid off
each month).
- Pay monthly
credit card bill by the due date (if you don’t you can be
slammed with late fees and most cards carry other fees after two
late payments).
- Call your
credit card company and see if they have report to credit bureaus
at least twice a year so that you can get the most recent credit
score rating.
- If you have
a student credit card you may quality for discounts on airline
tickets, car rentals, and hotel expenses.
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