Great Bay Community College

Young Adults and Their Credit

Do you know your credit score? Every day you see those crazy commercials with some guy that kinda looks like me dancing and singing songs about it. “Free credit report dot com, blah ya blah something, like an atom bomb.” You might not know all the words, but you know the commercial. I know that when you are young you don’t think that credit reports and things like that are important or even really matter to you. Well, one of the easiest things to overlook as a young’n is your future. Do you know that bills from some old apartment you never got around to paying are on there? If you are even a couple days late on a credit card payment it’s gonna show up there too. There are a million ways for you to kill your credit score and it can be devastating to your future. In this world your credit score can make or break you. Hey, guess what? You want a new apartment? Well, they’re gonna check your credit. Want to buy a new car? Better have plenty of good credit. You can’t even get a cell phone without good credit. And, possibly the worst one, did you know that prospective employers can even check your credit and make decisions on hiring you based on it?

I have some advice to all of you out there that read this article. Go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com where you are allowed to check your credit report for free—no strings attached—once every 12 months. This service is made available by the three nationwide credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACT Act). This site won’t make you pay anything like all the other sites with singing guys and crazy commercials. It is incredibly easy to trash your credit and it can take up to ten years to get it back in check. I know that most of you aren’t thinking about buying a new house or some sporty car right now, but after you get your degree and a good job those plans might change.

All you have to do to keep your score up is be conscious of your bills. I know it’s not easy because I have had to battle back from my bad credit for years. If you have a credit card set up automatic payments for at least the minimum through your checking account. When you have more money just send an extra payment. This will make sure that you can’t forget to send it in. Other bills set up with automatic payments will help you too. After you check your credit score look at what negative information is on your report. You can set up ways to make payments to the creditors and put your account back in good standing. Don’t overlook the importance of your score even if you don’t think it applies to you at this point. It can take much longer than you think to get it back up to a respectable level. Good luck to you all and stay sharp—your future depends on it.