Demetria Gallegos
speaker
238 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2018
last heard Aug 2023
Demetria Gallegos’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Yeah, that's one of the first things we recommend, but only when the parent's credit rating is strong, which is to say high 600s or higher, because otherwise you could actually be doing some harm to your child by associating them with your own credit profile.
Another good early option is to apply for a secured credit card.
So in this case, an 18-year-old could basically apply for, say, a Discover secured credit card, give Discover $200, be granted a supposed credit line of $200, and each month, instead of the company extending credit to that student, they're actually spending their own money and then replenishing it by paying the bill back.
That actually will start to build a strong credit score, assuming you use it responsibly, use it frequently.
And use it sparingly as well, which is to say no more than 30% of the credit line should pretty much be charged up at any point in time.
So your credit utilization is low, which means you seem to show a good balance in your credit risk.
That's right.
And also at 18, you can begin to request your free credit report each year from the big three credit reporting agencies.
You can do that through annualcreditreport.com.
And even if you don't have much of a credit profile, this is going to help you start to understand how profiles are billed.
It's going to also flag you for any early signs of fraud or misuse.
I think that comes as a surprise to a lot of families because you've taught your kid everything you can about, you know, responsibly paying their bills on time, using a debit card so they don't get in over their head.
All of that is invisible to the credit reporting companies because really what's happening here is you're being given a month-to-month arrangement.
If you don't pay your bill, they'll cut off your service.
So it's not nearly the same thing as a credit application.
Right.
Yes, there are some services that can report up to the credit reporting firms a rent payment history.
So if you know you can pay your rent regularly, and if your landlord is registered with one of these companies like Credit Karma or ClearNow, that can be a way to begin to build a credit score.
Some of them actually guarantee that they will help raise your score by 30 or 40 points.
But the problem is that most of those services are for a monthly fee.
Showing 161–180 of 238 · page 9 of 12
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