Financial Tips for Students --- Raising Your Credit Score

1)Pay your bills on time.  If you don’t have all your bill payment dates written into your planner, you more than likely are accruing late fees.  The majority of credit cards change $25-$39 dollars per late bill.  Miss one bill a month, and you have lost over $300!  Here is a little trick I learned from WeekDate calendars.  Instead of writing them in every month, create a small area to post reoccurring bill dates. 

Day	Monthly Bill
3rd	Rent
14th	Cell Phone
15th	Student Loan Interest
19th	Internet
28th	Car Payment

If you have a bad memory, you could add month columns, and check bills of as you pay them.

Day

Bill

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

3rd

Rent

14th

Phone

15th

Internet

28th

Car Note

2) Close recently opened credit cards.  One of the major factors that goes into calculating your credit score is how long you’ve had your accounts open.  Old accounts increase your score, while new accounts (< 2 years) will generally lower it.  It is a little known fact that department store cards can sometimes drag your score down, because the low credit limit usually increases your credit:debt ration (another big factor)  Also, Dave Ramsey also suggests closing any cards that charge you an annual fee (saving you $60-120 a year).

3)  Don’t let your bills go to collection.  I once had a roommate that would just ignore the bills she couldn’t afford.  Until one day, her paycheck was garnished.  Here’s a little secret.  If you call the company and inform them of your financial state, the majority of them will either:

a)put you on smaller payment and/or lower your interest rate
b) give you an time extension (I’ve gotten upwards of 2 months to pay bills – however having an emergency fund prevents all of this)
c) tell you about unadvertised offers which can save you hundreds.  For the last two years, I have been paying $50 a month for unlimited talk & text with a major cell phone company. So, I have saved $240!!! All because I called to tell them I was broke (at the time). There are a couple tricks to learning about these “secret” deals; I plan on posting about that in the future.

Like my mother always says, “El que no chilla, mama,” which roughly translate into “He who doesn’t whine, sucks it."  So, Organize your due dates! Close newer credit card accounts, especially department store cards!  And make some phone calls!  One or two hours of work today, could save you hundreds.