3)
Using Your Credit Card as a Financial TOOL
Would
you be interested in learning how to lower one of life's largest
expenditures - INTEREST? The secret lies in using an easy to acquire
instrument that some people fear and others take for granted. It's
a credit card!
Up
to now, a credit card has been something that you should fear because
of the problems it might cause. But, if you use it correctly, you
can turn it into a tool. According to Gerri Detweiler, author of
the "Ultimate Credit Handbook", a Discover/Visa/Mastercard
is the best indicator for loan officers how credit worthy an individual
is. Turn this into your advantage by making your Discover/Visa/Mastercard
a tool to show loan officers you pay on time with regularity.
How
then exactly do you use it as a tool? Great question. Remember the
credit report? That's what we want to keep in mind because that's
the "report card" that loan officers use. Here's a list
of tips:
Your
goal here is to get a card in your own name and make the account
look active. Doing so consistently will make your credit report
look better (see Section 6 - How a loan officer
looks at you). Obviously, you want to make sure that you pay
on time while you are activating your account. Some methods to help
you do so include:
Most
of these recommendations will help you avoid the typical pitfalls
students fall into.
For
more pitfalls see our next section.
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