At Your Money Line, we routinely receive questions from employees on how to build credit, manage it and even rebuild it.
In our society, to fully participate in the process of building various parts of our lives and finances, requires credit access. Credit allows us to finance our activities, advance our standard of living and improve our financial well-being. Responsible use of credit that is. Wise uses of credit enhance our opportunities to build, develop and grow into a fuller version of ourselves.
The privilege of accessing credit-building opportunities can be an exciting and noteworthy beginning. It can also be confusing - as the financial marketplace is flooded with offers, ads, points, and promises. There are also countless personal stories from colleagues, friends, and family about their credit woes. Ruined credit, lost employment opportunities, being unbanked, disappearing homeownership dreams, exorbitant interest rates, rip-off loans, etc. This is what Riley, our example customer, was trying to avoid and understand.
Riley was a newly minted college graduate who accepted her first full-time job offer in another state, away from her home base. She wanted to maximize this new beginning and not make the mistakes she heard and witnessed growing up. Since she checked the “get a full-time job I like” box. Her next thought on how to build a great financial future was to start at the source of frustration for many people she knew - building credit. Riley knew that not having good credit cost the people around her and she wanted to do better, much better.
Even better for Riley, her new employer offered access to financial wellness benefits that included having conversations with personal finance professionals. By using this resource, she could get to the heart of the matter and lean into all that her future could offer.
Riley wanted to know; how do I build good credit and keep it?
Riley and her Financial Guide evaluated her credit standing and delved into some crucial areas:
- Riley’s underlying reasons and motivations for wanting good credit and what that would mean for her
- A strategy on how to use credit to promote Riley’s goals and plans
- A plan to evaluate credit offers
- A plan to avoid credit mistakes
- Lesser known opportunities to build credit
- Best places to get a first credit card or loan
- Understanding how credit scoring works and which areas to focus on to earn the best credit score
- How to avoid frustration when correcting credit mistakes
- Riley’s rights as a consumer
- How to best advocate for herself as a participant in the credit system
Riley was able to get definitive answers to her questions and thoughts so that she could successfully navigate her goal of moving to a new place, maximizing her career path, and building the life she imagined and hoped was possible.
Are your employees struggling like Riley? Get them help today by reaching out to a member of our team!
