Are you new to the world of credit or looking to boost your score?

Establishing credit is crucial to achieving financial independence. Let’s look at how to navigate the path to building a strong credit foundation.

Understanding the Basics

Building credit starts with understanding what a credit score is and why it matters. A credit score is a number assigned to you by a credit bureau and represents your creditworthiness, or ability to pay back a loan. These numbers range from 350-850, with 850 being the best possible credit score. Lenders use this to determine how risky it is to loan money to you. Establishing credit can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. A starter credit card is designed for people with limited or no credit history. Contact any of our branches for more information regarding applications for a credit card.

Smart Credit Building Strategies

Once you have a credit card, you must use it responsibly. It is very easy to decrease your score, and harder to build it back up. Start by making small purchases that you can comfortably pay off each month. As we learned in this blog, making on time payments is the most important factor in building a positive credit history. Aim to keep your credit utilization – the ratio of your credit card balances to your credit limits – below 30%. This shows lenders that you can responsibly manage credit. Once you have mastered paying your credit card on time each month, you can diversify by adding in a loan.

Monitoring and Adjusting

Regularly checking your credit report to ensure accuracy and identifying errors or issues is important. You can obtain a free credit report from each of the major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – or from annualcreditreport.com. This is important to do because sometimes there can be errors on your report. Those errors can be detrimental to your credit score. The quicker you can get them fixed, the quicker you can get back on track.

Since 1883, Waypoint Bank has provided superior financial solutions promoting the small-town approach of putting relationships first. For 140 years, we’ve been earning your trust in the most friendly and professional manner possible while guiding your success.