in , ,

Your No-Frills Guide to Building a Great Credit Score

To increase your limit or not to increase your limit—that is the question.

credit score five golden stars chalkboard

Just updated: 50+ Ways to Make Money (including 30+ work from home jobs)

More ways to make money:
FlexJobs – Find remote and flexible jobs in over 50 career fields from all over the world.

Swagbucks – Earn free gifts and cash-back rebates by searching the web, playing games, watching videos, shopping, and more.

Writers Work – Find freelance writing jobs and publish your articles, all while working from home.

Public.com – Get free stock just for signing up for this investment app.

In high school, perhaps you read a bit of Shakespeare and learned how to solve for x. Maybe you picked up some phrases in another language. All of that may be useful for enhancing your memory retention and critical thinking skills, but what when you leave the classroom and enter the real world? You know that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, but do you know anything about credit scores, interest rates, or utilization ratios? 

You might think that shredding your credit cards will solve the confusion and bury the consequences of missed payments, but counterintuitively, that could hurt your score even more. A poor score can affect access to housing, loans, and certain jobs, on top of which it can be tricky to understand why yours is so low in the first place. It’s not just regularly skipping payments; more things can affect your credit score than you might think! 

For an easy-to-follow breakdown of what a credit score is, why it’s important, and how to improve yours, check out the infographic below from Capital One to see why there’s still hope for you.

a graduation cap on top of books and a diploma scroll tied with red ribbon

How Much More Do You Make with a College Degree?

plane model on a calculator next to a piggy bank

Save Your Money: These Famous Places Aren’t Worth Visiting