My Credit Repair University

 

Your college days are a great time to establish a good credit score and the habits that will propel any young adult to a relatively comfortable lifestyle even while careers and families become the focus. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening.

Student debts are rising and the numbers of students who leave school with ruined credit scores is rising as well. Some blame rising tuition and bigger student loans. Well, student loans do have to be paid back so we can't ignore this simple fact, but student loans are not paid back until after graduation and so cannot account for the epidemic of bad credit scores at graduation.

Credit opportunities are made to students all the time. With the knowledge and information to separate the good offers from the bad, it is possible to leave school with a better-than-average credit score and with the foundation in place to develop good financial habits that can lead to a lifetime of good credit ratings. Here is a tip that can make your college years a credit-booster instead of a credit disaster:

Very few students ever visit the campus financial aid office while they are in school. Too bad, because the financial aid office at most universities and colleges has much more to offer than information about student loans. Even a short workshop on the importance of your credit rating and how to manage credit on a limited budget would be very useful.

Most financial aid offices offer one-on-one counseling, scholarship information, info on budgeting, interest and money, and many other resources. The staff at your university or college financial aid office can offer you help on almost any aspect of finances. Most offer one-on-one counseling, scholarship information, info on budgeting, the ins-and-outs of interest and money, and many other resources as well.

The financial aid offices at most colleges and universities have so much to offer that you may want to call the school you graduated from to ask whether alumni are eligible for any of the services they provide. The resources that you can get for free from a university or college financial office would cost you hundreds of dollars in the private sector.

It's a shame that money and credit and financial planning are not part of the regular curriculum at every college and university. That doesn't mean that the opportunity to master these valuable skills isn't available, however. Students have to take the initiative to dig them out, and the financial aid office is the place to start.