If Your Finances Were Video Games

Our parents told us to stop wasting time playing video games 🎮, but it turns out time spent playing video games isn’t a waste ­– not even by our parent’s standards. The thing is there’s a lot we can learn from video games that we can apply to life. Like how when we want to get better at a game we spend a lot of time playing it to improve our skills. Sometimes we even watch 📺 videos of other players who are better than us to get tips and eventually we do get better and raise 🙌🏽 our score. Well, that’s the same kind of strategy that we can apply to getting a great credit score.

Check it out, when you first start out playing a video game, you don’t start off knowing all the combos and with a great score, right? Well, that’s the same with your credit score. You can’t start with a great credit score, you have to build one up as you understand the game more and more.

So, how do you get a good credit score🤷🏽‍♀️? Well, we’ll get to that, but first let’s talk about what a credit score is and how to know if yours is great, good, not so good, or bien malo 😢 because you gotta know the rules of the game to know how to rule in the game.

What is a credit score and when is it great?

According to Experian, “A credit score is a three-digit number designed to represent the likelihood you will pay your bills on time.” Credit scores range from 300 to 850. The higher the number 🔝, the better!

Here’s a breakdown of what the numbers mean:

👏🏽 Excellent: 750 to 850

👍🏼 Good: 700 to 749

💵 Mas o Menos: 640 to 699

💸 Bad: 580 to 639

🚫 Bien malo: 300 to 579

How do you get a great credit score?

1️⃣ First you need to build credit and you can do that by applying for a credit card. Just like upgrading to a new weapon on a game, you want to use that card, but keep the balance or damage on it low. Your goal should be to not let the balance on the card ever be more than 20-30% of your credit limit.

2️⃣ Always pay your bills on time! Some credit cards let you pick your monthly due date. If that’s an option, you can set up your due date so it happens right after you get paid. You can also set up automatic payments if you know you’ll always have the funds available on a certain day. Like a good player, being ready and stocked up before a mission is key!

3️⃣ Don’t apply for multiple credit cards at once. When you do that, it can lower your credit score because the lender checks your credit report with what is considered a “hard inquiry” since it is tied to a credit application. Too many hard inquiries in a short period of time lowers your score because lenders start wondering 🤔 why you are trying to get so much credit at once. They’re like, “Is this person about to overspend?”

Similar to doing too many missions at once in any game, you make less progress when you jump from one to another. Stick to one player until the mission is complete!

Those are just three ways to start building a great credit score and level up your combat skills in the U.S. maket.

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Source: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/credit-education/improving-credit/improve-credit-score/