subject: Is Good Credit Really Something Everyone Can Have? [print this page] Is Good Credit Really Something Everyone Can Have?
In school, we are taught a lot of things, things like Literature, Mathematics, Science, and Economics. We have counselors to help us choose our career direction and then advise on what we should learn to pursue it. Next comes college to further our knowledge and specialization. What we don't have, though, is an education in credit, learning how our credit works. Often enough, a combination of trial, error, and luck are all we have to learn from. With luck, We will eventually figure it out. Often, we don't for years.
Even though hard knocks usually provide the instruction that we learn from the most, it can also come with some fairly staggering setbacks. The accumulated losses you can take from everything from higher interest rates all the way up to lost tax benefits due to the penalties of bad credit can add up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars over your lifetime.
Luckily, there is some very good news: You can very easily learn and then master your credit. It's not a difficult enigma that you don't have access to change or control. The fact of the matter is that people are often shocked at how very effortless it is to start controlling their credit score, once they become familiar with the process. To make matters even simpler, there are an absolute ton of resources to help you with all of the steps of the process.
"He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law." ~ Henry Ford
The secret to taking control of your credit is simple: credit education. Like anything you want to master in life, you must learn how credit works in order to take control of it. The first step is to get familiar with your own credit report. Along with learning how your credit report works, learning what things influence it, help it, or hurt it will be beneficial in your means of keeping your credit under your control. Once you have done these things (which are, in fact, much easier than you think) it will become as second nature to you as driving a car, walking, or writing your own name.
A common headache is for the person with no credit just trying to get started: You have to have credit before you can get credit. The lending world seems like a world full of locked doors. While this can be frustrating, with a few easy steps to improve your credit on purpose, you can be well on your way to establishing those much needed first few accounts to get your credit report off and running.
In the case that you already have some hiccups (or worse) in your credit history, you can take care of those also. Whether you're the do it yourself type, or you would rather some professional help, blemishes from your past can be taken care of and removed. Many peoples credit suffers from reported items that simply don't need to be there as well as simple mistakes that can literally be reversed overnight. Once you have the tools in hand to remove them, you will immediately see very positive changes in your ability to qualify for many types of lending previously not available.
Like anything else in life, you must first avoid inactivity. Begin by learning how your credit works, so you won't be challenged by a mystery opponent that you can't see and therefore doesn't make sense. Don't leave one of your most important personal assets to chance. Educate yourself and then take control of your credit as quidly as you can. You'll be glad you did.
