Thursday 17th October, is National Get Smart About Credit Day – a day that encourages everyone, particularly young people, to gain responsible credit habits. Sound financial management should be taught at a young age, and proper financial education is lacking across the UK.
Tom Eyre, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Loqbox:
“National Get Smart About Credit Day arrives just as retailers everywhere are gearing up to entice shoppers to splash the cash ahead of the Golden Quarter and Christmas shopping seasons. Before people give in to the temptation to splurge, they really do need to get smart about how their credit scores can affect the course of their lives – and how they can take control of their financial destinies.
A poor credit score can literally ruin your life.
It will see you turned away from favourable, lower-cost financial deals and forced to go for more expensive forms of credit with worse conditions. You could be turned down for jobs, loans, rental agreements and mortgages. With less in your pocket, you’ll be more anxious about spending, household bills and the cost of living. You owe it to your future you to get smart about credit now.
That’s why National Get Smart About Credit Day is so important. At Loqbox, we want to encourage e everyone, no matter what age they are, to take control of their finances and their credit record and make them work to their advantage. There are steps everyone can take to get out of debt, rebuild a poor credit record and transform it into a good one, and learn to use credit wisely and responsibly.
It’s really easy to check your credit score online and for free.
There are lots of factors that make up your credit score. The first and most obvious one is to make any credit repayments on time, and if you do have existing debt, to ensure you have enough money in your account to make repayments on time. Once paying off debt is in motion, people can also register to vote as being on the electoral roll can make an improvement in their credit scores. You also need to make sure that all of your personal information is correct and up-to-date, as any mistakes can harm your score.
Once essential bills and debt repayments have been met, people can set a budget to set aside for specific spending categories. The 50/30/20 budgeting rule is a great way to put your money to work. With this method, you would spend:
- ??50% on your essentials;
- ??30% on non-essentials;
- ??20% to put towards your long term saving goals.
People can also make savings work towards potentially growing their credit score. At Loqbox, we report our members’ savings payments to the UK’s top three credit reference agencies, which can help to grow people’s credit scores and unlock lower-cost financial services that can save people thousands of pounds in the long run. In fact, we’ve helped over 1,000,000 people to build their credit scores, grow their savings, and reach their financial goals.
Learning these good financial habits now will save people so much stress later on.”
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