You Are Your Credit Score

No kidding. That is what a lot of people seem to believe, and that is precisely why your credit score matters. While you are in school it is important to begin establishing a positive credit history. The good news is that every student begins with a blank slate, which means that your credit rating is yours to build or destroy.

Your Credit Score Is

• A Character Witness

  You begin establishing credit as soon as you use a credit card, take out a loan, pay utilities, or buy a car. Throughout this process, lenders, in good faith, give you funding in anticipation of seeing a return with interest on their loan. When you accept money from a lender, you become a business partner and your contract is composed of monthly payments. By not making payments, you breech the established contract and lose the trust of your business partner.

• A Measure of Responsibility

  A good credit rating says a lot about you. In addition to showing that you pay your bills in a consistent and timely manner, it says that you care enough to do so. A person with a good credit score is concerned about their future and attempting to make decisions that will attest to their level of responsibility.

• An Indication of Self-Control

  Managing your credit is not easy. College students, for the most part, are big spenders. Advertising companies market their products directly at college age students, and the credit card companies put up the cash so that they can make purchases. Building and maintaining a healthy credit score is especially difficult during these years, but if you are able to do so it indicates that you are a young adult with incredible self-control and that you can be trusted in the future.

• A Peek Into the Future

  Your credit rating is a number that weighs in on your habits. Typically, one late bill or missed payment will not leave an irreparable dent in your credit score. Several late payments, on the other hand, will. In turn, a poor credit score shows that you have established a history of late or missed payments. A lender looking at such a report will expect that these habits will continue into the future.