Credit Basics
This number is designed to estimate how likely you are to repay borrowed money as agreed.
What is a credit score?
Paying only this increases long term debt cost.
What is the minimum payment?
Closing old accounts can hurt this credit factor.
What is credit history length?
This tool helps students, faculty, and staff understand complex money-related topics.
What is the office of financial literacy & wellness?
Name the three credit reporting bureaus.
What are Equifax, Transunion, and Experian?
This is the amount you generally need to pay by the due date to avoid interest on new purchases when your card has a grace period and you aren't already carrying a balance.
What is the statement balance?
All else equal, choosing a longer auto-loan term usually lowers your monthly payment but does this to the total cost.
What is increases it?
There are nine common credit card fees. Name any three.
What are annual fees, processing fees, interest charges, late payment fee, foreign transaction fee, balance transfer fee, cash advance fee, over the limit fee, or returned payment fee?
This tool helps prevent you from missing payments.
What is autopay?
If you discover an account on your credit report that isn't accurate, you should do this rather than simply ignoring it.
What is dispute/report it?
Generally, this factor has the greatest influence on a FICO credit score.
What is payment history?
This percentage represents the annual cost of borrowing and is commonly used to compare loans.
What is APR?
Name three of the five things that affect your credit score.
What are payment history, amount owed (credit utilization), length of credit, types of credit, and new credit (hard inquiries)?
This tool helps you check for errors affecting your credit.
What is a credit report?
This is the recommended amount for an emergency fund for a typical working adult.
What is three to six months of living expenses?
This type of credit has a limit you can borrow up to repeatedly
What is revolving credit?
Ignoring debt can lead to this legal action.
What is collections / lawsuits?
Refinancing a loan doesn't automatically mean you'll save money. Name two factors that should also be considered.
What are origination fees and the new loan term? (Also accept closing costs, and prepayment penalties)
This tool restricts potential creditors from accessing your credit file and can make it much harder for an identity thief to open new credit in your name.
What is a credit freeze?
This is the average amount a typical El Paso college student earns on a paycheck.
What is $369?
This type of credit check often lowers your score slightly.
What is a hard inquiry?
A coworker asks you to co-sign an auto loan. If they stop paying, this happens.
What is become responsible for the debt?
Taking money from your workplace retirement account to eliminate debt can have hidden costs (in addition to taxes), because the withdrawn money loses the opportunity to do this.
What is compound/grow over time (compound interest)?
This tool helps people with no or bad credit build credit.
What is a secured credit card?
This is the percentage of adults in El Paso that have debt in collections.
What is 37.4%?