Personal Student Loans

Are you a student finding yourself struggling to make ends meet with all the responsibilities you have between school, homework, bills and other expenses? It’s not uncommon to be able to hold down a full-time job and keep up with your studies at the same time. Although everyone struggles from time to time, there are certain circumstances that come about in which we simply need to have money right now.

Personal student loans are one way that can help you wade through the slim times as a student. One of the most difficult hurdles to getting personal student loans is that you may not have the credit history that is necessary to actually qualify. Do not despair because there are ways for you to qualify. It may require that you have a cosigner or legal guardian sign for the money to ensure that it will be paid back. You may find that your parents can’t cosign for you if they’ve been hit with any financial difficulty in recent years because they might not qualify either. So you’ll need to look into different options. Although it can get discouraging, there are some student loans that are available for people with no credit or low credit scores.

One option for getting a personal student loan is through the government. Typically these loans are only available for college tuition and books, but it may be enough to help you get to a point where you can come up with the money you need to fuel the rest of your expenses. Another option while you’re waiting for approval on the loan, is to get a credit card but make sure that you use it smartly and don’t get yourself into financial trouble. Use it on occasion and make sure that you pay the balance when it’s due and it could actually help you build a good credit history in a short period of time.

Of course a serious situation may arise where you really need a personal loan and if this is the case you may need to go through what is typically called a payday loan. There may be a hang up getting this type of loan if you’re a full-time student seeing as you need to have held a job for a month or more. If you have a job, then there shouldn’t be a problem but the best thing that you can do is to talk to a qualified loan officer to see what they can do for you. You would be surprised what can be accomplished if you really put your mind to it.

Should You Get a Secured Credit Card?

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When you get a credit card, it pretty much changes your whole life because it shows you how well you can manage the money you have, and even the money that you don’t have, but that you have to come up with eventually. Better yet, it determines how financially stable you will be in the future, because managing your credit card debt either wisely or unwisely can make or break how well off you are. So how exactly are you supposed to protect yourself from all the risk you are taking when you apply for a credit card? After all, a credit card is something most people really can’t live without in today’s world.

There are two types of credit cards to be considered when shopping for the right one: Secured or unsecured. Secured is basically one that you have to put money down on so that they can use that money if you do not make the monthly payment. An unsecured credit card goes completely on collateral, without any secure amount of money that ensures that you will pay it all back. Depending on who you are, what your spending habits are, and what type of credit history you have, you may be better off getting a secured credit card rather than an unsecured one. Here are a few things to know about secured credit cards that will allow you to know if you fall into that category.

The main thing you would need to ge a secured credit card for is if you have a bad credit history and need to repair it. Secured credit cards are a way to make punctual payments on a credit card and get rewarded for it by having your credit score go up, but this is only possible if your credit card company is willing to report your timely payments to the major credit bureaus. Make sure, when you get a secured credit card, that the company you are going with will report the payments you make on time, otherwise there is really no point in having a secured credit card.

A deposit is required for a secured credit card, as I said before. You must put a certain amount of money into a deposit where the credit card company has access to it, so that if you fail to make payments on more than one occasion, they can sometimes resort to getting it out of your deposit to ensure that it gets paid, one way or another. This is a bit more safe than an unsecured credit card, but with either one, making late payments will not improve, but hurt your credit score even more.

There are a few requirements that come with a secured credit card. These requirements can be things like your age, income, or whether or not you have some sort of bank account. Still, it is easier to get approved by a secured credit card than it is to get approved by an unsecured credit card.

Top 5 Ways To Build Your Credit Score

There are several things you can do to ensure that your credit score improves. Obviously, the higher your credit score is, the more options you have at your fingertips. Here are the top five things that will give you a higher credit score and a long, healthy looking credit history.

1. Pay your bills on time

One of the most important things that creditors see when they look at your credit history is your payment history. This can make or break a good credit score. When creditors see someone who has trouble making payments on time, they see someone who is not dependable with credit cards. Because you don’t appear to be dependable, your score will go down and you will be less likely to receive credit in the future. So if you strive to pay on time one hundred percent, your credit score will not only stay protected from falling, but it will actually increase gradually.

2. Keep old accounts open

In most cases, the older the credit card account, the better it is for your credit score, even if that account is not active. Having an old credit score shows that you have a long credit history, and allows creditors to see how well you managed that credit card for a long period of time. If you have not managed that card well and have made late payments on it, closing it out will not help then either. Having bad records like that will stay on your credit report for several years, whether or not the account is closed. Only time and better credit management can heal the damage done to your credit report in the past.

3. Using credit cards

Just the fact that you have and use credit cards is a step up to a better credit score, though only if you handle them well. If you make your payments on time, and spending only the amount that you know you can pay back, your credit score will benefit from the mere usage of credit cards. Paying off credit cards regularly is a big boost. When you’re still in school, it can be a good idea to to apply for student credit cards just to get things rolling.

4. Keep the number of credit cards low

Sometimes creditors will see someone with several credit cards as a potential risk. When you have a lot of credit cards, you have more of the potential to overspend, and therefore not pay the money back on time or in full. The number of credit cards you can manage and how much of a risk you are at is up to you, but keep in mind what looks good to your creditors.

5. Keep the balance low

When you have credit cards, it’s good to keep the amount you spend within fifty percent of your credit limit. Why? If you keep the balance below half, you will not go over, or even come close to maxing out. When you hit the half way mark, it’s best to pay off your credit card, or at least pay it down to a smaller amount.