I wish I could tell all the 14 year-olds to protect their credit score like they protect their facebook passwords. My mom, who was a CPA, spoiled me, never explained credit to me, never made me take money seriously, so I’m a lost cause.
My score should belong to a crack head hobo who lives in a van down by the river, not me, a middle class mother of four with a good job. I can check my
credit score every week at easy and free sites, but it’s simply still too late for me. If a life guard pulled me from the ocean, I’m the one that had both my legs eaten by the Great White Shark. Why mess with CPR? But It’s not too late for you guys.
If, when I was a teenager, there had been cool sites to get my free credit score, like it’s possible I would have payed attention and been a better person as a result. However, there weren’t computers back then, so maybe it’s a mute point.
The only good thing about having really bad credit is my kids have learned from my
horrific mistakes. Jack is a beast when it comes to paying his bills on time. His credit, at 23 is sterling.
So kids, go to one of those sites like or freecreditscore.com (aren’t they the one with the cool commercials?) or freescore.com. Check your score now, see what’s going on. If you do it right you’ll be able to buy an awesome ski boat or Jeep by the time your 22. Be the dweeby kid with great credit. When you’re a 22 year old with a Porsche and a Harley dweeby will seem pretty hot.
If you don’t have great credit you can join the redneck yacht club and float the lake on something like this. It’s your call.
I wanted to let you know you wrote a great article.