Be smart about your credit history, including which credit cards you apply for, how many you apply for, and how you use them. Use these tips below to start building your credit the smart, responsible way.

Why worry about credit?

Your credit history is basically the way that lenders can see how you manage your finances and what kind of risk you are to other lenders. If you don’t have a credit score or have a low score, it puts you at a disadvantage and less likely chance of getting those big-ticket items you seek in the future, such as renting your first apartment or putting down a mortgage on your first home.

Building your credit score will help you do many tasks such as:

• Get a loan for big ticket items such as a new car or new home
• Save you money by lowering interest rates on credit cards or loans
• Tell your future landlord you’re financially responsible to rent an apartment

What goes into your credit score?

The first step of learning how to build your credit history is to understand what your credit score is compiled of, which is not the simplest thing to know. The most common way to calculate your score is using the FICO credit score, but some lenders (credit card companies, loan lenders, etc) may use a different system that will give you a different score. The FICO score is a weighted score, meaning that some components means more than others.

The breakdown of the FICO score is:

• 35 percent payment history
• 30 percent amount owed
• 15 percent length of credit history
• 10 percent new credit
• 10 percent credit mix (types of credit used)

Basically, this means that payment history is the most important out of the bunch and the easiest to manage. Next is to keep the amount owed low compared to the total amount of credit you have. The goal is to keep the amount owned to less than 30% of the total amount of credit. Thirdly, the length of credit history will grow with you through time so nothing you can do to speed that section up.

For the last two, you can have a mix of credit without having 50 credit cards and 200 loan application. Choose wisely with the different credit cards and loans that you’ll be offered, from your favorite stores to pop-up stations around campus.

So with the basics behind us, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of actually building your credit with some simple tips and tricks to help you with your journey.

Ways to build Credit

Student loans can build or destroy your credit

Since financial aid loans don’t require a credit check, you can get these loans based solely on financial need alone. But the catch is that it does end up affecting your credit history, good or badly depending on you. To avoid the bad consequences of student loan, it’s best to go ahead and start making monthly payments on your balance, right after you graduate.

To avoid making consistent payments, you can set up a payment pay or alternative repayment options with your load lender. It’s better to ask about all of your options before missing a payment that will negatively affect your credit score.

Get a secured credit card

A secured credit card is a great way to build credit without being a loose cannon for future lenders. To get a secured credit card, you put down money in exchange for a credit limit. It can be either the same amount as what you put down or a little bit higher, such as putting down $150 and getting a credit limit of $300.

This is a great option that anyone can get approved for, especially if you get denied for a student credit card (which I’ll explain in a little bit) or your parents won’t let you be an authorized user on their credit cards. It’s low risk and once you’ve been making good decisions with your card for 6 months to a year, you’ll actually get an upgrade to a non-secured card (meaning you get your money back you put down initially). 

Become an authorized user

Another great option to build a credit history is to see if your parents will allow you to be an authorized user on their credit cards. Now this is really only a viable option if you parents have good or great credit already otherwise this option will backfire on you. Because what this will do is that their credit history and decisions will be reported as your history to the credit bureaus.

It’s an easy way to build credit without doing much work at all because you already know your parents are going to pay off their debts.

Consider a student credit card

Student credit cards are designed to helps college students with little to no credit history build credit or fix a bad credit history. Even though you may already have student loans, a student credit card is a different kind of credit that is revolving line of credit. As long as you keep your balance low each month and pay it off in a timely manner, you’ll be good to go.

The best way to use a student credit card is to use it for your monthly, recurring bills each month, such as a phone bill or car payment. That way you aren’t using your credit for random things that you want, but for bills. Plus if you pay your balance off quickly, you won’t be subject to paying any late fees or any interests on the amount.

When picking a student credit card, try to get one that has no annual fees and has cash back options. Bonuses are awesome, especially when its cash back on purchases you would’ve already been making. The credit card that I use right now is the Discover Student Credit Card, which allows me to get 1 to 5% cash back at my favorite stores (like Target, Marshalls, HomeGoods, and more). You can applied for the credit card through my link, and if you get approved, you can earn $50 towards a future purchase. Discover is literally giving away free money for new customers! Don’t walk, run!

Pay your bills on time

The most important advice anyone can every give you about building credit is to pay your bills on time! Missing a late payment one or two times can really destroy all of your hard work and take months to repair from.

Your payment history takes up 35% of your score with the FICO scoring system so it does truly mean a lot to future leaders. I like to include all of my bills in my agenda a few days before they are actually due so that way I can make sure to pay them on time. You can also try setting up email reminders, phone alerts, or other ways to remind you to pay your credit card bills on time.

Monitor your credit score regularly

Finally, the other best advice is to manage your credit score regularly. Most credit card companies will actually have their own system of calculating your credit score so that way you can monitor your score at any time. But otherwise you can request your credit score one free time from each of the three credit bureaus. I like to set up mine up that I check one of the credit bureaus at the beginning of the year and the other two throughout the year. But you can do it however you want. You can also check all three of the credit bureaus all at once.

It’s important to monitor your credit history so that way if anyone steals your identity, you can catch it quickly and minimize the damage that is done. Plus if there is a mistake on your credit history (which can happen often), you can fix it quickly before it ruins your credit history in the future.

Resources

Now that you’ve understand the basics of credit score and how to build credit while in college, here are some resources for more information that can future explain credit:

AnnualCreditReporting.com: This is the website that allows you to request a credit report from each of the three credit buraus once a year.

Discover Credit Card: I’ve been using them for over a year, and I love my experience with them. I get cash back bonuses for every purchase I make, which they match during the first year. Plus if you sign up through my link, you’ll get a $50 statement credit just by signing up and getting approved for the card. 

NerdWallet: This website is a great resource to find the best credit card for you as well as a bunch of other finance opportunities, such as a mortgage or a loan.  They even give you great advice and more tips on being financially smart with your money.

MyFICO: This website is also a great resource that will better explain how your credit history is reported and what you can do to improve your score within the 5 components that they monitor.

You may also like: 5 Creative Ways for College Students to Make Money, 15 Secrets to Saving Money in College, and 7 Simple Tips to Boost Your Self-Confidence 

The post How to Build Credit as a College Student Like A Boss appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.

Then I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw a sponsored post for Qapital. I was hesitant at first at trusting an app to help me save money, but it has totally changed the saving game for me!

What is Qapital

Qapital is an app that is an actual bank that is federally insured, so your money is safe with them! In the app, it allows you to set goals and specific rules that help you save money without you even knowing it.

Why I love Qapital and Why You Will Too!

The main reason of why I love Qapital is how simple and easy to use it is. Literally anyone can use it and understand how it works. When I first started using the app, I only used one rule per goal. But if you really want to save money quickly, then you’ll actually need to set up two to three rules per goal. My personal favorites are automatic, round up, and the apple health rule. Girl needs to get her steps in for the day!

Okay, so here are some more reasons of why I love Qapital and why I know you will too:

• Easy to set up your goals and rules
• Overdraft protection: your bank account will never go lower than $100
• Automatic withdrawals for your goals
• The encouragement: the app will send you cute pop ups announcing that you reached 10%, 25% or 50% of your goal.

How It Works

Step 1: Download the app and sign up with Qapital

The app can be found in the Apple or Android store and the logo is mainly white with a tri-color color. They also have a website if you want to access your account on your computer. Click the link here to sign up, on your computer or on your phone! If you use my link to sign up for Qapital, you’ll receive a free $5 deposit to your bank account once you complete your first deposit on the app.

Step 2: Connect your banking information

Once signing up for the app, you’ll be asked to plug in your banking information. Have your bank name, account number, and your routing number ready to enter into the app.

Step 3: Create a goal

Now you’re ready to start saving! Go ahead and think of some things or items that you want to save up for. Maybe you want to save up for a new pair of shoes, or go on a vacation, or just start saving. You can then create a goal! Qapital will ask that you set a cover photo, name the goal, set the amount of money you need to save, select the rules you want to add to the goal, and who are the savers for the goal. If you want to save with a friend for a spring break trip, you can totally can with the app and see how much each person has saved for the goal.

Step 4: Set up the rules for the goal

The biggest part of Qapital is the rules that you can set for each goal. These rules will dedicated how much you save and when you save. You always have the option to change or deactivate a rule for a goal, but the more rules, the more money you’ll save without knowing it.

Here are some examples of the rules that you can choose from:

• Weather: Save money every time a meteor flies by earth or if it starts raining in your local area.
• Automatic: Set up a schedule that the app will follow, such as save $10 a week, $50 a month, or save $1 every day.
• Round up: This rules rounds up each transaction that you make and rounds up to a dollar amount that you decide. I use this rule to round up every purchase to $2 and I save the change.
• 52 Week rule: Each week that’s the amount of money that the app will take out. For an example, week 1 the app will take $1, week 2 $2, and week 3 $3, etc and etc.
• Apple Health: Get rewarded every time you reach a health goal, such as reaching a step goal of 10,000 steps or walking a few miles a day.
• Guilty Pleasure: Every time you purchase at a location that you are trying to avoid, the app will take out a set amount. Don’t want to spend any money at Target or McDonald’s, then this is the rule that’ll work for you.
• Spend less: You get to set a budget and if you come under the budget, then you’ll save the difference.

Step 5: Let the savings roll in!

Once you’ve set your goal and activated the rules, you’re all set to start saving! Now you can go ahead and add more goals if you would like or you can just leave it at one goal at a time. It’s totally up to you!

My Money Saving Plan & What Worked for Me

I’ve been using Qapital now for about a year or so, and I’ve learned a lot about my spending habits as well as what savings plan worked best for me. By learning your habits, you’ll learn what rule and goal will work best for you on the app. For me, I do better when my money is automatically saved and when I have multiple goals going on at one time.

How I was able to maximize the use of Qapital:

• Setting multiple rules for each goal
• Aggressively wanting to save money
• Not touching the money until I had saved the entire amount
• Have multiple sources of income coming in: Learn how I made money from these two apps, Poshmark and Rover.

This is not only for college students; the app truly can help anyone save money without even batting an eye. If you sign up for Qapital using the link, please leave a comment below if you love it as much as I do. I honestly think you will, but I would love to hear your success stories.

The post How I Saved $2,000 in My 20s: College Edition appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.

 If you’re not a fellow blogger, then these might come off as quite strange. But let me explain why I want to start doing these reports for you all.      

1. Growth Tracking- These reports will allow me to see my growth in traffic and income over time. Most other bloggers only start posting these reports once they start making money, but everyone has to start from the bottom before they reach the top.  I hope that these reports help inspire other bloggers that you can eventually make money through blogging
2. Transparency- There are a ton of ways to make money through blogging, some that are honest and some that aren’t. I want to be totally honest in how I make money, where I get the money from, and that this blog is legit. No funny business here, I promise!

What I Did This Month

Concerning blog posts, I wrote 8 in total for the month of July. While I focused on making great content, I have also been working on my social media platforms, creating my first e-book, and setting up sponsored content.

I’ve mainly been focusing on Instagram (follow me here!) and Twitter (follow me here!) because it’s fun to come up with quick messages and take stunning photos. At the end of the month, I learned the value of promotion and having people or pages shout you out on their platforms. It really helps to gain followers and to get more eyes on your content. Alas, hashtags and retweets are what really work for Twitter, but I am still learning about those approaches to that platform.

This month, I also created my first e-book titled the 10 Step Guide to Getting Into Pharmacy School, which like the title suggests is a how-to guide for any college students or pharmacy technicians looking to get into pharmacy school. I teach you step-by-step of how I did it, even if you are a minority. It’s roughly 30 pages, and I have to say that I am extremely proud of my book. If you would like to support the e-book or take a look at it, then click here.

Next month, I hope to still focus on Instagram and my original content, but start to introduce sponsored posts and those kinds of opportunities.

[bctt tweet=”July 2017 Income & Traffic Report is now Live! See how I make an income from blogging…” username=”uniquelymickie”]

July Social Media Report

This month, I tried to focus most of my attention to Instagram and Pinterest to increase my engagement and the visibility of my posts. It really has helped me by being more active and engaging with fellow bloggers and my viewers. I’m still working on the whole Instagram theme idea, but when I get the hang of it, then I’ll make a full in-depth blog post on how to create an Instagram theme.

Instagram: 727 –> 946         Goal for Last Month: 750  Pass!                      Goal for Next Month: 1,500

Facebook: 191 –> 198         Goal for Last Month: 300  Fail!                       Goal for Next Month: 200

Pinterest: 226 –> 274          Goal for Last Month: 300  Fail!                        Goal for Next Month: 300

Twitter: 95 –> 119              Goal for Last Month: 150  Fail!                        Goal for Next Month: 125

July Income & Traffic Report

This is my second full month that my blog has been live, and I can definitely say I have almost tripled the amount of pageviews for the month of July. I even doubled the amount of  unique visitors that I had as well from 956 to 3989. Another great part of July is that I did end up having a small income! Whoop, whoop for small changes because everyone has to start somewhere.

Income:

• My First E-Book: $10.59  (purchase it here)
• Media.net: $2.44 (but I can’t get paid until I reach the $100 minimum payout requirement)
• Style Collective: $0.55 (but I can’t get paid until I reach the $100 minimum payout requirement)

Total Income: $13.58

Traffic

Here is the traffic screenshot for the month of July!

July’s Most Popular Posts:

• The Ultimate List of Discounts for College Students       Pageviews: 1,008
• How to Have A Successful First Move-in Day: A Survivor’s Guide     Pageviews: 583
• The Hidden Secrets of Selling on Poshmark     Pageviews: 494
• 15 Savvy Ways to Save Money in College Without Cutting the College Experience   Pageviews: 470

Based off of my pageviews and popular posts for the month of July, I definitely saw an increase in activity on topics related to money and side hustles. Since I love saving money and learning how to make an income from various sources, I definitely will continue incorporating these topics into my blog.

Want to Start Your Own Blog?

If you answered “yes”, then you totally should! It’s really not that hard to do, and it’s totally changed my life for the better. Let blogging do the same for you. I created an entire guide on my blog where I teach you step-by-step on how you can start your own blog, in less than 30 minutes! I promise it’s really simply, you just have to take that leap of faith to go for it! Click here to learn how.

The post July 2017 Income & Traffic Report appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.