TNT Financial Corner is written by Maureen Babin of Amarack Financial.

People don't plan to fail.
They fail to plan.

No Credit
Bad Credit

How Do I Get Credit?

Establishing credit seems to be a catch-22 situation. You want a credit card so you can establish credit, you apply for credit but are turned down because you don’t have credit.  So how do you get credit when you don’t have credit?

Here are a few suggestions:

• You must be 19 or older to obtain credit in your name
• University students are usually granted credit, on the premises they are working towards a profession.  The limit is usually set at $500.00
• If your parent has a credit card, they can have a card issued in your name.  This will give you the use of a credit card, but it will not establish credit in your name.
• You could have a parent or someone with established credit co-sign with you on the credit card.  This will establish your credit, but you must also understand that if you miss payments, the co-signer can be held responsible for the credit card debt.
• A fully secured credit card is also possible, although not many banks are offering them.  They usually have a minimum limit of $,1000. and require security of $1,500.00 that must be held with the bank for at least three years.

• Only buy with in your budget
• Save all your receipts and match them to your statement to ensure they are correct
• Choose a credit card that offers a low interest rate
• Make your payments on time, this is were you are establishing your credit
• Always read the fine print

Credit cards can help establish or demolish your credit, use them wisely.  Don’t put anything on the credit card that you can’t pay in full when the statement arrives.  Keeping a balance on your card and paying the minimum payment required will take years to pay.  For example, $1,000 balances on your account with an interest rate of 18%, if you pay the minimum payments of $30.00 per month, it will take you 47 months to pay that $1,000.00 off!  That’s almost 4 years to pay that $1,000.00 purchase, which is probably long gone by now and over $400.00 in interest. Now stop and think what could you have done with that extra $400.00?

If you have financial questions which need answering, kindly send them to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it attention Maureen and she’ll answer your questions!