9 Things Larry Chiang Mentors You and Your College Credit Card, Credit Score On (aka FICO score)<\/p>\n
-1- Pay attn to FICO. Much more important than your GPA, your credit card FICO score determines your life’s biggest expense: INTEREST. Employers care about your credit and pull your credit report.<\/p>\n
Don’t get mad at me the messenger. Leverage this ‘bad’ news. Don’t hide.<\/p>\n
-2- ‘Graduate’ to a FICO over 750 w\/o ever falling into credit card debt. 24 on-time payments of 20-25.oo, 24 months in a row. Charge 20. Pay 20.<\/p>\n
-3- Your social security number must be the one that is on the hook AND LIABLE. What I mean is that if your parents co-signed, you’re not building a credit file married to your credit report<\/p>\n
-4- Login and pay once per week. College students pay late because they forget. All y’all don’t pay late because of lack of money.<\/p>\n
-5- Pulling your own credit report does not hurt your credit. This is a consumer inquiry. A hard “inquiry” is where a lender pulls your credit.<\/p>\n
-6- Shop for a loan without hurting your score. Paper print out your credit report and fax it. Seriously tree killingly awesome. Take all the money u save and plant 100 sapling trees.<\/p>\n
-7- Paper disputes. Complaints and disputes are legally defensible via US postal. Yes, you live in 1970s credit law. Never updated. True story. Via phone or email you preserve zero rights.<\/p>\n
-8- Duck 9s 9’s are charge-offs. It’s a bad debt. It’s a loan the creditor has given up on. They kill your credit score in a bad bad way.<\/p>\n
-9- Expect to get screwed. Have countermeasures. Half of charge-offs reported are inaccurate, so write paper letters w\/a stamp. cc Experian Equifax TransUnion. Remember, you’re dealing with rules written by a co that has nomenclature based on a Chicago railroad (TU)<\/p>\n
-10- Many colleges have students that can’t get credit. Ask your parents to put the family power bill and cell phone family plan in your social security #. void and separate of your parents<\/p>\n
-11- We are friends now via Delta Sig. So here’s my cell: 650-283-8008. Follow me on twitter b4uCallMe https:\/\/twitter.com\/6502838008<\/a><\/p>\n CEO of Duck9 Stanford University EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence)<\/p>\n Duck9 = Deep Underground Credit Knowledge 9 125 University Avenue\/ 100 Palo Alto CA 94301 https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/ass<\/a> 650-566-9600 650-566-9696 (direct) 650-283-8008 (cell)<\/p>\n **************** Editor of the BusinessWeek Channel “What They Don’t Teach at Business School” https:\/\/whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com\/blog<\/a> CNN Video Channel: https:\/\/ireport.cnn.com\/people\/larrychiang<\/a><\/p>\n Read my last 10 tweets at https:\/\/www.Twitter.com\/LarryChiang<\/a><\/p>\n Author, NY Times Bestseller https:\/\/whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com\/blog\/?s=Ny+times+bestseller<\/a><\/p>\n “What They Will NEVER Teach You at Stanford Business School” comes out 11-11-12<\/p>\n