Teaching Your Kids to Build Good Credit: The One Tool You Never Knew You Needed

Teaching your kids about money can be tricky. You want them to understand the value of a dollar without putting undue pressure or stress on them too early on. It’s essential to have productive conversations with your children around money so they can have the knowledge to guarantee their own financial well being when they become adults. One of the most important conversations to have with your kids is on the importance of building good credit, the steps they can take to do so, as well as techniques for avoiding the risks of poor credit. While you may have already thought to educate them on credit cards and loans, there is one tool you may have never considered that can help you underline this lesson. Read on to find out more.

Tradelines – What Are They?

A tradeline is defined as a record of activity for any type of credit that has been extended from a lender to a borrower and is also reported to a credit reporting agency. In short, a tradeline is a record-keeping mechanism that tracks all of the activity associated with that borrower’s account. For each credit account you have, you will have a tradeline. Generally, tradelines are one of the most widely used tools credit agencies use to calculate an individual’s credit score.

Tradelines typically include the following information:

• The name and address of the lender
• The type of account
• Partial view of the account number
• Current status of the account
• The date the account was opened
• The date the account was closed (if it has been closed)
• The date of last activity
• The current account balance
• The original loan amount or credit limit
• The monthly payment amount
• The recent balance (only applicable for credit cards)
• The payment history

The Type of Tradeline You Never Knew You Needed

When it comes to educating your child on the logistics of building good credit, there is a specific type of tradeline that can help achieve this goal: AU tradelines. In this case, AU stands for authorized user. In this type of tradeline arrangement, a parent can add their children to their tradelines as a means of aiding in building their credit. In other words, AU tradelines are the perfect tool to get your kid’s finances started on the right foot as they enter adulthood. By providing your child with this assistance early on, you will not only boost their credit, but you will teach them a valuable lesson on how to “futureproof” their credit management and use such tools to their benefit.

Ultimately, holding constructive conversations with your kids around responsible financial practices is an essential step in guaranteeing their future prosperity. Not only will you enhance your children’s understanding of valuable financial tools, but you will set them on the path to financial security and freedom. The more freedom and stability they have, the sooner they will be able to achieve their financial goals of buying a car, a home, or paying for their education. At the end of the day, you cannot put a price on that kind of peace of mind.

 

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