Establish Credit-- Really worried how I will deal with this financially.

[tik-tik-clock]

Does it help to have a credit established, before coming to the carribean?

Does it help with getting more financial aid?


I am really worried about how I am going to deal with the financial situation, once I go to the carribean. Right now as an undergrad, my parents make enough, such that I dont get any financial aid, I am completely on loans. But they can't pay my tuition because they have to pay off other bills ( we came to the US about 4 years ago, with zero $$ in our hands). So they strated working two/three jobs and their income went higher, but that money cannot be used in paying off my tuition.
I have had jobs, but very less paying jobs. I don't think that amount of income will enable me to establish a credit.

How do I deal with this situation? Will I be able to take more loans, in med school(carribean) ? Will I have to take private loans too?

Please help me out here guys, I really need help.
Thankyou.

[tRmedic21]

You will need a clean credit record to get private loans for school. You'll need a credit score of approximately 650 or higher, and you'll probably need no open collections on your record.

Spend the time to clean up your credit if you need to, before you go to the island. It is not something you want to be dealing with while you're in school.

Here's a good resource - www.creditboards.com

[tralfaz]

First of all, you should check you credit score. You can do this through experian.com/equifax.com for about $30.

After you do that, a good thing to do is to get a credit card. Make small purchases and pay it off regularly. This will help raise your score considerably. As far as your loans, so long as you are not delinquent in paying them off, they should not cause you any problems.

[ChanceCount]

First of all, you should check you credit score. You can do this through experian.com/equifax.com for about $30.

After you do that, a good thing to do is to get a credit card. Make small purchases and pay it off regularly. This will help raise your score considerably. As far as your loans, so long as you are not delinquent in paying them off, they should not cause you any problems.

These aren't necessarily FICO scores, they may use their own proprietary scoring model.

The best place to get a true FICO score is myfico.com. Use a code from the creditboards link to get a discount. Shouldn't cost more than 15 bucks or so for one of your reports.

[tralfaz]

These aren't necessarily FICO scores, they may use their own proprietary scoring model.

The best place to get a true FICO score is myfico.com. Use a code from the creditboards link to get a discount. Shouldn't cost more than 15 bucks or so for one of your reports.


Come to think of it, you're right. That's how they suckered me into getting the 3 in 1 score

[tik-tik-clock]

What does a clean credit record mean? And how does one do that? By make more or less money per year?

[ChanceCount]

Income isn't usually relevant to your credit report. Nobody knows the exact formula, but it usually has to do with paying credit cards and bill on time in addition to carrying a small amount of debt relative to your amount of credit amongst a couple of other things.

That creditboards.com site can explain it all.

[vaneleus]

Hey. This won't get you your FICO scores, but if you can get a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. Just go to www.annualcreditreport.com (http://www.annualcreditreport.com) and follow the instructions.

It's a website set up experian, equifax and transunion to comply with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. So it's not one of those third party things that you have to sign up for some service in order to obtain your reports for free. You just go here once a year to look at your reports.

As ChaneCount says you will likely have to go to myfico.com for true FICO scores. Watch out, as throughout the process on the above website they will offer you your score, but it's not necessarily a FICO. I always just get the free reports and decline additional services.