You didn’t want to watch a scary movie. But your friends at the 10th-grade sleepover insisted. “It’ll be fun!” they said. “Don’t be chicken!” they said.
Now you find yourself huddled under blankets on the couch in your best friend’s basement rec room giggling nervously over popcorn and hoping you won’t pee yourself at the first jump scare. Your friends shush each other as the movie starts.
Creepy music ushers in the opening scene. Lighting and thunder clash on the screen. With the lights turned off and you trembling with fear, the title of tonight’s horror movie flashes across the screen: Credit IV: It Comes for Us All.
One of the most common questions we get here at Bitch HQ is “… creeeediiiiit??????” And that’s not surprising! The system of credit reporting, credit scores, and credit cards is hella confusing. It’s also pretty fucking classist, racist, and ageist… by design. Heckin’ scary, man!
So to fulfill our mission of [checks notes] sticking it to The Man by democratizing financial acumen, we’ve written and said a ton on this topic. Here it all is: our primer to understanding and managing your credit so you can use it to get ahead… or at least prevent it from getting you down.
Understanding credit
- Dafuq Is Credit and How Do You Bend It to Your Will?
- Dafuq Is a Down Payment? And Why Do You Need One to Buy Stuff?
- Ask the Bitches: Should I Get a Loan Even Though I Can Afford To Pay Cash?
- Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”
- Ask the Bitches: What’s the Difference Between Credit Checks and Credit Monitoring?
- When (And How) To Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans
- Season 3, Episode 7: “I’m Finished With the Basic Shit. What Are the Advanced Financial Steps That Only Rich People Know?”
- Buy Now Pay Later Apps: That Old Predatory Lending by a Crappy New Name
Using credit
- How to Instantly Increase Your Credit Score…For Free
- How to Build Good Credit Without Going Into Debt
- Case Study: Held Back by Past Financial Mistakes, Fighting Bad Credit and $90K in Debt
- Season 1, Episode 3: “My Parents Have Bad Credit. Should I Help by Co-signing Their Mortgage?”
- Season 3, Episode 2: “I Inherited Money. Should I Pay Off Debt, Invest It, or Blow It All on a Car?”
- Season 2, Episode 2: “I’m Not Ready to Buy a House—But How Do I *Get Ready* to Get Ready?”
Credit cards
- A Hand-holding Guide To Getting Your First Credit Card
- 63% of Millennials Are Making a Big Mistake With Credit Cards
- Let’s End This Damaging Misconception About Credit Cards
- The Best Way To Pay off Credit Card Debt: From the Snowball To the Avalanche
- Credit Card Companies HATE Her! Stay Out of Credit Card Debt With This One Weird Trick
- Season 4, Episode 3: “My credit card debt is slowly crushing me. Is there any escape from this horrible cycle?”
- Here’s What to Do With Those Credit Card Pre-approval Offers You Get in the Mail
We’ll periodically update this masterpost as we continue to write tutorials and answer questions on credit. So if there’s anything you’re confused about, keep the questions coming!
And if we’ve helped you increase your credit score or pay off your credit card debt, consider tossing a coin to your Bitches through our PayPal. It ensures we can pay our lovely assistant and keep bringing you free articles and episodes like those above.
