“Nobody could have ever figured this would happen to all of us,” Kelly Storms said. She’s a single mom to two children and has been working as a hairdresser since she was 19-years-old. She used to think of herself as happy and successful. “To go from that to stuck in the house, not able to work, the engine blows on my car, the money is going out. Nothing is coming in. It was terrifying.”
The pandemic is tearing Storms’ finances apart, and she’s not the only one. “It’s getting to the point of detriment,” she said.
“It’s 100 percent possible,” Lauren Greutman said about repairing a credit score. She’s a debt-free life coach who’s dug herself out of debt and a badly damaged credit score.
Greutman advised getting a secured credit card from a bank, which usually comes with a $200 minimum. You pay the card upfront. They take a bill, like a streaming service or utility bill, and set it up for auto-pay with the secured credit card. That way, you’re building a track record for paying bills on time and positive credit history, which boosts the credit score.
She also suggested to use something you own outright, like a car or boat for example, and take a loan out on it. Then, use the money to pay off that loan. You will be paying interest, but the credit score will go up because of recurring, on-time payments. This could be an option for Storms if there is a co-signer. “I do have talent, so I need to put one foot in front of the other and figure it out,” Storms said.
For a fee, Greutman offers an online course to help repair finances.
Also for a fee, there are programs, like Experian Boost, that can bring up your credit score by linking all of your bills to an account through Experian and showing a track record of on-time payments.
Greutman said it will take approximately one year to boost a credit score by roughly 150 points.
