The Avesta NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center (HOC) is partnering with Avesta Housing communities to offer free financial counseling and education to residents. The HOC is excited to help Avesta residents meet their financial goals!

In these financial counseling sessions, affordable-housing residents learn about how to build a strong credit score. The goal of our resident seminar is to demystify how credit works and empower residents with the knowledge they need to feel in control of their credit. The HOC’s credit-counseling clients often say that they are “afraid” to look at their report because they don’t want to face a bad score. This fear stems from the fact that people don’t understand how credit works and aren’t aware how simple changes can increase their score.

For example, many people don’t realize that closing old cards you don’t use anymore can decrease the length of your credit history and pull your score down. It’s also important to realize the balances that you carry on your cards are almost as important as whether you pay your bills on time! Instead of paying off cards one at a time, a better strategy might be to pay down all the cards at once until they’re all under 30% of their limit.

Simply understanding how credit works can make people feel much more confident moving forward. This financial counseling seminar helps people face their credit fears and understand how credit works, with the goal that every one leaves class with realistic strategies to improve their financial well-being.