This school year, my best friend Lily decided to splurge and live in one of the nicest apartments on campus for her senior year—I’m talking swimming pool and sauna nice. She’d already saved up rent money from the past two summers and was planning on working a part-time job to make ends meet. Everything was all planned out. Here’s the kicker: Lily found out her credit score was 550.
That’s the thing about college. You take mandatory science and math prerequisites despite your nothing-related-to-math major. But for the more practical skills that every student should know before graduating—like what a credit score is—college misses the mark. Lily realized her credit score was “bad” when her lease application to her dream apartment was denied. And after looking into it further, she came to the harsh realization that her credit score would affect pretty much everything going forward. Aside from affecting your ability to lease a home or apartment, your credit score can affect your car insurance and even your future job. Lily went into full panic mode.
I briefly heard about something called borocash from one of my friends living in the real world—finance job and all—who was in a similar situation as Lily during his senior year of college. He swore that borocash had saved his credit score and was pretty easy to use. After looking into it, Lily found that unlike other credit building tools, borocash was built exclusively for college students to get some extra cash, while building their credit score in the process.
The Boro app is SO easy to use. To start building her credit score, Lily downloaded the app, filled in some general information about herself, and got approved for $400—spring break was right around the corner. She was given an option to choose her payback period ranging anywhere from 3-9 months and could see her monthly payments upfront. The monthly interest rate would essentially cost less than her daily Starbucks latte. The cash was then deposited in her account within literally 2 business days. As long as she paid back her monthly payments on time, her credit score would improve.
By the time Lily and I graduated, her credit score had already increased to 700. While getting her lease application denied was what it took to find borocash, her newly increased credit score now meant access to a better apartment, a lower APR, and better credit cards. Watching Lily go through the steps to better her credit score during our senior year made me realize how important it is to be proactive about something that can seriously impact your future. And although college may not have a Credit Score 101 class, borocash taught us skills that no class ever could.
