How Does Grow Help Me Build My Credit?

We often get questions about how Grow Credit works. Here’s what you need to know.

• The sooner you get started building your credit, the better. Your average credit history length accounts for 15% of your credit score. That is why you should never close a credit account, as it will negatively impact your credit length. You can read more about your length of credit history on Experian's site.

• The Grow MasterCard works similarly to the American Express Platinum card. They both operate like charge cards, in the sense that they must be paid in full monthly and you cannot hold a balance. Since paying your balance in full optimizes your utilization ratio, the process effectively has a positive impact on 30% of your credit score.

• Additionally, 35% of your score is based on your positive repayment history, in addition to the 15% based on your credit history length. Therefore, 50% of your credit score is based on making your payments on time for an extended period of time.

• The Grow card enables you to do just that by reporting a credit line paid in full and on time to the bureaus, overall positively impacting 80% of your score.

• According to Experian, to optimize your credit score and avoid being labeled a thin-file consumer by the bureaus, which puts a ceiling on your score, you need to have at least 5 credit products reported to all three credit bureaus.

• Grow is a financial inclusion platform that helps consumers reach the 5 credit products threshold by offering various credit membership plans reported to all three credit bureaus. Once more, one of them is totally free.

You can read more about score factors at MyFICO.

You can read about thin-file borrowers at Experian.