John, a member of the Mi’kmaq Tribe, started working with a Financial Capabilities Counselor at Four Directions in 2020. He had minimal credit, minimal savings, and big goals of owning his own truck and RV. John learned a lot about practices to reach his optimal credit score and started getting to work. He obtained a secured credit card, that he used on a regular basis and paid off, which helped to create some positive payment history on his credit report. “Securing the card was a steppingstone towards making my credit slowly transition upwards. It helped so much on times when I needed it as well.” It took some time for the secured card to boost his score, but he stayed committed and even got his initial deposit returned to him for ‘perfect payment history.’
John started direct depositing a small amount of money into his savings on a weekly basis and began to see his savings grow. “Making small adjustments to my savings by having a weekly deposit, made it feel very nice to see the account slowly increase, which helped when I needed in times of emergency. I started to deposit more when I didn’t see the need to purchase more than I needed, which increased my savings even more.”
John now has a healthy savings account that he can rely on for emergencies but also for extra expenses. His credit score is in the “excellent” range and he has a solid financial foundation to continue to build on! In March of 2020, John financed his very first truck and in March of 2021, John was able to purchase his RV! “Having my credit become better helped in so many aspects, I was ecstatic to purchase what I wanted. I have always had whatever the dealership could give me at the time, because of my credit. It felt great to be able to choose my own vehicle, especially a camper this year. Having my credit score go up slowly helped in the long run, I was cautious about what I did and how I went about doing anything that would impact my credit score. Thank you to Sayre and this program for helping me transition through the process of increasing my credit score and making sound financial decisions.”
