The Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), a division of the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, recently launched a first-of-its-kind credit-building program for young adults ages 18-28. Over the course of a year, the program aims to introduce young people to the importance of credit and to help them increase their credit scores.
The initiative, believed to be the only municipal program in the country focused solely on credit-building, will be studied by researchers at Northeastern University to determine whether and how well its methods – workshops, one-on-one financial coaching, and a special credit-building financial instrument – achieve its goals.
Said one 25-year-old workshop participant: “I figured out if I use my credit card and pay it off in a timely manner, that’s better than using my debit card, because the Credit Bureau doesn’t check what you do with your savings. Already, I’ve switched from my debit account to my credit account for paying back my student loans.”
See the press release to learn more about the OFE’s youth credit-building program.