The Student Money Management Center hosted The Good Credit Game at the Student Services Annex at 6:00 p.m. last Wednesday as a fun and interactive way to teach students the importance of having good credit.
Lupita Hernandez, the Project Manager at the SMMC, lectured on the subject and rules of the game before beginning. The presentation consisted of facts about credit scores, the pros and cons of paying with credit cards, and related topics such as debt to income ratios.
“The lecture was supposed to run more or less between 30-40 minutes, but the students had such good questions that it went on for about 50 minutes,” said Hernandez. “To me, it was a success because they were very attentive and focused on the presentation.”
The game was simple. Students rolled the dice, moved the number of spaces specified and drew a card in the color of the space they landed on. Blue spaces and their respective cards asked credit-related questions and listed several answers for students to choose from. Yellow spaces and cards acted similarly, except they asked about more obscure topics for the student to discuss with other players.
“Let’s say you landed on blue,” said Hernandez. “The card might ask, ‘If you want to buy a house and you need to take out a mortgage, which type of loan would require a higher credit score: FHA, or a conventional loan?’ Or if you land on a yellow, it’s like, ‘Your friend is having financial troubles and they win a lot of money – do you think all of their problems go away?'”
Four games were set up for the 35 students in attendance and each winner took home a pizza. The turnout was greater than Hernandez predicted since the game was held the first day back from the winter break and because it was raining. It was also held in the Student Services Annex instead of the Lowman Student Center, where most SMMC events took place.
This was the first time the SMMC has hosted the Good Credit Game, and due to its success, Hernandez hopes it will be used in the future.
“I think that we’d do this again if we reworked it a little,” said Hernandez. “We try not do the same topics over and over again. The only topics we do every semester is how to pay student loans because there’s a new batch of students who need the information.”
The SMMC wanted to get the word out for upcoming events as well, the first being the 9th Annual Financial Literacy Week, which is scheduled for February 20 to 23 at the LSC. During these three days, about 13 presenters will speak about subjects like extreme couponing, tax planning and employee benefits. There will also be movies, games like Life and Jeopardy, and plenty of opportunities to earn scholarships.
“Year after year [Financial Literacy Week] grows,” said Hernandez. “We learn from previous years and we try to out-do ourselves.”
Regular attendance at SMMC events and workshops puts students’ names in other drawings worth between $400 and $1,000 in scholarship money, as does scoring 80% or higher on Cash Course quizzes online. Additional information for these events can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and the SMMC’s recently developed Snap Chat account.
All SMMC’s services are prepaid through student fees. Workshops, weekly meal offerings, and private student consultations with fully certified personal financial advisors are just a few of the services provided. The ultimate goal is to provide students with the tools and resources to become financially independent.