Managing Credit Unit

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Battle their way to the perfect credit score through an online interactive game 
• Understand what causes credit scores to increase or decrease

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Examine a number of cartoons about the value of a high credit score and choose one to explore in more depth
• Explain the cartoon's key message and analyze how it depicts that message

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Reinforce their understanding of the five components of a credit score and how credit scores are calculated
• Move around the room to kinesthetically model how financial decisions can impact their score

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Decide how to pay for an unanticipated expense, using various options available to them
• Note any additional questions they should ask before making that decision

You can find the Spanish version(s) of student materials linked in the activity under "Materials & Prep".

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Use an online interactive game that simulates the process of paying off mountains of debt
• Think about the strategies they used to "pay off" or "minimize debt"
• Reflect on how a heavy debt burden can impact one's emotional state 

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use an online FICO credit score estimator to compare the credit scores of three hypothetical college students and offer them advice on improving their credit.
• Available in English & Spanish

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use an online, interactive map tool to answer questions about credit usage around the United States, nationally and at the state and county levels.
• Available in English & Spanish

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze 3 interactive graphs provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to answer questions about household debt in the US, historically and currently
• Answer the question, “Are debt and delinquency a problem in America?” based on their findings

• Use an online calculator to “pay off” a hypothetical portfolio of debts using both Debt Avalanche method and Debt Snowball method
• Compare the cost and time for both methods and investigate the impact of making larger monthly payments overall.
• Available in English & Spanish

• Use an online loan calculator to determine the total interest paid and the monthly payment for an auto loan and a mortgage for individuals with varying credit scores
• Understand the impact and importance of credit score when it comes to borrowing for major purchases
• Available in English & Spanish

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Read a credit report
• Understand how the information tracked on credit reports impacts lending and employment decisions

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Think about what actions they can take 1, 5, 10, and 20 years from now to have a solid credit history
• Present their final ideas in timeline format
• Available in English & Spanish

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Work in groups to create one of the following types of games on credit scores: board game, card game, or trivia game

[This activity has no answer key]

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Review the debt statements of a recent college grad
• Use their knowledge and various online tools to assess her options for managing the debt responsibly
• Make recommendations to help her meet her long-term goals

[This activity has no answer key]

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Read and respond to a blog post from a woman who had to file for bankruptcy at age 23 because of out-of-control credit card spending and debt.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use the internet to research definitions for key bankruptcy terms.
• Define the vocabulary in their own words and provide examples.
• Available in English & Spanish

• Use the internet to explore the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission websites to learn about each agency’s mission, the education and other services they offer, and when to use each.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use the internet to research answers to specific questions regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act, thereby expanding their knowledge of FCRA.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use the internet to find tips for how they can improve their credit score.
• Available in English & Spanish

In this Case Study, students will learn how to analyze credit profiles and then develop strategies to improve credit scores. They will then create a basic debt paydown plan to assist a student client.

• Available in English & Spanish

In this Case Study, students will take on the role of a credit counselor to assist a borrower who finds himself in serious financial distress. Several options will be presented, and students will identify pros and cons of each approach and choose a path forward.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Use the mortgage payment formula to practice using function notation, evaluating expressions, and order of operations.
• Understand the pieces of a function in a real-world context.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Calculate the interest accrued when paying minimum payments.
• Explore how different monthly payment amounts will impact the total interest paid and balance remaining after 5 months on a $5000 debt with 25% APR.
• Reflect on the additional interest costs associated with only paying the minimum payment on a credit card balance.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze a bar graph
• Compare the amount of debt held by different generations in consecutive years

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze a stacked bar graph comparing the credit stress across the US and within five specific states.
• Consider the causes and impacts of credit stress.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze changes in the share of borrows with poor credit scores between February and June 2020.
• Make inferences about how COVID-19 relief programs impacted the credit scores of different borrowers.
• Compare poor credit score rates for student loan borrowers and other borrower in different age ranges.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze a bar graph comparing the credit utilization within different credit score tiers.
• Make inferences about how credit use impacts credit scores.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze a simple bar graph of average credit score for different age groups to summarize the relationship between age and credit scores.
• Consider how scaling a graph can be used to highlight particular trends.
• Hypothesize how making credit scores accessible might impact consumers.

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Analyze a bar graph comparing the percentage of credit applicant who are denied, disaggregated by race and income.
• Make an inference about the impact of racial inequities in credit approval.