Hey everyone, welcome back to Finance Friday. It's another special edition of Money Girl,

where I answer your burning money questions. Today's topic comes from Mercy, who says,

I'm trying to rebuild my credit and recently completed your Build Better Credit online course.

If my credit card is locked, I wonder if I should pay a small fee to unlock it or get a secured

credit card. Or should I do both and stay below a 20% credit utilization to build my credit scores the fastest.

Thanks so much for your question and for being a build better credit student, Mercy.

As you learned in the course, there are many legitimate strategies for boosting your credit scores quickly.

This podcast will answer your question and review which card type builds

credit the fastest. Thank you so much for downloading episode 909 of the Money Girl podcast.

I'm Laura Adams, an award-winning author, money speaker, spokesperson, and founder of the MoneySt stack. That's my substack newsletter.

You can learn more and connect with me at laura d adams.com. That's also where you can email your

money question, learn more about my books and courses, and sign up for the money stack. You can also

record a brief question or comment

if you want to call our voicemail.

It's 302-364-0308.

I look forward to hearing from you.

So Mercy's got a great question,

and if you've been following this podcast

or me for any time,

you definitely know the benefits of building and maintaining good credit. The bottom line is that the higher your credit scores,

the less you pay for debt, like credit cards, car loans, mortgages, personal loans,

you know, just about any type of debt. In addition, having poor credit means you're going to

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