You pay your balances on time every month, keep only the most necessary cards open, and steadily paid through your student debt. The Consumerist blog suggests a few ways you can earn a little cash with your great credit.
Like any money move, benefiting from your good credit requires a bit of negotiation, as well as the boldness to ask for something you're probably due. In a guest post, the Bargaineering.com team suggests a few relatively low-risk ways to benefit from a pretty stellar score, including freeing up some investment cash:
If you're renting and put down a security deposit, ask for some of it back. There are two main reasons why landlords retain a security deposit - to protect against damage and to protect against non-payment of rent. If your score was lower, the landlord probably asked for a larger deposit. Now that you've improved your score, ask if you can have some of the money back. This works better with individual landlords rather than management companies because of the red tape. (while you're at it, you can always try to negotiate your rent)
Remember, folks—the free, once-a-year credit score report is available from AnnualCreditReport.com, not those other sites with the annoyingly catchy jingles (and $15/month opt-out "services"). Your actual score still costs a small bit of cash, but you can get an estimate of your score "range" at Bankrate's FICO score estimator.
