Jul 24, 2017

Bell Ringer Idea: A Stranger Wants To Borrow Money From You, What Questions Would You Ask Them?

Teachers often mention how they struggle to explain credit scores and credit reports and how to engage high schoolers in these foreign concepts. I used this bell ringer in class on Friday for our lesson on Credit Reports/Credit Scores and it got class off to a great start.

Why? Well, most of the questions that students came up with matched perfectly with the factors that determine a credit score. This made it much easier for them to grasp why these factors matter. They had to take on the role of a lender trying to figure out whether to lend money to a stranger which is analogous to the reason that we have credit scores today.

Here are some questions that students came up with:

  • How much money do you owe other people? (Total Debt)
    • One student mentioned how a classmate in middle school had borrowed money from each of his classmates. She wishes she knew to ask him this question before she lent him money.
  • Have you repaid other people that you have borrowed from in the past? (Payment history)
  • What do you need the money for?
  • How do you plan to pay the money back?
  • Are you willing to pay me back plus interest?
  • When are you going to pay me back?
  • Can we put this agreement in writing (not a bad idea to build commitment)?

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Here is a two-part NGPF activity that is top rated on Google when you search for “engaging credit score activities”:

 

 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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