Dinkins’s second straight-talking financial advice publication (the follow-up to 2015’s One Bucket at a Time: A Woman’s Guide to Creating Wealth) affirms her zeal for truth-telling and protecting her audience from scams. Dinkins was inspired to create the guide when she witnessed a sales pitch from a speaker at an Atlanta Wealth and Wine event who “didn’t seem to care much about the problem so many Americans are having with their credit.” Dinkins wasn’t having it. “People are taking advantage of others’ misfortune and lack of knowledge,” she laments. She vowed to craft an affordable alternative for readers eager to better understand and manage their credit scores.Her clear-eyed guide demystifies the world of credit agencies, delineates which activities can affect a consumer’s score, and lays out well-defined and concise steps they can take to improve their credit ratings—from savvily timing payments to using only a small percentage of available credit. Dinkins is adamant, in her warm and approachable way, that readers should never pay hundreds of dollars to third-party companies to monitor and improve their credit scores.
The title, of course, refers to Dinkins’s own hard-won and much treasured credit score. She details how she achieved a rating above 800 and the advantages that elite ranking affords her. But her book’s appeal is not just for those aspiring to the top of the heap; it is also relevant to everyday earners. “Your three-digit credit score stands between you and a yes or no to many of life’s pleasures,” she notes, and she’s frank and persuasive about the urgency of improving one’s score, limiting debt, and creating wealth. Her action steps for achieving this are clear and practical. Readers seeking the financial freedom that comes with a high credit score will value the hard-work attitude and easy-to-follow suggestions in this authoritative guide.
Takeaway: This guide to credit score boosting is comprehensive, detailed, and empowering.
Great for fans of: Lynnette Khalfani-Cox’s Perfect Credit: 7 Steps to a Great Credit Rating, Anthony Davenport’s Your Score: An Insider's Secrets to Understanding, Controlling, and Protecting Your Credit Score.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A-
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A
