First 'Community Night’ on financial literacy held at Albany Civil Rights Institute

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - The Albany Civil Rights Institute partnered with Renasant Bank to pass along knowledge on how to create healthy financial practices.

Securing a comfortable future by making wise financial decisions was the basis of Tuesday's first ever Community Night hosted by the Albany Civil Rights Institute.

“We have young folk graduating from high school, who are graduating from college, and they need to be on top of their finances as well as some of their parents in some cases,” Frank Wilson, Albany Civil Rights Institute director, said.

Partnering with Renasant Bank, Wilson said he plans to make the forum an annual event, covering an array of topics to improve the overall health of the community.

“They’re not going to always be 17, they’re not always going to be 18 and 19, so they need to look at that rainy day,” said Wilson.

Wilson added the more they inform, the better the community will be.

“If we can teach that lesson early than perhaps we can find some of these folks by the time they get my age, they’ll be employing people instead of being employees,” Wilson said.

Renesant Bank professionals said there are several ways you can manage your credit.

First, if you have bad credit or blemishes that may be keeping you from the score you want, pick the bill with the largest debt and start paying it off.

One item at a time.

If you have credit cards, make sure they fit your budget and that you can afford more than the minimum as credit cards are the gateway to bad credit if mismanaged.

Also you should avoid companies that tell you they can repair your credit for a monthly installment, representatives said.

“Those fly by night, overnight, credit risk repair, credit fixers, no, I definitely would not recommend any of those. It’s a process and we have to keep in mind too, we didn’t get into trouble overnight so we shouldn’t be expecting to get out of trouble overnight when it comes to correcting our credit files,” Evelyn Ross, vice president of training, said.

The banking professional recommended you avoid opening lines of credit in your child’s name, no matter what the circumstances.

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