( ENSPIRE Lifestyle ) Evan Leaphart Teaching the Younger Generation About Credit Scores With His App Kiddie Kredit
ENSPIRE Contributor: Elizabeth Casillas
After failing an employer’s credit check, Evan Leaphart designed an app to teach young children the importance of a credit score. Co-founder of Black Men Talk Tech, Leaphart, struggled a lot due to bad credit he racked up when he was younger. Once rejected from a loan due to bad credit, Leaphart realized how little knowledge of credit scores he had.
He did not know the consequences of bad credit, and when he was looking to begin his startup, bad credit followed him every step of the way. Adding to this, he did not know credit scores would impact car insurance rates, apartment hunting, or bills. Leaphart wanted to make a difference in the younger generation and prevent them from making the same mistakes he did growing up. Then the idea for Kiddie Kredit was born.
Kiddie Kredit is an app in which children can earn credit value based on the number of chores they complete and by when they complete them. Based on chores and completion, the app awards the child with a Kiddie Kredit score. The Kiddie Kredit score mimics the U.S. Credit Scoring Model so as the child grows older, he is familiar with the way the U.S. treats credit. Kredit scores are assigned based on how well the children complete their tasks and help encourage the child to give chores their best effort to receive the maximum payoff.
The app itself can be customized by parents to better suit the family dynamics and meet the parent’s needs. Tasks can be altered by parents to cover age-appropriate tasks, assign different priority levels to chores, and parents can also choose the rewards for credit scores. These rewards could be monetary or non-monetary based on the parents’ liking. At the end of the week, parents assign value to every point, and rewards can be disbursed.
Using the experiences in his past, Leaphart is working hard to prevent others from making his same mistakes when it comes to credit scores. His app is a great way for children to become financially savvy and for parents to have an easy way to explain some financial aspects to their kids. For more information, links to download, and to donate, please visit Leaphart’s Kiddie Kredit website.
