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Get Free Help with Finances at Duke Credit Union

Seminars focus on credit card use, home ownership

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The Duke Credit Union will offer free financial seminars geared toward homebuyers this spring.

Nicole Anderson has a plan. In the next two years, she’s going to save at least $10,000 and buy a house in the Triangle area.

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For help through the process, she turned to the Duke Credit Union. Anderson attended a free first-time homebuyer seminar and learned how to best prepare her finances to get a good credit score and have enough money for a down payment.

“It was important for me to get a head start on my plans and find out what I needed to do so I’ll be ready to buy,” said Anderson, a nursing care assistant in Duke Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. “I needed to learn how to get better credit established so I have better options for interest rates.”

Since the seminar last fall, Anderson has gotten rid of cable, is dining out less and ensuring all bills are paid on-time, especially student loans for an undergraduate degree from Raleigh’s Shaw University.

“It was important for me to hear about ways to save and get better advice than what I’d find on the Internet,” Anderson said.

This year, Duke’s credit union staff will present on a variety of topics about finances, including wise use of credit cards. There will be a theme to classes focusing on steps to becoming a homeowner. All programs are free for Duke community members but require online registration. 

On Feb. 17, Kecha Hill, a mortgage loan counselor with the Duke Credit Union, will lead “The Dream of Homeownership: Making it a Reality” and on March 19, she’ll present about the role real estate agents can play in the home buying process.

Hill plans to present to participants about aspects lenders will consider like debt-to-income ratio, interest rates and will also explain why having a realtor involved can protect a buyer.

“These programs allow people to get all the information they’ll need up front to make good financial decisions,” Hill said. “First-time homebuyers will learn a lot, but the process has changed so much in recent years even those that bought before may learn something new.”

Anderson, the nursing care assistant at Duke, said she’ll be ready to buy a home once she’s saved enough.

“These programs put you in the know and helped me become more responsible about what I needed to do to get to that place in my life,” she said. “It’s not something you can approach in a lazy manner.”