I registered for CreditWise to check my credit score for the first time. It was 372/700 - not catastrophic, but it could definitely be a lot better.

My phone bill hit me hard this month – it was a lot more than usual as I went over my data allowance.

Looking at my score and the things CreditWise showed that go into it, it made me realise that it’s the little things - that I might forget about - that build up and that I need to keep more of an eye on.

I need to make sure I can afford things like a big phone bill if it happened– because if I didn’t manage to pay it on time, it could pop up on my credit report and impact my score negatively.

Ideally, a year after leaving university I will have a full-time job that provides enough income to comfortably rent a flat and – if I pass my driving test — enough to put down a deposit on a car, and keep up my monthly payments, too.

For big purchases like a car, they check your credit score to see if they can trust you to make payments. I need to make sure I can pay unexpected bills on time, as well as my other monthly payments, to avoid my score being negatively impacted. That’ll help in setting me up for proving I’m reliable before I apply for something like a car loan!

Money matters: 'How I'm figuring out my finances as a student'