Benét J. Wilson is a lead reporter at Bankrate who writes about credit cards and credit advice. She entered the consumer lending industry as an associate editor at LendingTree’s CompareCards/Magnify Money in 2018. She was the senior credit cards editor at The Points Guy from 2019 to 2022. She served as a TPG media spokesperson, featured on CBS New York, NPR, CNN, WNYC, the Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Consumer Reports and media outlets across the country.
Benét feels that credit cards are part of the tool kit to maintain good financial health – when they’re used responsibly. Cards are key in building and maintaining a good credit score, which is important when you need to do things such as renting an apartment, applying for a mortgage or getting a personal loan. It’s important to share tools and information that help consumers control their credit card spending by creating realistic budgets and maintaining a healthy financial safety net.
Benét says each person’s journey is different when it comes to credit cards and finances. Her job is to write stories that offer resources readers can use to craft their own personalized financial game plans. Her goal is to share her history with credit cards and finances to let readers know they aren’t alone and also learn lessons based on her experiences as a woman of color.
“I applied for my first credit card in college. At that time, there was no internet, computers or social media to research cards. The best you could get was a flier at campus credit card events. But I was lucky because my grandfather was a branch manager at Bank of America and gave me great advice on how to use credit cards responsibly and recommended the student version of the BankAmericard credit card,” says Benét. “However, I didn’t take his advice, which led me to spend right up to my credit limit. I ended up taking a second job to pay that card off.”
Benét has experienced ups and downs when it comes to credit cards and her personal finances. She wants to use her experience to help Bankrate readers learn from her mistakes and learn about financial literacy, making everyone better prepared to weather any credit storms.
I am a single Black woman, and I can apply for a credit card all by myself. Thankfully, this is an easy (and obvious) declaration for me to make today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so long ago that things [...]