Brianna McGurran-Witzel
Contributing Editor
11years covering personal finance
6+ articles on LendingTree
10+ years personal finance experience
Developed and wrote nationally syndicated financial advice column, which regularly appeared in more than 250 news outlets
Specialties
Credit scores and building credit
Mortgages
Student loans
Personal loans
Education
Master of Arts, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Bachelor of Arts, New York University
Brianna McGurran-Witzel is a freelance writer and editor with expertise on the U.S. consumer credit landscape and how to save money, stay out of debt and pursue long-term goals like homeownership.
She started her personal finance writing career in 2015 at NerdWallet, where she was a lead writer and spokesperson. In her time at NerdWallet, she was the founding writer for the student loans vertical, appeared as an expert on the "Today Show" and "ABC World News Tonight" and wrote “Ask Brianna,” a financial advice column for young people nationally syndicated by the Associated Press. She then served as an assistant editor and spokesperson on the Loans team at Forbes Advisor.
Now a full-time freelancer, her writing clients have included Stripe, ResearchGate, Andreessen Horowitz and Experian. She is also a freelance editor at LendingTree.
Brianna’s thoughts on building credit
Building and maintaining a good credit score opens up so many doors in your financial life, and you can keep things simple and still do it successfully. Keep your oldest credit accounts open and use them occasionally, put all your bills on autopay and pay off your credit card bill in full every month. The factors that contribute to a good credit score can seem mysterious, but following a few basic principles is all you need."
