Speaker 1: Episode three thirty five, How your credit score saves You
Speaker 1: Money with Michelle Lambright Black. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast,
Speaker 1: where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a.
Speaker 2: Life here your hosts.
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My
Speaker 1: name is Jen, my name is Jill. And every third
Speaker 1: episode of the show, we bring on one of our
Speaker 1: friends or somebody who's an expert in something that we
Speaker 1: are not, which is a lot of things. And today
Speaker 1: we are bringing both to you our friend and credit expert,
Speaker 1: Michelle Lambright Black, because we haven't done a lot of
Speaker 1: credit episodes and it is a huge popular question in
Speaker 1: personal finance. So we are going to talk about credit scores,
Speaker 1: credit reports in the light of how they save you money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I admittedly I don't know a ton about this.
Speaker 2: I think the few episodes we've done in the past
Speaker 2: have helped, Like episode one sixty demystifying the credit score,
Speaker 2: that's another one you can go back to. Obviously that's
Speaker 2: pretty far back in our archives. And then even further
Speaker 2: back from that episode sixty five getting into and paying
Speaker 2: off over twenty seven thousand dollars of credit card debt
Speaker 2: with Chris Browning of Popcorn Finance that's a little bit
Speaker 2: more credit adjacent, but clearly connected to our credit score.
Speaker 2: So it's about time that we dust off these shelves
Speaker 2: and give ourselves some updated information, update the episode catalog,
Speaker 2: and really just kind of help ourselves know how to
Speaker 2: keep a pulse on it, what to do as a
Speaker 2: result of pulling our credit reports and understanding our credit scores.
Speaker 2: And ma'am Michelle's a good one. Can't wait for you
Speaker 2: to hear her.
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by Ampersands.
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Speaker 2: More ampersend, more ampersand mm hmm, I'm loving the friend Letter.
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Speaker 1: So we love it. We love it just as much
Speaker 1: as you do. So let's get into this interview with Michelle.
Speaker 1: She is the founder of credit writer dot com. She
Speaker 1: is a personal finance writer specializing in credit. She is
Speaker 1: a leading credit expert speaker, and she has over two
Speaker 1: decades of experience writing about personal finance, specifically credit. You
Speaker 1: can find her in Forbes, USA, Today, Readers, Digest, Parents, Bank,
Speaker 1: Great Business Insider, all over Wall Street Journal, and today
Speaker 1: we have snagged her for Frugal Friends. Basically right up there,
Speaker 1: the same caliber Forbes and Frugal Friends. Yeah, right up there. So,
Speaker 1: without further ado, here's Michelle. Michelle, Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast. We are very excited to have you with us.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited
Speaker 3: to be here today.
Speaker 2: There is so much I think missunderstanding and mystification around
Speaker 2: credit scores for myself included, so I'm so thrilled to
Speaker 2: have you here. We haven't talked a ton about credit
Speaker 2: on this podcast, maybe like one or two episodes in
Speaker 2: the past, so you are the expert on it, and
Speaker 2: just to get us started, could you define what is
Speaker 2: a credit score? How is it calculated? Maybe even why
Speaker 2: sometimes it's different from different credit bureaus when you do
Speaker 2: a search, like just lay it all out for us,
Speaker 2: like we don't know anything.
Speaker 3: Well. Credit is definitely a confusing topic, so it's normal
Speaker 3: to feel overwhelmed and confused about it. Credit. Basically, a
Speaker 3: credit score is like a grade if you kind of
Speaker 3: think back, so when you were in school. Credit scoring
Speaker 3: systems they are software and they look at our credit
Speaker 3: report and they basically evaluate our risk level for lenders.
Speaker 3: So the job, the purpose of a credit score is
Speaker 3: to take a look at your credit report and then
Speaker 3: it's going to predict the likelihood that you'll pay any
Speaker 3: one of your credit obligations ninety days late or worse
Speaker 3: within the upcoming twenty four months. That's what a lender
Speaker 3: wants to know, is how likely you are to pay
Speaker 3: that bill or to pay any one of your bills
Speaker 3: really late by ninety days or worse. And then that
Speaker 3: lets them know whether you're a good risk, whether it's
Speaker 3: a good idea for them to loan you money right,
Speaker 3: whether you're a good investment, and they're going to approve
Speaker 3: or deny your application based on that information and price
Speaker 3: your loan accordingly. Right, if you are a high risk,
Speaker 3: they might deny you outright, or they might approve you
Speaker 3: but charge you a higher interest rate to kind of
Speaker 3: make up for that risk. So it's a tool that
Speaker 3: a lender uses to gather information because they don't know
Speaker 3: much about you. Kind of the same way if you
Speaker 3: had a friend or a family member ask you to
Speaker 3: borrow money, you might already have some background information to
Speaker 3: know you know, Hey, they borrowed a few hundred dollars
Speaker 3: from me a couple of years ago and they never
Speaker 3: paid it back, So maybe I'm not comfortable loaning that
Speaker 3: person money, or yeah, this person super responsible, and yes, okay,
Speaker 3: I can loan that person money and I trust that
Speaker 3: they're going to pay me back. But lenders don't know us,
Speaker 3: so they don't have the luxury of having that information.
Speaker 3: And that's where credit scores come in and help them
Speaker 3: fill in the gaps.
Speaker 2: Beautiful rundown nice And did the main credit bureaus do
Speaker 2: they work with different lenders or how do they end
Speaker 2: up being different from bureau to bureau?
Speaker 3: So there's a couple of reasons you actually have hundreds
Speaker 3: of different credit scores, Believe it or not. There's a
Speaker 3: few different reasons this happens. One reason is because you
Speaker 3: have three different credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experience,
Speaker 3: and all three of those credit reports can have slightly
Speaker 3: different information. So you might have a loan that reports
Speaker 3: just to Equifax, and then you might have some credit
Speaker 3: cards that report to all three credit bureaus Equifax, Trend,
Speaker 3: tune In, and Experience, So you could wind up with
Speaker 3: slightly different information on all three of your credit reports.
Speaker 3: So when your credit reports get scored, they would be
Speaker 3: slightly different because they don't contain identical information. So that's
Speaker 3: one reason your credit scores can be different. The second
Speaker 3: reason is that the software, the credit scoring systems that
Speaker 3: score those reports, they can be different as well. And
Speaker 3: so it's kind of like you have different versions of
Speaker 3: operating systems on your phones. Right, So you've got Android
Speaker 3: and you've got Apple. You've got two competing brands there
Speaker 3: with different operating systems that run the phones. Right. So
Speaker 3: with credit scoring, you've got Phyco Advantage score. Those are
Speaker 3: the two main credit scores that lenders can buy to
Speaker 3: score for credit reports. Fco has their own credit scoring systems.
Speaker 3: Vantage Score has their own credit scoring systems, And if
Speaker 3: a FICOS credit scoring system looks at a credit report
Speaker 3: and advantage score software looks at a credit report, they're
Speaker 3: going to get slightly different numbers. It's like if you
Speaker 3: stepped on a scale and weighed yourself in pounds and
Speaker 3: you stepped on another scale and weighed yourself in killograms.
Speaker 3: You're the same person, but you're going to get two
Speaker 3: different numbers, all right. So that's how that works. So Fyco,
Speaker 3: advantage Score two different credit scoring systems, and then each
Speaker 3: one of those credit score brands they've got different versions
Speaker 3: of their credit scores too. So you think one point zero,
Speaker 3: two point zero, three point zero, four point zero, and
Speaker 3: that's how we add up to hundreds of different credit scores.
Speaker 3: That's a really short version. It's a little more complicated
Speaker 3: of that because then you've got specific credit scores for
Speaker 3: like the auto industry and the mortgage industry and the
Speaker 3: credit card industry. So it does get really complex. And
Speaker 3: that's why I say credit scoring is a very complicated topic,
Speaker 3: and it's so easy to get confused. But the good
Speaker 3: news is If you can focus in on your credit report,
Speaker 3: you've got a lot more control over what appears on
Speaker 3: your credit report. You don't have control over what a
Speaker 3: lender chooses to use to score you and to predict
Speaker 3: your credit scoring behavior. You know, they might choose to
Speaker 3: use a FICO score eight to predict your credit behavior
Speaker 3: and decide how to price your loan. You can't control that,
Speaker 3: but you can decide and have a lot more control
Speaker 3: over the information that's going to show up on your
Speaker 3: credit report itself. That's where you've got the control and
Speaker 3: the power is to check your credit report, make sure
Speaker 3: that information is correct, and you know, you get to
Speaker 3: decide what kind of loans you open, what kind of
Speaker 3: credit cards you apply for, what kind of balances you
Speaker 3: carry on your credit report. So that's where you have
Speaker 3: the control and the power is the information that's on
Speaker 3: your credit report itself.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's stick a pin in credit report. I want
Speaker 1: to come back to that, but first I want to
Speaker 1: know how does having a good credit score save someone money?
Speaker 1: Because it's this big goal for some reason, that we
Speaker 1: all have before we're you know, when we first start
Speaker 1: getting our personal finances together, we're like, oh, I need
Speaker 1: to have a good credit score. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I got to have it. So, like, how can
Speaker 1: that save someone money?
Speaker 3: My John have done some notes on this because the
Speaker 3: power of a good credit score is it's really more
Speaker 3: than most people realize. So there is a tool online
Speaker 3: that anybody can use. It's called the Myfiico Loan Saving
Speaker 3: Loan Savings Calculator. It's free. You can use it to
Speaker 3: estimate your payments on like mortgages and auto loans based
Speaker 3: on your credit score. And so I looked up today
Speaker 3: how much you could potentially save on a mortgage based
Speaker 3: on your credit score. So right now, in June, the
Speaker 3: National Association of Realtors said the median home price right
Speaker 3: now is a little over four hundred and ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: I know it varies a lot depending on where you
Speaker 3: live in the country, So I just went with the
Speaker 3: median price for the US. If you have a six
Speaker 3: to twenty FICOS score, you would get an estimated APR
Speaker 3: right now of around eight point three three eight percent.
Speaker 3: That's going to put your monthly payment. I know, I
Speaker 3: hate rates right now, that's another that's a whole another topic.
Speaker 3: That's going to put your monthly mortgage payment at around
Speaker 3: three thousand, one hundred and six dollars a month, and
Speaker 3: over the course of thirty years, assuming you never refinance
Speaker 3: or sell that home, you're paying a total of seven
Speaker 3: hundred and eight thousand dollars plus in interest, and that hurts.
Speaker 3: I know if you had a seven hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: FICOS score though, so a much higher fycoscore that's considered
Speaker 3: an exceptional FYCO score where six twenty is considered good
Speaker 3: or fair. Instead of an eight point three three eight
Speaker 3: percent APR, you're getting now a much lower six point
Speaker 3: seven four to nine percent APR that drops your payment
Speaker 3: to two thousand, six hundred and fifty nine dollars a month.
Speaker 3: So you're saving four hundred and forty seven dollars every
Speaker 3: month on your mortgage payment, and your total interest is
Speaker 3: five hundred and forty seven thousand dollars. Over the life
Speaker 3: of the loan, you save one hundred and sixty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars seven hundred and eighty one one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: thousand plus dollars one hundred and sixty thousand dollars plus
Speaker 3: saved because of a good BIKEO score. That's huge. A
Speaker 3: good credit score. Now that assumes, of course, you never
Speaker 3: sell the home, you never refinance, and a lot of
Speaker 3: us do that on a thirty or fixed loan. But
Speaker 3: that's just tens of thousand. That's over one hundred thousand
Speaker 3: dollars in savings on your biggest sixpence a mortgage. But
Speaker 3: if we look over, a good credit score can also
Speaker 3: save you money on your car payment. In most states,
Speaker 3: your car payment is also based on your credit score
Speaker 3: to some degree. If you have an excellent credit score.
Speaker 3: The average insurance premium on a car loan right now
Speaker 3: is on a car payment. Sorry, average car insurance premium
Speaker 3: is one thousand, seven hundred and sixty four dollars. With
Speaker 3: bad credit, it's almost double that amount, three thousand, four
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy nine dollars annual insurance premium. Yeah.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times we just think about saving
Speaker 1: money on loans, right, But yeah, you don't think like
Speaker 1: your insurance also takes into account your credit score.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it can be double. It's crazy. Your credit score
Speaker 3: can almost sometimes be more influential over your auto insurance
Speaker 3: premium than your driving record, which I find crazy, but
Speaker 3: it's true.
Speaker 1: That is wild. Yeah, yes, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people in Florida I want to
Speaker 2: retake their driving exam.
Speaker 1: Yes, but they've got great credit.
Speaker 3: But it's a way for insurance companies to predict. They
Speaker 3: predict the likelihood that that customer will file a claim.
Speaker 3: People with bad credit are more likely to file claims
Speaker 3: that will cost the insurance company money. WHOA, That's what
Speaker 3: it comes down to.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because we often talk about wanting to cut
Speaker 2: expenses and look for savings opportunities when it comes to
Speaker 2: our biggest expenses, and housing and transportation are two of
Speaker 2: those biggest expenses, and you're highlighting exceptionally well how important
Speaker 2: it is to have a good credit score on those
Speaker 2: big expenses. I mean, even people who live debt free
Speaker 2: will often need to take out a mortgage if they
Speaker 2: need to buy a home. Not many of us can
Speaker 2: purchase a home with cash, and so in those situations,
Speaker 2: having good credit is very necessary.
Speaker 3: M Yeah, you know, even if you're not a fan
Speaker 3: of credit cards or taking out loans for other purposes,
Speaker 3: credit can save you. Good credit can save you in
Speaker 3: other ways that are really important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this question isn't on the outline, but I just
Speaker 1: thought of it. I know that sometimes people think that
Speaker 1: without a credit score, you can just use manual underwriting
Speaker 1: for certain types of loans. What is the cost difference,
Speaker 1: how common, how rare is manual underwriting? Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this yourself, but like I looked
Speaker 1: at it once and it was just so much more
Speaker 1: expensive than doing just running with my credit score. So
Speaker 1: I have to assume that maybe it's come up for
Speaker 1: you before.
Speaker 3: So this would be a better question for a mortgage specialist.
Speaker 3: I do believe it would be considered a higher risk loan,
Speaker 3: so I think the rate's going to be a bit higher.
Speaker 3: I certainly know you're going to have to have a
Speaker 3: higher down payment in a situation like that, which for
Speaker 3: some people that's fine, but that's not going to be
Speaker 3: an option for everyone. Because I know it's been quite
Speaker 3: some time that I wrote an article about this years ago,
Speaker 3: and the less things have changed. I believe a twenty
Speaker 3: percent down payment was absolutely necessary in situations like that.
Speaker 3: But if I were writing an article about this again today,
Speaker 3: I would reach out to a mortgage specialist and get quotes.
Speaker 3: So I do think it's something where you're going to
Speaker 3: have to jump through more hoops potentially potentially have a
Speaker 3: higher interest rate, and at the minimum, I would think
Speaker 3: you'd have to, you know, have a higher down payment
Speaker 3: of twenty percent or more, which if you have it, great,
Speaker 3: that's fine. But for people who have to save up
Speaker 3: for that, maybe that's okay. Maybe that's not if we're
Speaker 3: talking about a year ago or so, or a year
Speaker 3: and a half ago when rates were low and they
Speaker 3: were saving, maybe they missed out on a really good
Speaker 3: opportunity by having to say, and now rates are up,
Speaker 3: So it's a gamble, just depending on and nobody has
Speaker 3: a crystal ball and can predict the future. I get that,
Speaker 3: but I think working hard to have good credit it's
Speaker 3: always an important asset to have. That doesn't mean you
Speaker 3: have to borrow. If you're not comfortable using credit cards,
Speaker 3: that's fine. I still personally love credit cards, love the
Speaker 3: rewards that they get, but I never revolve a balance
Speaker 3: from month to month's mistakes I've made in the past
Speaker 3: more than once. Thankfully have learned from those lessons as
Speaker 3: I've gotten older. And why is here from those mistakes
Speaker 3: that I have made. But I get that they have
Speaker 3: pitfalls and things like that that we have to learn
Speaker 3: to overcome. But even if you, you know, are against
Speaker 3: using credit for those purposes, there are still benefits to
Speaker 3: working hard to earn a good credit score, even just
Speaker 3: the savings that can get you on car insurance or
Speaker 3: you know, down payments on deposits for utilities and other
Speaker 3: things like that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, they looked at
Speaker 1: my credit score. They did a soft pull yep. So yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh. Are there any other like things that
Speaker 1: are going to just make our jaws drop that people
Speaker 1: do will do a soft poll of your credit For.
Speaker 3: If you switch mobile phone carriers, they typically look at
Speaker 3: your credit That's another one.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess they want their money. They want
Speaker 2: to make sure you're going to be telling yourself phone bill. Interesting. Okay,
Speaker 2: So for the person who is now thinking, okay, I
Speaker 2: should check my credit report, like, what, what is my
Speaker 2: credit score? Is there any benefit to looking at that regularly?
Speaker 2: You're talking about having a good credit score can help
Speaker 2: save you money. Is there any benefit to just looking
Speaker 2: at your credit report? What could be done from there?
Speaker 2: How could we use that information to save us money?
Speaker 3: Yes? So I recommend a bare minimum. You should be
Speaker 3: checking your credit you know, once or twice a year.
Speaker 3: I check them one every month. That may be, you know,
Speaker 3: a little overwhelming for some people. So start where you're comfortable.
Speaker 3: But you can get free copies of your credit reports
Speaker 3: from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experience at Annualcreditreport dot com. This
Speaker 3: is all right, every American adult consumer has under the
Speaker 3: fair Credit Reporting app. Again, that's Annualcreditreport dot Com. Now,
Speaker 3: those free reports do not include free copies of your
Speaker 3: credit score. But there are lots of places you can
Speaker 3: get your free credit scores too. If you have credit cards,
Speaker 3: A lot of credit card issuers give away free monthly
Speaker 3: credit scores AMX, Chase, Discover Citybank, a lot of different
Speaker 3: credit card issuers give away free credit scores just as
Speaker 3: a matter of customer service, because they're checking your credit
Speaker 3: score in the background every month anyway to make sure
Speaker 3: it doesn't change. If your credit score drops a lot,
Speaker 3: your card issuer might actually close your card on you.
Speaker 3: So anyway, as a matter of customer service, sometimes they
Speaker 3: will share that with you. Then there are your websites
Speaker 3: out there, a like Credit Karma. Experience gives free credit scores.
Speaker 3: I believe TransUnion will give a free free credit score
Speaker 3: through TransUnion if you sign up my Fiico, you can
Speaker 3: get a free credit score. They all have options where
Speaker 3: you can sign up for their paid products as well.
Speaker 3: But if you are like me and you want to
Speaker 3: go to a couple of websites and get your freebie
Speaker 3: from here and there each month, it's once you set
Speaker 3: it up the first time, it's pretty easy. I do
Speaker 3: it in probably five or ten minutes top each month
Speaker 3: and wind up with a score from each credit bureau
Speaker 3: for free.
Speaker 2: What are you looking at for you an expert in
Speaker 2: this field, what are the key pieces that you want
Speaker 2: to be monitoring and keeping a pulse.
Speaker 3: On when I check my reports, so not the scores,
Speaker 3: the reports, I'm making sure to keep an eye out
Speaker 3: for new credit inquiries, so that is where anyone has
Speaker 3: checked my credit report that could indicate that someone is
Speaker 3: applying for credit in my name. If I initiated a
Speaker 3: credit application, that's fine, because I know I applied for credit,
Speaker 3: that's not going to concern me.
Speaker 1: But if there is.
Speaker 3: A credit inquiry that I didn't initiate, that might be
Speaker 3: a red flag because maybe someone's applying for something fraudulently.
Speaker 3: So that's one thing I'm looking for, And then I'm
Speaker 3: also going to glance at my other accounts and just
Speaker 3: make sure there's nothing funny going on, No late payments
Speaker 3: that shouldn't be there, because sometimes creditors can report things
Speaker 3: that are wrong, right, I'm looking for errors are there,
Speaker 3: and really, because I keep such good tabs on my
Speaker 3: credit anything negative that shows up on my credit report
Speaker 3: is a problem. I shouldn't see any late payments. I
Speaker 3: shouldn't see any collection accounts. I shouldn't see anything negative
Speaker 3: on my credit report because if it's there, I'm assuming
Speaker 3: something has gone wrong. And I did have Let's see here,
Speaker 3: it was in twenty twenty two. I believe it might
Speaker 3: have been twenty twenty one. It was twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: I had a medical collection show up on my credit
Speaker 3: report that shouldn't have been there, and it was because
Speaker 3: it was after the birth of my son. The hospital
Speaker 3: never build my insurance company and they never contacted me.
Speaker 3: And the only way I found out that a bill
Speaker 3: wasn't paid was they had turned me over to a
Speaker 3: collection agency and a collection account showed up on my
Speaker 3: credit report, and so I had to go through the
Speaker 3: process of contacting the hospital and saying, hey, I never
Speaker 3: got that bill. I had contacted my insurance company. They
Speaker 3: never got the bill, so the hospital billing department called
Speaker 3: the bill back from the collection agency and then they
Speaker 3: submitted it properly to the insurance company. It got paid,
Speaker 3: but I did have to go through the process of
Speaker 3: fixing that. And the reason I found out something was
Speaker 3: wrong was I saw it on my credit report. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it had dropped my score over one hundred points.
Speaker 1: When that happened, the same thing happened to me. It
Speaker 1: was with the birth of my son, and we had
Speaker 1: switched insurance companies, so they build the wrong one and
Speaker 1: they just never build the right one, and yeah, sent
Speaker 1: me to collections. Watch out if you have a baby,
Speaker 1: just watch out. Yes, so many.
Speaker 3: Oh and it's a pain because it takes hours and
Speaker 3: hours to fix that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 3: But I was the one who's going to pay the
Speaker 3: price if it doesn't get fixed. You know, it's my
Speaker 3: credit score and my credit report that's damaged. It's not
Speaker 3: the hospital or my insurance company who's paying the price.
Speaker 1: It's me.
Speaker 3: So unfortunately, you know, I'm the one who needed to
Speaker 3: clean up the mess, and I did. I was able
Speaker 3: to do it faster than most people get to I
Speaker 3: wrote an article about it on for Parents, so at
Speaker 3: least I got to tell the story and hopefully help
Speaker 3: some other people, and so I guess there was some
Speaker 3: positive out of it.
Speaker 2: It's helpful to know that there are pathways too correcting errors.
Speaker 2: I think previously I had thought, well, okay, that is
Speaker 2: what it is. The credit score dropped. But it's helpful
Speaker 2: to know you can look for errors and you can
Speaker 2: dispute them, and they can be removed and your credit
Speaker 2: score can go back up and be restored to where
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, if I recall, I'll have it's been, like
Speaker 3: I said, a few years, but I think it was
Speaker 3: fixed in thirty days or less, so it wasn't the
Speaker 3: end of the world. There are definitely ways to fix
Speaker 3: the issues. You just have to be proactive about doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: And I won't say it's super fun. It really it sucked,
Speaker 3: but it's fixable at least.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's the main thing. Like looking
Speaker 1: at your credit report. I know people have also found
Speaker 1: actual loans or cards or things with balances that they
Speaker 1: forgot they had. So it wasn't even like inaccurate. It
Speaker 1: was just like, oh my gosh, I forgot I had this,
Speaker 1: So it's something that can be like nipped in the
Speaker 1: bud really quick. But you don't know if you're not
Speaker 1: checked your credit report. And when you check your credit
Speaker 1: report and make sure all this stuff is like neat
Speaker 1: and tidy, then your credit score benefits from it. So
Speaker 1: are there any other like specific strategies or tips to
Speaker 1: improve a credit score significantly and or quickly? Like what's
Speaker 1: the main meat we're looking for?
Speaker 3: So if someone's looking to boost their credit score, the
Speaker 3: first thing I would recommend is go to that website
Speaker 3: annualcreditreport dot com or some other site, get copies of
Speaker 3: all three of your credit reports, go through them. First
Speaker 3: thing you want to do is look for any errors
Speaker 3: or inaccurate information. And if you see anything that's wrong,
Speaker 3: you can dispute those errors with the appropriate credit bureau.
Speaker 3: That's step one, and you can dispute more than once
Speaker 3: if you have to. Number two is I would say,
Speaker 3: take a look at your credit card balances with FIICO scores.
Speaker 3: For example, your credit card balances make up a significant
Speaker 3: portion of your FICO score, So if you can work
Speaker 3: on paying down your credit card balances, it's going to
Speaker 3: have a very positive impact. On your credit scores in
Speaker 3: most cases, and of course it's going to have a
Speaker 3: positive impact on your overall finances and budget too by
Speaker 3: saving you money. So paying down credit card balances is
Speaker 3: a great way to improve your credit score. There's a
Speaker 3: couple of ways to do that. If you're looking to
Speaker 3: clear up to boost your credit score as quickly as possible,
Speaker 3: you want to focus on the credit cards with the
Speaker 3: lowest balances first because zeroing out a card will bring
Speaker 3: it to zero percent credit utilization rate, and that's very
Speaker 3: good for your credit score. So credit card balance is
Speaker 3: focusing on the smallest card balances first. And then if
Speaker 3: you have a loved one like a spouse or a parent,
Speaker 3: or like a close stabling who has a credit card
Speaker 3: that is in good standing and paid off, especially if
Speaker 3: it's an older account, if they could add you as
Speaker 3: an authorized user to that account, that could potentially boost
Speaker 3: your credit score very quickly. That's another tip is becoming
Speaker 3: an authorized user on a friender family member's credit card.
Speaker 3: But that card's got to know, have no late payments
Speaker 3: and preferably be paid off.
Speaker 1: So I didn't realize this, but if you have the
Speaker 1: choice when paying off credit cards to choose like one
Speaker 1: that has a maybe a higher interest rate, but they're
Speaker 1: all going to have pretty high interest rates to pay
Speaker 1: off that highest interest rate. One versus one that's like
Speaker 1: the smallest balance, specifically, the one with the smallest balance
Speaker 1: will help you improve your credit score quicker, that's what
Speaker 1: you're saying.
Speaker 3: Yes, if your goal is to improve your credit score,
Speaker 3: focus on the smallest balance. Now, if your goal is
Speaker 3: to save money, if your goal is purely financial, yeah,
Speaker 3: I get it. You want to go with the dead
Speaker 3: avalanche and you want to focus on that interest rate.
Speaker 3: So we got that snowball, which is focus on the
Speaker 3: lowest balance and that's good for credit score improvement. We
Speaker 3: got that avalanche, which is focus on the highest interest
Speaker 3: rate first. That's going to save you money faster. Okay,
Speaker 3: Either one's good for your credit score. One is slightly better.
Speaker 3: So we're not talking about good and bad. We're just
Speaker 3: talking about slightly better for your credit score.
Speaker 1: Nice. Yeah, but all things given that, like they're all
Speaker 1: twenty percent interest focusing on the smallest one first, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll give you that boost more quickly if you're in
Speaker 1: a time crunch. But we always choose to save money
Speaker 1: over improving a credit score. Yeah, which it just depends
Speaker 1: on what you're trying to do. Like, if you're trying
Speaker 1: to get that over, if you're just on that line
Speaker 1: to like exceptional credit to get that loan, then maybe
Speaker 1: you pay the little extra interest to break that line.
Speaker 3: But yeah, maybe temporarily to qualify for a much better
Speaker 3: rate on a mortgage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very fine line. Very few people will
Speaker 1: fall into that.
Speaker 3: Group, right, and then you're probably gonna adjust your strategy
Speaker 3: as soon as you're done qualifying for the mortgage and
Speaker 3: switch back over to focus and on paying down the
Speaker 3: highest interest, right. Yeah, that is a short term strategy.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 2: Do you have any recommendations, Michelle or someone who might
Speaker 2: have poor credit and doesn't have a friend or family
Speaker 2: who wants to add them as an authorized to you? Sir?
Speaker 2: I hear a lot about these different sites where you
Speaker 2: can kind of add your phone payment to and I
Speaker 2: don't know how legit those are, but anything people can
Speaker 2: do who might not have extra resource around them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Experience boost is free. It only helps your
Speaker 3: experience score, but you can add certain bills to like
Speaker 3: your experience credit report. I believe it's like streaming services
Speaker 3: potentially rent. There's a few different things you can add
Speaker 3: to like your experience report for free. There are a
Speaker 3: few others out there for a fee where you can
Speaker 3: add like rent or phone bill to your credit report
Speaker 3: for a fee. They're usually only one credit bureau specific.
Speaker 3: I think there's one that you can pay to add
Speaker 3: to TransUnion and I can't think of the name but
Speaker 3: off the top of my head, but there's a few
Speaker 3: of those. You want to definitely do your research before
Speaker 3: you consider something like that, make sure the price is
Speaker 3: worth it. They're not going to add things to all
Speaker 3: three credit bureaus. Typically it's just one or two. There
Speaker 3: are some credit builder loans that I like. I know
Speaker 3: Self offers one, credit Strong offers one, and they will
Speaker 3: add positive tradeline to like all three credit bureaus, and
Speaker 3: these I like because they're actually helping you build savings
Speaker 3: at the same time. So this is for someone with
Speaker 3: very poor credit, and basically it's like it is an
Speaker 3: installment loan, but the lender holds on to the money.
Speaker 3: So it might be like a five hundred dollars loan
Speaker 3: or a thousand dollars loan, and the lender holds on
Speaker 3: to the money. And you pay fifty or you'll have
Speaker 3: to look the terms are different for everybody. That you'd
Speaker 3: pay like fifty or one hundred bucks a month to
Speaker 3: the lender, and once you pay that amount off plus
Speaker 3: interest whatever the interest they charge, they'll report your payments
Speaker 3: to the credit bureaus each month that you make them
Speaker 3: on time, and when you're done, they will release those
Speaker 3: funds to you, plus any interest that it earned while
Speaker 3: it was in the CD or the savings account that
Speaker 3: they held the money in, minus the fees that they
Speaker 3: take out. They do take out some fees, but then
Speaker 3: you've got this little small emergency fund that you've saved
Speaker 3: over the course of six to twelve months while you
Speaker 3: were making the payments, and you've got positive credit history
Speaker 3: on your credit report. So I think it's a pretty
Speaker 3: positive product. The fees are not horrible. I'm not I
Speaker 3: can't know off the top of my head what the
Speaker 3: interest rates are because I think they vary per person.
Speaker 3: But it's nothing insane. It's nothing like payday loan level,
Speaker 3: nowhere near that. I don't even think it's in your
Speaker 3: credit card level. And I think it's worth it for
Speaker 3: the positive credit history you get, especially for someone with
Speaker 3: poor credit, who's going to have trouble qualifying for traditional
Speaker 3: credit products. Plus, at the end of that process, you've
Speaker 3: got a small emergency fund that you could now take
Speaker 3: and put in a high yield savings account and continue
Speaker 3: to build on. Or you could take it and pay
Speaker 3: off some other debt you have. But you can do
Speaker 3: something positive with that money. You know that you build
Speaker 3: So I really like credit builder loans as a way
Speaker 3: to build credit too.
Speaker 2: That's great. It's like a kind grandparent helping you get
Speaker 2: right with money.
Speaker 3: Yes, I like that analogy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what else is kind and helps you build.
Speaker 2: MM and maybe a grandparent. The bill of the week.
Speaker 3: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 3: entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 3: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, Maybe your car died
Speaker 3: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 2: That's bill but.
Speaker 1: Flow bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
Speaker 1: See what I did there with the billed? Hun. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's a pun as a dad joke,
Speaker 1: maybe Michelle. Every week we invite our listeners and our
Speaker 1: guests to give us their bill of the week, and
Speaker 1: we know you're familiar with the segment and we are
Speaker 1: looking forward to hearing your bill.
Speaker 3: Well, my bill is a little tiny bit of a stretch,
Speaker 3: so I hope it's okay.
Speaker 1: Oh the stretch here the better.
Speaker 3: It's a man named Bill E.
Speaker 1: Billy.
Speaker 3: So it's my seventh grade English teacher, Billy Miller. I
Speaker 3: hope the why is acceptable on this with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Lucy Goose, Yeah, of course. Okay.
Speaker 3: So I now am a professional freelance writer and have
Speaker 3: been a full time writer for almost six years now,
Speaker 3: But in seventh grade, let me tell y'all, I've struggled
Speaker 3: so much with English, Like, oh, I could not tell
Speaker 3: the difference between like an an adverb and a noun,
Speaker 3: and I was just it was awful, Like he had
Speaker 3: to tutor me after school, I don't know, every day
Speaker 3: for months and months, and I just am really thankful
Speaker 3: for all the extra effort he put in to help
Speaker 3: me pass seventh grade English, because who knows if he
Speaker 3: had not done that, I might have just had a
Speaker 3: completely different career path later in life and not be
Speaker 3: writing about personal finances, you know, and credit here today.
Speaker 3: So that is my ode to Bill E. Miller and
Speaker 3: I am very grateful for him.
Speaker 1: Yay, thank you, mister Miller.
Speaker 2: Yay, what an impact Bill, Yes I've had on you
Speaker 2: and the trajectory of your life. Yes, we, I mean
Speaker 2: we love all the bills, the flexible bills, the stretchy bills,
Speaker 2: and especially the bill's about bills.
Speaker 1: This is yes, named Bill is Jill's favorite.
Speaker 2: Oh good, I'm glad we have yet to have a
Speaker 2: person named Bill call in. But hey, if you're out
Speaker 2: there listening and that's you and your name's Bill, this
Speaker 2: is your sign. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill.
Speaker 1: We did have somebody whose son, somebody whose son was
Speaker 1: named William.
Speaker 2: Or Bill, right, so Bill themselves their name is Bill. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to forget him, right, don't forget him.
Speaker 2: I won't forget.
Speaker 1: Sorry to keep going.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry about Bill.
Speaker 1: You keep going.
Speaker 2: To whatever you want. Y'all know we're taking it all.
Speaker 2: We love it. We're here for it. Frugal friendspodcast dot
Speaker 2: com slash Bill. We're waiting, and now it's time for
Speaker 2: be wrong.
Speaker 1: All right, So today's vulnerability round. It's not the question
Speaker 1: I really wanted. I really wanted to know everybody's credit score.
Speaker 2: But I saw that in the outline.
Speaker 1: I'm like, nah, and yeah, Jill changed it. Jill changed it.
Speaker 1: Some of us are proud of our credit score.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's but then that's where it ends.
Speaker 1: Just like, what were you? Okay, it's a credit measuring contest.
Speaker 3: I know I had mine ready, so I don't know
Speaker 3: what it's been changed to. I'm nervous.
Speaker 1: Now, what's the first way you started to build credit? Like,
Speaker 1: what was your gateway?
Speaker 2: Creditway credit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Michelle, you are a guest, you can go first, Okay.
Speaker 1: So I am very much an elder, elder, grandma millennial.
Speaker 1: So I was in college back when they still like
Speaker 1: had the tables set up credit card companies did on
Speaker 1: campus and like promised you a free beach ball if
Speaker 1: you opened up a credit card. So I opened up
Speaker 1: a credit card in college, and thankfully I did not
Speaker 1: wrack up a mountain of credit card debt with it.
Speaker 1: Somehow I avoided that. But I opened up my first
Speaker 1: credit card while I was in college, I think with
Speaker 1: US Bank. I can't remember if that's been a minute,
Speaker 1: but I opened my first credit card for my beach
Speaker 1: ball or beach towel, whatever, whatever it was that I got,
Speaker 1: used it to finance the trip I think, to Disney World,
Speaker 1: and eventually paid it off. But yeah, beautiful, Yah, they
Speaker 1: can't can't do that. Do you still have it? Do
Speaker 1: you still have that card?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I wish I did, because my credit score,
Speaker 3: which we did not share, might have actually been a
Speaker 3: little bit higher if I still had that old card
Speaker 3: from the early two thousands.
Speaker 2: You're welcome to share what you're proud of. You want
Speaker 2: to share credit score, I'm just not going to make you.
Speaker 1: No, you're fine.
Speaker 2: Mine was very similar to yours. Michelle. Credit card in college,
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, one of those tables. What were they doing?
Speaker 2: They're just like luring us in. I don't even remember
Speaker 2: getting anything free, but I do remember that my credit
Speaker 2: card on it was Starry Night by Van Go and
Speaker 2: I just thought that was the coolest that it had
Speaker 2: this like beauty one of my favorite art pieces printed
Speaker 2: on the credit card. Honestly, I forgot them that I
Speaker 2: had the credit card, Like sometimes i'd look at it,
Speaker 2: I'm like, what am I going to do with this?
Speaker 2: I was scared of it, probably like I don't know
Speaker 2: how to you? Right, Yeah, I can't. I cannot. I
Speaker 2: definitely didn't rack up debt. I can't even tell you
Speaker 2: if I actually spent any money on it, but I
Speaker 2: held on to it because I thought it was so beautiful.
Speaker 1: College. You do love beautiful things.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go three for three. It was college, but
Speaker 1: it was not at a Chase actually had a branch
Speaker 1: on campus. So I went into the Chase that was
Speaker 1: in right outside the student union, like on the main street.
Speaker 1: It was a very large the largest university in Florida,
Speaker 1: so it had like a main street and it was
Speaker 1: on main street. And I didn't get anything for free.
Speaker 1: I just got but it was black, and I had
Speaker 1: a black credit card. Yeah I know, and I vote
Speaker 1: so cool. Had a five hundred dollars limit, which I
Speaker 1: promptly maxed and just kept just paid off a little
Speaker 1: and just kept going maxing it out. And I still
Speaker 1: have it, still having credit Yes, oh, I don't use
Speaker 1: it anymore. They don't have that card anymore. And they
Speaker 1: just changed it to the Chase Freedom So it's like
Speaker 1: the best all around, no annual fee starter credit card.
Speaker 1: They just changed it to that. I was not into
Speaker 1: credit cards when I got it, so I just lucked out,
Speaker 1: but uh yeah, I still have it because there's no
Speaker 1: annual fee, and it makes now when I'm like kind
Speaker 1: of getting credit cards and canceling them every year, it
Speaker 1: keeps my credit history just a little longer than it
Speaker 1: would be because I got that in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so fifteen of your five foot score is based
Speaker 3: on your age of credit, so it's really nice to
Speaker 3: have an older one like that.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh wow, well done, Jack.
Speaker 3: I wish I hadn't closed mine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll close all my other cards like before the
Speaker 1: annual fee hits. I don't care, but this one, because
Speaker 1: it doesn't have an annual fee, I keep it. I
Speaker 1: keep her. She's with me. She's blue now she's not
Speaker 1: as cool as she was before, but neither am I.
Speaker 2: So I didn't know you bentioned, but I do think
Speaker 2: you're pretty cool now.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Thanks, that was cooler then now you wear black almost exclusively. Yeah, well, Michelle,
Speaker 2: this has been fun. Where can people get more from you?
Speaker 2: I know this is kind of just the tip of
Speaker 2: the iceberg on understanding credit, and it's worth understanding. So
Speaker 2: how can they hear more on this from you?
Speaker 3: We can find me online at credit writer dot com.
Speaker 3: And I'm also on Instagram at credit writer and if
Speaker 3: you are on the former Twitter now x, it's at
Speaker 3: Michelle L. Black.
Speaker 1: Oh, Michelle, thank you so much for educating us. I
Speaker 1: learned some stuff about credit that I'm going to take
Speaker 1: with me, so I hope everybody else got something to
Speaker 1: thanks Michelle.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys so much for having me. I've had
Speaker 3: a great time. It was awesome to be here today.
Speaker 2: That that was great, That was synced strong helpful. I
Speaker 2: do not look up my credit report monthly. I'm about
Speaker 2: a once every year. But she did challenge me to
Speaker 2: look into it more. I think I am afraid of
Speaker 2: finding errors and needing to fight it. I'm so tired
Speaker 2: of fighting. But at the same time, she made a
Speaker 2: good point that it's only gonna hurt me. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it can be done if I find errors. Of course, yes,
Speaker 2: I want to correct those errors. I don't want to
Speaker 2: remain in the dark on that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the longer you wait, the bigger the fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that is a case for checking your credit report.
Speaker 1: It is so common to have errors on your credit
Speaker 1: report that will bring your credit score down. It's not
Speaker 1: even rare. It is guaranteed that sometime in your life,
Speaker 1: you will have an error in your credit report. So
Speaker 1: the more often you're checking it, the more quickly you
Speaker 1: can find yours when it happens. And yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: I knew like on Autopilot, but I didn't know about
Speaker 1: these other places that do a soft pool of your
Speaker 1: credit score when giving you rates, like the insurance and
Speaker 1: the cell phone Like, yes, I remember now that I
Speaker 1: had to give them my Social Security so for them
Speaker 1: to do a soft poll, and I didn't even think
Speaker 1: about why my utilities I got. Actually I didn't have
Speaker 1: to put a down payment on my utilities because of
Speaker 1: my credit score was high enough. So yeah, that is
Speaker 1: another case outside of the loans that we know credit
Speaker 1: will save you money on. So I am so thankful
Speaker 1: for Michelle for having this conversation with us.
Speaker 2: I'm also thankful for you all who are listening. And
Speaker 2: we love, love, love love all of your kind reviews.
Speaker 2: They are fun for us to read because the other
Speaker 2: version of the reviews are not the most fun. It's
Speaker 2: this kind of you know, extremism that happens, but we
Speaker 2: love the kind ones. And this one comes from Rosy
Speaker 2: Journalism titled Relatable Informative, Well edited shout out. It's real
Speaker 2: talk about all the finance and frugality trends that cycle
Speaker 2: through our culture. I love the balanced conversation and the
Speaker 2: open minded support of everyone wherever they are in their
Speaker 2: financial journey. These podcast episodes have a few different formats.
Speaker 2: Some are interviews, others our views of articles on a
Speaker 2: certain topic. I enjoy them all as they are well
Speaker 2: edited and hosted by two people with professional exchanges and voices.
Speaker 2: No useless banter, just fun, informative conversation. Man Rosy Journalism
Speaker 2: go into bat for us. She's listened and read other
Speaker 2: reviews that kind of you know, take the wind out
Speaker 2: of our say that may or may not actually be
Speaker 2: constructive criticism. But Rosie Journalism here to help other people
Speaker 2: find a podcast that might work for them. You really
Speaker 2: did the thing. I feel like I got a ride
Speaker 2: or die in you, Rosie Journalism. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yes. So, if you enjoyed this show, we would love
Speaker 1: if you would take a minute to leave a rating
Speaker 1: or in review. It helps potential new listeners know what
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Speaker 2: See you next time.
Speaker 1: Gorugle Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. Okay, Jen, does
Speaker 1: this have to do with why you're tired of fighting
Speaker 1: actually fighting?
Speaker 2: It might on some level, for sure. I don't totally
Speaker 2: want to tell this story, but it does need to
Speaker 2: be told. You need to know. I went to Ohio
Speaker 2: to visit my sister and my four niece and nephews,
Speaker 2: and one night was babysitting them while my sister and
Speaker 2: her husband went out. And it was about ten thirty
Speaker 2: at night, watching TV, feeling like, oh, I'm starting to
Speaker 2: get sleepy, might turn in when all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: something flies overhead I am inside. No, huh, it's black,
Speaker 2: I scream, thinking at first, okay, it's a bird, still
Speaker 2: scream worthy because it's something wild inside turns that it's
Speaker 2: a bat.
Speaker 1: Yep, I knew exactly that's what you're gonna say.
Speaker 2: A bat is flying around in this house where I
Speaker 2: am also in close proximity. Now, thankfully, my brother came
Speaker 2: over to spend time with me and help me watch
Speaker 2: the kids, so I was not alone in the house again.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness. But he's asleep, fast, asleep on the couch.
Speaker 2: I'm screaming. He still doesn't wake up until I'm like, baba,
Speaker 2: that's what I call him. There's a bet in the house.
Speaker 2: The poor thing. This is the worst way to wake up.
Speaker 2: He had been sleeping for like two hours. Yeah, that
Speaker 2: means he fell asleep at eight thirty whatever, eight thirty
Speaker 2: to ten thirty. He's passed out on the couch. Wakes
Speaker 2: up to me screaming. There's a bat in the house.
Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of people who live in this house.
Speaker 2: My sister's mother in law is also there. She comes
Speaker 2: up from the basement like prepared and ready. She's got
Speaker 2: a brimmed hat on because currently side story, she grew
Speaker 2: up going to a camp every summer where there were
Speaker 2: bats a lot, and she saw someone who had a
Speaker 2: lot of big, curly hair get a bat caught in
Speaker 2: their hair, and then his wife had to cut the
Speaker 2: live bat out of his curly hair. Yeah, beware all
Speaker 2: you people. I mean, I love curly hair. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: Just put a hat on it.
Speaker 1: If you're looking at me and you're saying all you.
Speaker 2: Be careful, be careful around bats. But she comes up
Speaker 2: ready with hat on. She's like, is there a bat?
Speaker 2: How did you know? I hate that it has happened before.
Speaker 2: I hate that this has happened before. I hate that
Speaker 2: your sister has bats. Yep, yep, not on purpose. They
Speaker 2: are wild, they're not pets.
Speaker 1: Did not choose this life.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so she's like, get the butterfly catcher. So
Speaker 2: we did that. Anyhow, I don't want to keep telling
Speaker 2: you how it entirely ended, in case we've got bat
Speaker 2: lovers who listened into the show. But yeah, I was terrified.
Speaker 2: My brother and my sister's mother in law did actually
Speaker 2: successfully capture the bat, which is wild to me. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: I did my job of just screaming that's what I did,
Speaker 2: Although no I did. I show bravery and courage for
Speaker 2: like ten seconds when I went upstairs and closed the
Speaker 2: kid's bedroom doors so that the bat would not fly
Speaker 2: in and bite them. And I did have to get
Speaker 2: close to the bat in order to do that.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they sent the bat in for rabies testing. We
Speaker 2: have yet to get the results back, so we shall see.
Speaker 2: But that happened to me, and I'll never be the same.
Speaker 2: I hated every minute of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like your sister has bats, so you went
Speaker 1: into that house knowing.
Speaker 2: And I may not go back again. Yeah, they all
Speaker 2: can come visit me where the gators are the only
Speaker 2: thing you got to be worried about, and may stay outside.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Typically there's no fireplaces they can enter into my home.
Speaker 1: They do not enter through the fireplace that we know of.
Speaker 1: They can, and we will not talk to them because
Speaker 1: they will show us what they're capable of and they
Speaker 1: are listening.
Speaker 2: I got no way to take that into this episode.
Speaker 2: It just is fresh on my mind. I'm tired of
Speaker 2: fighting there.
Speaker 1: You are tired of fighting.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna look up my quite yet because I'm
Speaker 2: tired of fighting and scream I.
Speaker 1: Get it, and not knowing yourself. You give yourself some
Speaker 1: rest until that rabies test comes back.
Speaker 2: Thank you,