Speaker 1: It's time for the b a q a A the
Speaker 1: b a q A which is the Big Q eight
Speaker 1: with Man dead to be a Q with Tiffin aid
Speaker 1: to b a q a A. Hey manager, Oh Many,
Speaker 1: your hair is like really long, you know, it just
Speaker 1: keeps growing. Many has like well I used to call it,
Speaker 1: like back in the day Rudy Huxtable hair because remember
Speaker 1: Rudy had so much hair where it's.
Speaker 2: Like giving like you know, the glamour shots at the mall,
Speaker 2: like I'm almost just put like a nice it wasn't
Speaker 2: attention hazy sen Yes, I'll take it over. What that
Speaker 2: might look like?
Speaker 1: Man is giving glamor hair? All right? Some as you know,
Speaker 1: Brianna bish in question the answers. You have questions, we
Speaker 1: have some answer and so sometimes we talk about business.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we talk about finance. Sometimes you talk about your
Speaker 1: own personal life, whatever it is. You can ask us questions.
Speaker 1: You can go to be a podcast on IG Sliding
Speaker 1: to the DMS. You can email us at brand Ambition
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. This is a Barandavision podcast Bandavision
Speaker 1: podcast at gmail dot com. But just remember that we're
Speaker 1: not your We're not your brother, not your mother, not
Speaker 1: your sister, but your friend. Anyway, We're not your financial advisor,
Speaker 1: your doctor, your attorney. So you are going to listen
Speaker 1: hardcore to people that you pay and take what we
Speaker 1: say with the tiniest, tiniest grain of salt, which is
Speaker 1: two smart brown girls with something to say. This week,
Speaker 1: we have two credit questions, so you want to you
Speaker 1: wanna store Meandra.
Speaker 2: Hello, ladies, my name is Nicole, and I wanted to
Speaker 2: know ways I can raise my credit score. It's been
Speaker 2: at a complete standstill for some time now. According to
Speaker 2: credit Karma, I have a score of seven fifty four
Speaker 2: with TransUnion and seven forty six with Equifax, and I've
Speaker 2: been trying to increase my score as it's been a
Speaker 2: personal goal of mine for a while. Now. I have
Speaker 2: three credit cards, which two of them I don't use.
Speaker 2: In the last one, which was which has the longest
Speaker 2: line of credit, I use four small things like subscriptions.
Speaker 2: I have no debt, make all my payments on time,
Speaker 2: I have a low utilization rate, but I'm still saying
Speaker 2: no change. I do notice on some sites that my
Speaker 2: credit mix is poor, So it does that mean I
Speaker 2: need to apply for a new credit card or take
Speaker 2: out a personal loan. I hope this message makes it
Speaker 2: on the podcast. I listen to BA all the time.
Speaker 2: Nicole question, Nikki, Tricky Nikki, I'm just no Nikki.
Speaker 1: WHOA one? I will say, congratulations girl, because seven forty
Speaker 1: seven fifty is is the beginning of perfect credit. Meaning
Speaker 1: like whatever you whatever interest rate you're gonna get with
Speaker 1: eight hundred, you would likely get it with seven fifty.
Speaker 1: So I mean, if it's a personal goal, it's a
Speaker 1: personal goal. So I'm not negating that. You to know
Speaker 1: that if it's because oh I want to get a
Speaker 1: really great interest rate because I'm buying a house. So girl,
Speaker 1: you're there. Congratulations. You know the confetti is falling from
Speaker 1: the ceiling already, So I just want to rest assured that.
Speaker 1: So that's one. Two. You said that you have two
Speaker 1: cards that you never use. Girl, that's a misopportunity. You're
Speaker 1: gonna do what I call my jump like a Jordan
Speaker 1: and method. So that is when you said you had
Speaker 1: some subscriptions, spread those subscriptions over the three cards. So
Speaker 1: let's just say Netflix, Spotify, Gym membership. Each one of
Speaker 1: those cards will get one subscription and then you're going
Speaker 1: to pay it off every month. And full. So you're
Speaker 1: going to have the subscription charge the card and then
Speaker 1: you're going to find out your oh is it called
Speaker 1: closing date, Yeah, reporting date, closing dates state no state
Speaker 1: be a statement date, right, So that is the day
Speaker 1: that basically they tell the credit bureas, hey, Nikkia use
Speaker 1: her cards, because you want them to acknowledge you use
Speaker 1: the car and acknowledge you paid it off. So whatever.
Speaker 1: Let's just say the due date is the thirtieth, but
Speaker 1: the statement date is the twenty fourth, so you want
Speaker 1: to find out whatever. The statement date is the date
Speaker 1: that they report card usage, and you want to pay
Speaker 1: it off after that because you want it to be reported.
Speaker 1: This part people get confused with all the time. So
Speaker 1: it's like, don't be late, so pay it off by
Speaker 1: the due date, but paid off after the statement date
Speaker 1: when they've already told you used the card, because you
Speaker 1: want a record of your usage. And if you do
Speaker 1: that automatically, it just looks like your card getting charged,
Speaker 1: your guard getting paid off from whatever checking account. You
Speaker 1: can have it automatically paid off every single month, and
Speaker 1: this will allow your credit score to jump like Jordan
Speaker 1: remember back in the day. Or you can even see
Speaker 1: it on his Sneaker's the jump Man where he's literally
Speaker 1: jumping like Jordan used to get. That's what they call
Speaker 1: him Air Jordan because he used to get so much tight.
Speaker 1: And you're going to see your card score jump because
Speaker 1: here's the thing you started up. Friends. Whenever I say
Speaker 1: here's the thing, I always think about the song. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what song is that? Mandy Kelly Clark? Oh, come on, manny,
Speaker 1: I just want to hear sack go ahead. I just
Speaker 1: want to.
Speaker 2: No one wants to hear. It's a hard song to sing.
Speaker 2: Haven't you seen pitch perfect? It's a hard song to sing.
Speaker 1: Nobody cares about our tone. Hey, ba fan, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a quick break and we'll be right back. The
Speaker 1: amount of money doesn't matter as much as paying off
Speaker 1: in full. When you pay off a debt and full,
Speaker 1: you pay off your house in full, credit score jumps.
Speaker 1: You pay off your car in full, credit score jumps.
Speaker 1: When you pay off a credit card in full, five
Speaker 1: dollars five hundred five thousand, five million, credit score jumps.
Speaker 1: So you can get a little jumpy jump by paying
Speaker 1: off small amounts on your credit card every single month.
Speaker 1: Those two you're not using will certainly help. And the
Speaker 1: component about credit mix, So yes, your credit mix. I
Speaker 1: think credit mix is fifteen percent of your score. So
Speaker 1: thirty percent of your score is credit history, No, thirty
Speaker 1: five percent is credit history, thirty percent is usage, which
Speaker 1: you have down fifteen percent. I believe it's a credit mix. Now,
Speaker 1: you don't have to go out and get more of
Speaker 1: a credit mix. But if you insist, I wouldn't just
Speaker 1: go borrow money willy nilly. I would go to a
Speaker 1: credit union and ask if they have something called a
Speaker 1: credit builder loan. Right. So a credit builder loan is
Speaker 1: when they say take the smallest loan now possible. They're
Speaker 1: not actually going to give you the money. Let's just
Speaker 1: say it's five hundred dollars. They'll the credit union will say, hey, Nick,
Speaker 1: here is your five hundred dollars, but we're going to
Speaker 1: keep it in your in a money market or safe's
Speaker 1: account for you. So it's not really borring it. It's
Speaker 1: just a fake loan, right. And then you're going to
Speaker 1: pay off that loan over the year, so like whatever
Speaker 1: thirty forty fifty bucks a month until the loan is
Speaker 1: paid off quote unquote, and they're going to give your
Speaker 1: money back because they never actually gave you the loan
Speaker 1: plus a little interest. And so because the two components
Speaker 1: of the ways you can borrow is revolving debt, which
Speaker 1: is credit card debt, which you have, but it's also
Speaker 1: installment loans, which you don't have because you don't have
Speaker 1: any debt. And so that is a way to kind
Speaker 1: of get a fake installment loan that doesn't put you
Speaker 1: in financial peril is to get a credit builder loan,
Speaker 1: ideally from a credit union. If you do those two
Speaker 1: things that I suggested, I'm sure maybe has some suggestions
Speaker 1: too that can really help.
Speaker 2: My only suggestion is just to be like, chill out
Speaker 2: and enjoy a really high credit score. You're so close
Speaker 2: to like I think it's seven sixty last I look,
Speaker 2: the credit scoring models change a lot, Yeah, and there's
Speaker 2: so many different kinds of scores. And even if you
Speaker 2: get the perfect score on credit karma with these two agencies,
Speaker 2: let's say you go to apply for a mortgage or
Speaker 2: an auto loan. They have their own score. They're going
Speaker 2: to look at it, and you may not have a
Speaker 2: perfect score there. So it's kind of like for me,
Speaker 2: it's you know, hey, we all have our kinks and
Speaker 2: some people are really you know, like my husband loves
Speaker 2: spending a lot of time on the particular kind of
Speaker 2: like car wash like stuff, and it acceens accessories and
Speaker 2: how to get the you know, make sure you use
Speaker 2: like the right shampoo on the tire and don't mix
Speaker 2: the brushes that you use, all the fine details, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. And like for me, I'm like
Speaker 2: car washes were invented for a reason, you know. But
Speaker 2: like for you, I think that your credit score could
Speaker 2: be your room and that's okay, and you can obsess
Speaker 2: over it all you want. I however, don't identify with
Speaker 2: that because I'm like, hey, seven sixty, according to a
Speaker 2: lot of reports, is like the way to get the
Speaker 2: best rates. And once I get the best Once I
Speaker 2: get the best rates, the credit score to me just
Speaker 2: kind of feels not as important. But this is your room, Nicole,
Speaker 2: and you deserve a room, Okay.
Speaker 1: So good luck.
Speaker 2: I want to hear. I'm excited to hear if you
Speaker 2: jumped like Jordan, and what you end up doing to
Speaker 2: like get your score up higher?
Speaker 1: Yeah kind of yeah, I mean I.
Speaker 2: Wasn't trying to be condescending.
Speaker 1: No, no, because I mean truthfully, you're right that her
Speaker 1: score is more than high enough to get her whatever
Speaker 1: kind of like Loana inches whatever. I mean, borring, how
Speaker 1: what her income is. It's not just your score they
Speaker 1: look at when they're lending. But your score is not
Speaker 1: going to hinder you basically where you are now. If
Speaker 1: it's a goal that you have, great, because girl, you
Speaker 1: are like you out here, power powering through with your
Speaker 1: debt free self y. So you pay your payments on
Speaker 1: top I get it. Nick. It's like, let me tell
Speaker 1: you something. What we do over here is excellence.
Speaker 2: This is what we hope for being listen long enough.
Speaker 2: All rising tides raise all boats. What a rising tide?
Speaker 1: Wait? Ships? No, maybe, David, I hadn't. A rising tide
Speaker 1: lifts all boats. A rising tide lifts off boats. Nady
Speaker 1: am I rubbing off fight you? You you selling an
Speaker 1: old African man.
Speaker 2: Now I'm so tying.
Speaker 1: Top six the ship like, oh my gosh, oh wait,
Speaker 1: before we had to break. I said this in that
Speaker 1: I don't want to forget it. I said this in
Speaker 1: so prior that one of my so Nick's goal is
Speaker 1: to get her credit score, you know, to basically perfect,
Speaker 1: even though she's basically perfect now, and I think it's
Speaker 1: important to set goals beyond just the new year, and
Speaker 1: so I have shared that my major goal this year
Speaker 1: is I'm going to learn how to do the fundamentals
Speaker 1: of investing. Like I have invested in business, I'm invested
Speaker 1: in real estate. I'm talking in the market. Do I
Speaker 1: have money in the market, Yes, but I feel like
Speaker 1: I don't have a good grasp of the fundamentals. And
Speaker 1: so I've committed that that is what I'm going to
Speaker 1: focus on this year. Because I told myself it was
Speaker 1: too hard or I didn't have time, or I didn't
Speaker 1: have the knowledge, I found myself a coach. I'm feeling
Speaker 1: good about it, and I am. I just don't want
Speaker 1: to feel like I don't. Things are not in my
Speaker 1: control and Wielhouse and so as I do that, I
Speaker 1: realize that one of the ways that I that helps
Speaker 1: me stay and stick on track is one saying it
Speaker 1: allow so so you guys can help me hold me
Speaker 1: accountable and check in, but also too taking you on
Speaker 1: my journey if you're wanting to invest too. I'm on
Speaker 1: this journey and I'm trying to figure out why haven't
Speaker 1: so many of us started. I asked a number of
Speaker 1: my friends, doctor's attorneys, whatever, and it's like, there are
Speaker 1: some reasons why. So I'm like, what if I can
Speaker 1: find tools and resources that will help you banish those reasons?
Speaker 1: And so if you want to help me figure out
Speaker 1: why you haven't started, go to you should invest dot
Speaker 1: Com thirty second quiz. It is going to help me
Speaker 1: identify why you haven't started to invest. We'll help you
Speaker 1: identify why you haven't started to invest, but also to
Speaker 1: help me to send tools and resources to you that
Speaker 1: will be a fit based upon where you are. So
Speaker 1: you should invest dot Com. The link will be in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Yeah, because this is my year, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're an invest in girly. Honestly, if you're investing Girly,
Speaker 1: signed to my dag on DMS because like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I want to create like an accountability group,
Speaker 1: Like what does that word mean? What about when this happens?
Speaker 1: What are points? What are you know? Like I really
Speaker 1: wanna I really want to buckle down. This is the year.
Speaker 1: I'm like enough already, Tiffany, So you should invest dot
Speaker 1: com because even if I do do like a group
Speaker 1: together whatever, I want to be able to identify the
Speaker 1: girlies who also want to learn to All right, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a break and we'll be back and
Speaker 1: black and I never honey.
Speaker 2: Speak for yourself because I'm in my winter pail, so
Speaker 2: this means we're back.
Speaker 1: We come and brown issue. This is my winter pail
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: We're coming all different shapes.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. All right, what's our next question from Shalise? Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read it, so uk so you can dive
Speaker 1: deep for Schalise. So Schali says question for b a QA,
Speaker 1: long time listener and finally asking a question, we love
Speaker 1: that for you. I recently consolidated my outstanding credit card
Speaker 1: balances into a consolidated personal lung. I did the math
Speaker 1: and it came out better for me to consolidate and
Speaker 1: have one payment to pay off in the next three years,
Speaker 1: but I want to pay it off sooner. Yes, girl Excellence,
Speaker 1: I have paid off the cards, but I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: I should go ahead and close those cards. How would
Speaker 1: this affect my credit score? Thanks Salise?
Speaker 2: What LISPC interesting? Do they still have the credit card
Speaker 2: credit score simulator? Do hickey on credit Karma?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Because that was one of my favorite features to use
Speaker 2: back in the day on credit. Let me just google
Speaker 2: that real quick, because the way that I feel doesn't
Speaker 2: Don't you feel like you've aged when you hear that
Speaker 2: apps and services that you feel like you came up
Speaker 2: with are now defunct. Like when they said Mint was
Speaker 2: going away, I was like, that's the beginning of my
Speaker 2: career in personal finance, Mint with everything, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh shit, I've outlived Mint. Anyway, Credit Karma credit score
Speaker 2: simulated later. But the reason I'm suggesting this, yes, they
Speaker 2: do because it can like yeah, so if you have
Speaker 2: a credit Karma account, they're free. You can go in there.
Speaker 2: Just know they're going to try to sell you a
Speaker 2: bunch of credit cards. Okay, just ignore that stuff. But
Speaker 2: you can see what will happen for any situation, like
Speaker 2: what if I get denied for this credit, what if
Speaker 2: I apply for a new card, what if I close
Speaker 2: my card? What if I increase my balances? So that's
Speaker 2: a way to kind of like play around. There's no
Speaker 2: exact way to say, like for sure how much it
Speaker 2: could impact your credit, but in general, when you close
Speaker 2: credit cards, it does ding you in a couple of ways.
Speaker 2: The one thing is that if they're older credit cards,
Speaker 2: then it may decrease your age of your credit which
Speaker 2: one of the factors that goes into your credit score
Speaker 2: is how long you have used credit. So if you
Speaker 2: close your oldest accounts or one year older accounts, that
Speaker 2: could decrease your average age of your credit cards. So
Speaker 2: that's one way. It's not the biggest part of your score,
Speaker 2: but it could ding it. And the other way is
Speaker 2: that your available balance your utilization rate rather like, which
Speaker 2: is how much you're using on your balances on your
Speaker 2: accounts versus how much you could be using. That will
Speaker 2: go down because your total available credit limit on those
Speaker 2: two cards would no longer be a factor, right, so
Speaker 2: it could be Yeah, so that could ding you as well.
Speaker 2: Utilization rate is the next best important, next most important
Speaker 2: thing after on time payment history, right to correct me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's thirty percent of your score.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that that could be the way that it
Speaker 2: could ding you ultimately, though, if you're like, it's really
Speaker 2: up to you, sometimes it's worth the hit. If having
Speaker 2: those cards, having the accounts is too tempting, you're worried
Speaker 2: about racking up more debt, you know, it may be
Speaker 2: better for you to close them down and deal with
Speaker 2: the little ding to your score. It also depends like
Speaker 2: are you actively wanting to apply for a mortgage or
Speaker 2: any other kind of loan. Does your credit score really
Speaker 2: matter in the next six to twelve months. If it does,
Speaker 2: maybe you want to leave it. If it doesn't, then
Speaker 2: you have more wiggle room to bounce back, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's what I would say.
Speaker 1: What about you, Tiff, No, I was gonna say, like, honestly,
Speaker 1: you said all the things that like, yeah, then it might.
Speaker 1: It might affect your utilization, which is how much could
Speaker 1: you borrow versus how much you are actually borrowing, So
Speaker 1: the could you borrow a part could go down, you know,
Speaker 1: and so that can significantly affect your score. And so
Speaker 1: you really don't want to have a utilization that's over
Speaker 1: thirty percent, like Mandy mentioned. So let's just say with
Speaker 1: all your cards open, it's you have one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: of I could borrow one thousand dollars. And let's just
Speaker 1: say currently you have you know, what you currently owe
Speaker 1: is three hundred, So three hundred is thirty percent of
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars. Right now, you're right at the cusp
Speaker 1: of utilization. But let's just say you close half those
Speaker 1: cards and now you're down to five hundred dollars. You know,
Speaker 1: that's how much you could borrow. Because those other cards
Speaker 1: are gone, you can't borrow on those cards anymore. So
Speaker 1: now you are from thirty percent utilization to sixty percent.
Speaker 1: That's way too high and you will bring down your score.
Speaker 1: So I would do a little bit of the math
Speaker 1: if i'm you know, like you could do it on
Speaker 1: credit card at the simulator or your own math to say,
Speaker 1: if I close this one, score how much could I borrow?
Speaker 1: How does that change versus how much I'm borrowing or
Speaker 1: percentage of utilization am I at now? So everyone should
Speaker 1: do that. If I close this card, what is my
Speaker 1: utilization rate? If I close this card, what is my
Speaker 1: utilization rate? Because ultimately, as you pay off the debt,
Speaker 1: you can have as little could you borrow cards open
Speaker 1: as you want because you don't owe anything. That's what
Speaker 1: you're headed toward. But that's three years away before you're
Speaker 1: fully like debt free from those cards. One, I just
Speaker 1: want to say kudos to you for doing the math
Speaker 1: consolidating it. But the number one mistake that people make
Speaker 1: after consolidating your card can Mandy's point is they rack
Speaker 1: up the other cards again. So if you think you're
Speaker 1: even slightly in that regard, just close it. We will
Speaker 1: fix utilization later. Just close those cards and focus on
Speaker 1: that debt because will your credit card take a little
Speaker 1: bit of a dang? But if you listen to the
Speaker 1: question before this, you could do that jump like Jordan
Speaker 1: with something else and pay off a card and full
Speaker 1: every single month. Does that make sense? So you know,
Speaker 1: if you know yourself and this too much temptation, close
Speaker 1: those cards, take the hip, and then the next few
Speaker 1: years you're going to be building their credit back up again.
Speaker 1: So all right, well that is QA. Don't expect me
Speaker 1: to remember the song next week or even next moment.
Speaker 1: QA today that is the ba.
Speaker 2: QA Sandy, please forget.
Speaker 1: Don't do that, Manny see mayby trying to play me.
Speaker 1: But then y'all be rallying in the emails of the
Speaker 1: comments like let that girl say, I'm like, thank you'll.
Speaker 2: That's okay, but yet I am the one, And.
Speaker 1: Then many will say that, and then next time I saying,
Speaker 1: Manny will have a shimmy ready, like you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of like this, She'll be like, that is the
Speaker 1: b QA. I know, Manny, she'd be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a vibe. Let me shitty along with
Speaker 1: the Shenani against. She loves to shiit me with my
Speaker 1: Shenani against. I love her fool you do you want
Speaker 1: to do like? Because I mean, we would love some reviews,
Speaker 1: and so do you want to read a review?
Speaker 2: This is from Miss number one, especially for Everyday Situation.
Speaker 2: She loves the episode on life Insurance. She says, who
Speaker 2: knows when we did that one? But I love when
Speaker 2: any listener goes back into our catalog and uh bulld
Speaker 2: up oldie but a goodie. So if you want to
Speaker 2: leave us a review, please do do it on Apple Music.
Speaker 2: That's the main place. And tell a friend to tell
Speaker 2: a friend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so listen to BAQ. You know you got that
Speaker 1: front with that credit issue for this to her as
Speaker 1: a hint, girl, get it together all right, We'll see
Speaker 1: you next week.