Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we are busting up some credit score myths.
Speaker 1: Credit scores, Baby, everybody's got one. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a belly button, kind of like, oh, it makes me
Speaker 1: think of everyone poops. Do you know that book? Yes?
Speaker 1: I do. I think that books on my mind because
Speaker 1: we are considering potty training Westy to cut out diapers
Speaker 1: from our our monthly grocery. But wouldn't be nice? Are
Speaker 1: y'all thinking about doing that soon? Yeah? We'd like to.
Speaker 1: It's but the problem is, you know, you have three girls.
Speaker 1: I have two girls, and everybody says it's so much
Speaker 1: easier to potty train girls. So I'm like really nervous
Speaker 1: about potty training a boy. Yeah, we've pulled down the
Speaker 1: little Ikea green, the green and white little Ida potty
Speaker 1: same he Westy is totally interested in it. We just
Speaker 1: haven't pulled the plug yet. But I told Kate the
Speaker 1: last package of diapers that we just got, I was like,
Speaker 1: that is it, Like, let's commit let's do it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna cold turkey do the thing where you know, there's
Speaker 1: this whole approach. I don't want to go into take
Speaker 1: a full weeken inddicate. Yeah, like there's this approach where
Speaker 1: you just go cold turkey and you just let them
Speaker 1: go all eyes on the little dude, and basically they
Speaker 1: don't like that feeling of having just soiled themselves, and
Speaker 1: so they quickly learned like like even at night, no
Speaker 1: pull ups, nothing like that. Just like everyone poops, everyone
Speaker 1: does have a credit score. And that's what we're talking
Speaker 1: about today, right, Yeah, but before we get to that
Speaker 1: real quick, man, I just wanted to mention it is
Speaker 1: the beginning of spring right now, basically like warmer weather
Speaker 1: and what happens when the weather gets warm The flowers
Speaker 1: are bloomin. That's true, but also the bugs come out
Speaker 1: right and so especially in the South. Like I just
Speaker 1: had a tenant emailed me the other day and she's like, hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, I want to let you know, start
Speaker 1: to see some more bug activity at the house, which
Speaker 1: is my reminder that it's time to spray for bugs
Speaker 1: and some dl peskin role exactly. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: a few times over the years, but it's worth revisiting
Speaker 1: because Yeah, I wrote an article up on our site
Speaker 1: at how the Money dot Com just telling people how
Speaker 1: to do it themselves. And it's amazing how much money
Speaker 1: you can save because a lot of our listeners are
Speaker 1: probably paying something like a hundred dollars a quarter to
Speaker 1: a pest control company to come for a quarterly spraying.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're you're spending four dollars a year
Speaker 1: to combat bugs to keep them out of your house. Well,
Speaker 1: you can d I Y it and literally you will
Speaker 1: shell out no, no more than and actually less than
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars uh and in the beginning, and that
Speaker 1: supply the sprayer and the chemicals. And this is not
Speaker 1: the chemical that you can buy at home debo by
Speaker 1: the way, this is the chemicals that the pros use.
Speaker 1: You can get both for for like, you know, roughly
Speaker 1: in the range of seventy bucks. Yeah, and you're not
Speaker 1: just buying like a little spray bottle to like you know, like,
Speaker 1: this is professional grade stuff. And we we crunched the
Speaker 1: numbers on it too. And literally once after you get that,
Speaker 1: you're only using something like two dollars worth of chemicals
Speaker 1: over the course of a year. And so you're looking
Speaker 1: at u versus two dollars a year after that upfront cost,
Speaker 1: and it's easy to see that you are quickly going
Speaker 1: to be able to come out ahead. And I think
Speaker 1: most people might hear that and they're like, well, there's
Speaker 1: gotta be a catch, right, like, uh, something's in fear
Speaker 1: in this process, or you know what, I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna know be able to know how to do this.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, there are instructional videos on you know, some
Speaker 1: of these websites where they will show you how to
Speaker 1: do it properly and really honestly if any dummy can
Speaker 1: do it, so it's it's not something that takes special
Speaker 1: skills or anything like that. And and just considering how
Speaker 1: much money you can save you in one fell swoop, Um,
Speaker 1: we're all kind of faced with higher rates of inflation,
Speaker 1: higher costs on almost everything. He's right now, if you're
Speaker 1: looking to save money in a big way, and just
Speaker 1: like one fell swoop, this is definitely one thing to
Speaker 1: look at. Absolutely. And something else I gotta tell listeners about.
Speaker 1: Have we have we talked about about my bug assault
Speaker 1: gun on the show before you know talk about the
Speaker 1: one that blows their No, it's this one that shoots salt. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right, that's right. That's right. So I
Speaker 1: got this for Christmas and it is the coolest thing.
Speaker 1: It's a little so basically it's like a little pump shotgun,
Speaker 1: but it's a it's made of plastic. It's a toy,
Speaker 1: and it's got a little canister and you pour table
Speaker 1: salt in there, like like a tablespoon or two tablespoon's
Speaker 1: worth of literally table salt. You close it up, you
Speaker 1: pump it, and when you shoot it, it literally shoots
Speaker 1: out like a little blast of a little bit of salt,
Speaker 1: kind of like a shotgun pellet. It's it's literally a
Speaker 1: shotgun for bugs that shoots salt. And so this is
Speaker 1: the most fun I have ever had taken down little
Speaker 1: house flies in my house. I will link to it
Speaker 1: uh in our show notes because literally it is so fun.
Speaker 1: It's it's way more fun than than the old bugs
Speaker 1: apper down the South Georgia, which very few people are
Speaker 1: aware of what I'm talking about here, But aside from
Speaker 1: the d ips control, if you want to get yourself
Speaker 1: a bug of salt gun, I highly recommend it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it does sound like fun. I might have to get one, dude,
Speaker 1: just for the sheer joy. Next time you all are
Speaker 1: over and there's a little house fly or a nat
Speaker 1: or something like that, let me take it. I'll let
Speaker 1: you have a shot with it, because it is a
Speaker 1: ton of fun. Good. I appreciate that it's just salt,
Speaker 1: and so you miss, or even if you don't miss,
Speaker 1: you know, you pick up the five. But then like
Speaker 1: all the salt just kind of disperses a little bit.
Speaker 1: But it's salt. It's like, it's not that big of
Speaker 1: a deal. If there's a little bit of salt on
Speaker 1: the ground. Next time you're sweet or your vacuum, you
Speaker 1: get it up off the floor and you barely notice
Speaker 1: it and tell them I bet exactly. Um. Nice, Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: word to the wise, do your own pest control, save
Speaker 1: you some some some money, and bug a salt gun.
Speaker 1: All right, and let's move on. Let's mention the beer
Speaker 1: that we're having on the show. This one is called
Speaker 1: Hello World, and it's by Spyglass Brewing, and this one
Speaker 1: will sent to us by listener Gary. He sent us
Speaker 1: Monday's beer. Looking forward to having this one today, And
Speaker 1: we'll give our thoughts at the end of the episode,
Speaker 1: but for now, Matt, looking onto the subject at hand,
Speaker 1: we are of course tackling some credit score, miss we're
Speaker 1: busting them up. And you know, it made me think,
Speaker 1: like there are all sorts of myths that have grown
Speaker 1: into legends over the years, over decades. The lock this
Speaker 1: monster is one of those, right, Paul bunyan UFOs, Like
Speaker 1: did they exist? Don't they? All sorts of of these
Speaker 1: like they're they're just drones. You know, all of these
Speaker 1: things have developed outsized tales that make for interesting TV shows,
Speaker 1: and they're fun to talk about maybe on a Friday
Speaker 1: night over a nice craft beer with some of your friends,
Speaker 1: just kind of well, I don't know, is it real
Speaker 1: or isn't it? And the same as maybe like the
Speaker 1: legend with the moon landing being fake, although I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's just kind of less fun to talk about, and uh,
Speaker 1: not so small contingent of Americans they continue to believe
Speaker 1: in the existence of like a sasquatch like creature roaming
Speaker 1: the woods. But yeah, some have lashed onto these tales.
Speaker 1: They've they've taken them as factual. And you know, while
Speaker 1: I don't have definitive proof that Bigfoot doesn't exist, it
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't match up with what my eyes have seen firsthand.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason these myths persist is because
Speaker 1: there isn't documented evidence to the contrary, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: but credit score myths, on the other hand, well, they
Speaker 1: continue to exist despite hard evidence of their inaccuracies. And
Speaker 1: so that's why we're talking about this today. I mean,
Speaker 1: these these myths impact your finances in a real and
Speaker 1: ongoing way. So we've got a scuss some in a
Speaker 1: way that maybe your bigfoot obsession doesn't impact your day
Speaker 1: to day life, it's right, man, so and if it does,
Speaker 1: you've got a real problem. It's time to bust these
Speaker 1: myths up. And part of the reason too, that we're
Speaker 1: tackling this topic now is because of the fact that
Speaker 1: March it's National Credit Education Month. But you didn't know that.
Speaker 1: There's a there everything everything these days. But there are
Speaker 1: also a lot of misconceptions and miss understandings out there
Speaker 1: about credit scores and these myths. They lead folks to
Speaker 1: take just different past like incorrect paths towards their credit.
Speaker 1: It often impacts their score negatively, causing actual real side effects.
Speaker 1: And we want you to have a great credit score
Speaker 1: because it has such a wide ranging impact. Living without
Speaker 1: a credit score would be tough in a modern society,
Speaker 1: and like, is that a good thing that we have
Speaker 1: to function with the credit score? Not necessarily. We're not
Speaker 1: huge fans of the credit bureaus and you know, specifically
Speaker 1: their inability to keep our personal data secure. But it's
Speaker 1: kind of like we've been put down in a game
Speaker 1: that we just can't stop playing. I mean could stop playing,
Speaker 1: but you would have to need a pile of cash
Speaker 1: in order to truly avoid the credit score system altogether,
Speaker 1: in order to completely skirt it. Yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like even if you want to be an entrepreneur at
Speaker 1: age twelve, like, you still got to finish high school.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's it's part of the process and
Speaker 1: you'll have to your your parents are gonna get in
Speaker 1: big trouble if you don't write. I mean it's um,
Speaker 1: is there some law like do you actually have to
Speaker 1: finish high school? No, I think you're gonna get in
Speaker 1: big trouble if you drop out before before the age
Speaker 1: of sixteen. I didn't know that. Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: don't know what the actual roles are, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure you gotta go to school, and the kids are
Speaker 1: listening to school, I mean you should, like I agree
Speaker 1: that that's probably it's probably a good, healthy approach to
Speaker 1: becoming a fully formed Adult'm pretty sure the state can
Speaker 1: come after the parents if if the kids come out, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if they take them out of school and there's no
Speaker 1: sign that they're doing any sort of homeschooling. What kind
Speaker 1: of country we're living in. I don't know. We might
Speaker 1: disagree on whether or not that's a reasonable thing, but
Speaker 1: it's reasonable. But I feel like people should have a choice. Whatever.
Speaker 1: Let's go, let's don't take your kids out of school.
Speaker 1: They mean, I'm not they will say it school because
Speaker 1: they're gonna go to college most likely to what other
Speaker 1: people to have the choice if they choose not to,
Speaker 1: if they choose to rip their kids out of school
Speaker 1: and just you know, send them down the Jeff Bezos path, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: gens kid and they're able to take whatever remedial course
Speaker 1: or class where they're basically able to get the equivalent
Speaker 1: of a high school diploma. Of course they should be
Speaker 1: able to do that, right, Okay, al right, well, let's
Speaker 1: let's move on. Let's talk about what a good score
Speaker 1: is because that kind of sets up this question of like, well,
Speaker 1: what are we aiming to achieve here with with our
Speaker 1: credit score. And you know, Matt, you just mentioned one
Speaker 1: way to avoid the system would be to have just
Speaker 1: a ton of money. You're loaded, right, Like, you don't
Speaker 1: need a lender to approve you to buy a home
Speaker 1: if you've got five million bucks in the bank, and
Speaker 1: you can go buy any home that you desire. But
Speaker 1: since most folks don't have that, most folks don't have
Speaker 1: that much money on hand, especially these days, like to
Speaker 1: buy home, which it gets really expensive. In a car,
Speaker 1: same thing, right, cars are not cheap, so paying attention
Speaker 1: to your credit score is a mo But then the
Speaker 1: question is like what is a good score? And I
Speaker 1: guess you know, we have to tackle that because um,
Speaker 1: and it's actually kind of a difficult question to answer
Speaker 1: because there are different scales, like kind of like how
Speaker 1: we're talking about schools here, how some schools might have
Speaker 1: an A scale an eight eight could be considered an A,
Speaker 1: I guess in some schools or ninety I remember in
Speaker 1: high school when migrating scale changed and it used to
Speaker 1: be a ninety two and up wasn't a and then
Speaker 1: they changed to a ninety Enough was an A Seriously, yeah,
Speaker 1: in the middle of high school and so weird. A
Speaker 1: couple of my my above bees are obviously a D
Speaker 1: C S or no, it's it depends on the school system.
Speaker 1: And so I distinctly remember, like two of my bees
Speaker 1: became a's all of a sudden, My g p A
Speaker 1: got a little bit higher. And so similarly with credit scores,
Speaker 1: some of these bureaus have just a different threshold for
Speaker 1: what's considered good or great and so yeah, so the
Speaker 1: score that your lender sees when you're refinancing an auto loan,
Speaker 1: let's say, it can differ from the one you get
Speaker 1: if you were to get that scored directly from the
Speaker 1: beer row. And each bureau also has quite a few
Speaker 1: credit scores for you behind the scenes, so it's it's
Speaker 1: not even different models. Yeah, like there's this one score
Speaker 1: that you have for each bureau. It's like they might
Speaker 1: have a dozen scores for you based on different factors.
Speaker 1: And so the score your lender sees when you're refinancing
Speaker 1: an auto loan, let's say, can differ from the one
Speaker 1: that you get if you were to get that score
Speaker 1: directly from the bureau. And you know, most of these
Speaker 1: scores are on a scale that goes up to like
Speaker 1: eight fifty or nine hundred, and some folks are striving
Speaker 1: for a perfect credit score under each one of these models,
Speaker 1: and that's just a recipe for in futility. Um, it's
Speaker 1: it's just completely unnecessary to strive for perfection. Basically, if
Speaker 1: your score is in the seven forty plus range on
Speaker 1: any of these scales, that's good enough and it will
Speaker 1: basically qualify you for the best terms for different loans
Speaker 1: you might need access to. Just remember that seven forty
Speaker 1: or above is basically that a range where you're gonna
Speaker 1: want to be in order to, yeah, get the best
Speaker 1: terms on all sorts of different lending products until they
Speaker 1: changed the rules on you. All right, let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get started busting up some of these credit score myths.
Speaker 1: By the way, you remember the guys from MythBusters back
Speaker 1: in the day, Like, that's one of the inspiration, you know,
Speaker 1: for the title of this episode for the listeners out there.
Speaker 1: That was one of those first hit reality styles SIGN
Speaker 1: and CE TV shows. Yeah, one of my favorite ones
Speaker 1: I remember was they're like blasting cannonballs into a wall. Um.
Speaker 1: And interestingly, this was like one of the episodes where
Speaker 1: they screwed up and like they're out out in the desert,
Speaker 1: like at a firing range or like like a bomb
Speaker 1: range basically, and like the cannon like tipped up and
Speaker 1: so the cannonball missed the wall and it went ricocheting
Speaker 1: off of like one of the hills and into a neighborhood. Gosh, yeah,
Speaker 1: super crazy. Uh, nobody got hurt, but like I do
Speaker 1: remember like crashing into some some dude's house. I think
Speaker 1: it like went through a van, pretty serious, Like, and
Speaker 1: that's the day MythBusters got canceled. No, they did. Like
Speaker 1: that was right in the middle of a run of
Speaker 1: seasons where they were crushing. It probably made for good
Speaker 1: TV ratings, I think it did. Like that's the one
Speaker 1: I remember was the one where there was an errant
Speaker 1: cannon all. I could not imagine seeing that in real life. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's do some mythbusting of our own. Uh. And the
Speaker 1: first one we wanted to share is that your credit
Speaker 1: score doesn't really matter all that much. And there's a
Speaker 1: good reason that we're starting with this one because we
Speaker 1: want to highlight the fact that your credit score is
Speaker 1: incredibly important. It affects so much more of your life
Speaker 1: than you realize. We just talked about the need for
Speaker 1: a credit score and modern society, but everything is going
Speaker 1: to cost you more if your credit score stinks. Lenders
Speaker 1: they're gonna charge you what's called a risk premium if
Speaker 1: your score isn't great, But they also might decide not
Speaker 1: to lend to you at all if your score is
Speaker 1: in the dumps, and you might see to yourself, all right,
Speaker 1: that's fine, I'm not gonna ever own a home. That's fine.
Speaker 1: Your credit score comes in play when you're renting a
Speaker 1: house to land lords. They're gonna almost always run a
Speaker 1: credit check, and that is going to impact your ability
Speaker 1: to get the place that you want. You know, if
Speaker 1: I'm choosing between two tenants, they both seem great, they
Speaker 1: both make the same amount of money. I've got to
Speaker 1: base my decision on something, and the credit score can
Speaker 1: often tip the scales. A bad or non existing credit
Speaker 1: score could also impact your ability to get home, internet
Speaker 1: or cable, or it might require you to put down
Speaker 1: a deposit. You might even pay more for auto insurance
Speaker 1: if your score is low. Having a good, solid credit
Speaker 1: score is not a trivial thing. Yeah, your credit score
Speaker 1: has an impact in so many areas of your life,
Speaker 1: and not only will a crappy credit score impact your
Speaker 1: ability to spend money, to take out a loan, for
Speaker 1: to take on debt for something that you're looking to buy, which,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, maybe this is actually a blessing in disguise. Um,
Speaker 1: if you potentially keep you from spending more money, yeah,
Speaker 1: then you can afford to well. It can also hamper
Speaker 1: your ability to earn money. And yeah, your credit history
Speaker 1: can have an impact when you apply for some jobs,
Speaker 1: like in particular ones in finance, or let's say you're
Speaker 1: moving up to management level, then um, there's a good
Speaker 1: chance your credit score comes into play here. Credit checks
Speaker 1: happen more often for these types of jobs where the
Speaker 1: stakes are higher, like when a security clearance is involved,
Speaker 1: or if you have access to a lot of money
Speaker 1: or sensitive information of your coworkers. I don't know this
Speaker 1: for a fact, but I got a feel in that,
Speaker 1: like bank tellers, if you've got a really really really
Speaker 1: crappy credit scored, like maybe you don't get that bank
Speaker 1: teller job where you're you know, doing up the hundred. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they might be like, sorry, go apply down the street
Speaker 1: at target. Um, and so yeah, you know. One study
Speaker 1: shows that of HR managers are actually gonna check your
Speaker 1: credit history during the hiring process, even though they won't
Speaker 1: be able to see your actual score in most cases.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal. Your score is influenced by what's
Speaker 1: on your credit report. So if they can take a
Speaker 1: look at your credit report, they kind of, in theory,
Speaker 1: can deduce what your score is. And that crummy credit
Speaker 1: report with lots of errors and issues on it is
Speaker 1: going to potentially affect your ability to get the job
Speaker 1: that you want. That's right. All right, We've got more
Speaker 1: credit myths that need to be shelat and we'll get
Speaker 1: to all of those right after this break. All right,
Speaker 1: we're back and we are busting up some of those
Speaker 1: different credit score myths that may have heard of, some
Speaker 1: you may not have heard of before. Um let's get
Speaker 1: to our next one, which is checking your credit score
Speaker 1: hurts your credit score. I feel like this is one
Speaker 1: that's been around for a long time, and you know,
Speaker 1: like years ago, the credit scords were kind of like
Speaker 1: shrouded in secrecy. Like the bureaus and the banks and
Speaker 1: the lenders they knew what our credit score was, but
Speaker 1: we didn't. Sort of like credit scores, we're kind of
Speaker 1: like fight club, right, like the first rule of Credit
Speaker 1: score club is to not talk about your credit score,
Speaker 1: you know, where you're fearing that just like an utterance
Speaker 1: might punish your score where you would you know, see
Speaker 1: a drop significantly. Yeah, it's like almost like the thought
Speaker 1: police would come after you. Like I thought about my
Speaker 1: credit score and I kind of wondered what what my
Speaker 1: point score was total was And it's like, no, if
Speaker 1: if you can ask that question your brain, they're gonna
Speaker 1: take your score down a notch or two. It's almost
Speaker 1: like you're just better off just hoping for the best.
Speaker 1: But luckily that's that's no longer the case. We all
Speaker 1: have access to our our scores pretty much at every
Speaker 1: turn these days. But I truly remember when that wasn't
Speaker 1: the case, because I distinctly remember one of the first
Speaker 1: credit cards I ever got was at a bank that
Speaker 1: no longer exists called Washington Mutual that went it went down, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the great recession of the late to early
Speaker 1: two thousands there two eight And basically it was one
Speaker 1: of the first credit cards that made your credit score
Speaker 1: known to you on a monthly basis. They basically started
Speaker 1: the revolution, uh, making credit scores widely accessive discover um No.
Speaker 1: I think they came shortly after, and they've done a
Speaker 1: great job doing that. But WAMU was kind of that
Speaker 1: first bank where it was like listen, no annual fee
Speaker 1: credit card, but you get to know your credit score
Speaker 1: every month. And so for you know, money nerds like
Speaker 1: me who wanted to, Yeah, I wanted to, and there
Speaker 1: was no other place on the internet where where I
Speaker 1: don't think this was before credit carma existed. This is
Speaker 1: before the internet, not quite, but this is before electricity.
Speaker 1: I know I'm definitely aging myself here, but it was
Speaker 1: kind of nice to have a credit score that would
Speaker 1: make that known to you. And and you know, since then,
Speaker 1: obviously it's gotten so much easier to stay on top.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about that a little bit later, but
Speaker 1: I remember in those days where it was like herring
Speaker 1: to find out what your credit score was, and you
Speaker 1: like either had to find that one brandom credit card
Speaker 1: that would do it or just kind of hope and
Speaker 1: pray when you apply for a loan that your credit
Speaker 1: was in decent shape, where you just had to know
Speaker 1: somebody on the inside. But it is important to know
Speaker 1: that there's a difference between a soft pull and your
Speaker 1: credit and a hard one. Hard polls will hurt your score,
Speaker 1: but soft ones won't. And so if you're getting a
Speaker 1: mortgage on a car loan, the lender is gonna run
Speaker 1: your your credit and that's considered a hard inquiry. That
Speaker 1: hard poll will ding your score just a little bit,
Speaker 1: maybe like ten points. Unfortunately, like that's just the price
Speaker 1: of admission though after all, the you know, the credit beers,
Speaker 1: they don't want to see you applying for new lines
Speaker 1: of credit every chance that you get. Um. But on
Speaker 1: that note, some folks have come to believe that shopping
Speaker 1: around four a loan is going to hurt your score,
Speaker 1: and you know that's true, uh, that you will see
Speaker 1: an initial hit to your score, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that if you shop with multiple lenders that it will
Speaker 1: send your score sinking even lower with every single time
Speaker 1: that you get a quote. The beer have it set
Speaker 1: up to where if you make multiple inquiries inside of
Speaker 1: a specific time window, uh, and typically that's two weeks,
Speaker 1: those like three or four or five credit poles, they're
Speaker 1: just going to count as a single pole. So don't
Speaker 1: freak out, like we still want you to get multiple quotes,
Speaker 1: because it's definitely the best way for you to get
Speaker 1: the lowest rate, but doing that within a timely manner,
Speaker 1: that's really important. Uh, and it's good for you to
Speaker 1: know that that will not hurt your credit score. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that two week window is kind of the typical
Speaker 1: parameter used by some of the older credit scoring models.
Speaker 1: According to credit Karma, the newer scoring models that they
Speaker 1: treat multiple inquiries as a single pole as long as
Speaker 1: you make them, and they offer a much larger window
Speaker 1: of like forty five days, which is great, there's plenty
Speaker 1: of time to shot. But unfortunately as the end user,
Speaker 1: because some things are still shrouded in secrecy in the
Speaker 1: credit score credit report arena, Um, you don't know what
Speaker 1: scoring model the lender you're getting quotes from is using,
Speaker 1: so you don't know if they're going new school or
Speaker 1: old school, and so it's like are you using the
Speaker 1: vantage seven points six? And they're gonna look at you like, wait,
Speaker 1: what are you are using the five nine point one?
Speaker 1: Like which which model are you using? And yeah, like
Speaker 1: go back to Lamoo Jewel out of here. I'll be
Speaker 1: like I can't. They don't exist anymore. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: basically it's best to stick with the fourteen day window
Speaker 1: to be on the safe side. Just keep that as
Speaker 1: your rule of thumb when you're getting let's say, quotes
Speaker 1: for you know, a mortgage through a lender. Um, make
Speaker 1: sure you get all those quotes in that fourteen days
Speaker 1: and you'll be fine. But on the other side of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, you're checking your own score via your credit
Speaker 1: card company or through a site like credit Carma, isn't
Speaker 1: gonna have any impact on your score because that is
Speaker 1: what's known as a soft ball. It's different. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: you can check every single day if you want to,
Speaker 1: although that sounds like overkill and you might be a
Speaker 1: little bit too obsessed, But yeah, I think some people
Speaker 1: have that misunderstanding Matt, that it's like, if I want
Speaker 1: to know what my credit score is, I'm gonna to
Speaker 1: pay the price and it's gonna hurt my credit score.
Speaker 1: And that is just not the case. You can check
Speaker 1: your credit score a whole lot and it's not going
Speaker 1: to mess with you. It's only when those lenders are
Speaker 1: doing a hard pool in order to determine whether you
Speaker 1: have a level of credit worthiness where you can get
Speaker 1: that loan or not, that is when it's gonna ding
Speaker 1: your score just a little bit. That is right next
Speaker 1: credit score. Myth having debt will hurt your credit score.
Speaker 1: And what's really interesting about this one is that the
Speaker 1: opposite of this is kind of true. Some folks like
Speaker 1: they don't even call it a credit score, they call
Speaker 1: it like a debt score, which is actually it's slightly
Speaker 1: more accurate, even though it's kind of been used as
Speaker 1: a pejorative at times. But your score actually goes up
Speaker 1: if you have a variety of different loans and credit cards. Uh,
Speaker 1: as long as you're handling them all well. It pays
Speaker 1: to have a variety of debt, namely revolving debt, So
Speaker 1: that's like a credit card where you borrow money, you
Speaker 1: pay it back, and then you can borrow it again,
Speaker 1: and then installment in debt like a mortgage, where you
Speaker 1: borrow that larger lump sum and then you slowly make
Speaker 1: payments on that over a longer period of time. So
Speaker 1: if you've just got say one credit card, but you
Speaker 1: don't have a student loan, you don't have a mortgage.
Speaker 1: Even if you pay on time and in full every month,
Speaker 1: your score is not gonna be able to go as
Speaker 1: high as someone who has a greater variety of debt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, you shouldn't necessarily go back
Speaker 1: and take out student loans for a degree you don't
Speaker 1: need and just to improve your credit score. That would
Speaker 1: be the wrong waiting. Yes. On that note, By the way,
Speaker 1: paying off one of your debts can actually hurt your
Speaker 1: credit score, which is just kind of interesting. Um. Let's
Speaker 1: say you've had a car loan for a few years
Speaker 1: and you finally make that last payment and you are
Speaker 1: so pumped, right, You're like, I no longer have to
Speaker 1: pay money towards this car. I own it free and clear,
Speaker 1: and what a beautiful feeling that is. And I promised
Speaker 1: Matt Joel that I will never take out a car
Speaker 1: loan again, exactly, which we expect that in writing into
Speaker 1: our email inbox. But you know, the the one downside
Speaker 1: to that, and I don't want to make it sound
Speaker 1: like it's a huge downside, but your credit score might
Speaker 1: take like a tend to twenty point hit in the
Speaker 1: aftermath of that loan no longer being on your credit report.
Speaker 1: It can negatively impact your score. And it sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: but it is actually true. And fortunately that ding typically
Speaker 1: it doesn't last all that long and This is definitely
Speaker 1: and not a reason to keep debt lingering around in
Speaker 1: your life past the point that you need to. Just
Speaker 1: like having a student loan might actually help your credit
Speaker 1: score a little bit, like you don't want to go
Speaker 1: get one just because it's going to help your credit score. Well,
Speaker 1: just because paying off that car loan could negatively impact
Speaker 1: your score for a small period of time doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you don't want to pay it off. But it is
Speaker 1: smart to be aware because you know, especially if you
Speaker 1: need to use that tip top credit score to get
Speaker 1: a loan for a big future purchase in the near future,
Speaker 1: you want to be careful about the timing of when
Speaker 1: you pay off one of those big loans, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're at seven fifty, you pay that car loan
Speaker 1: off your seven thirty and you're applying for a mortgage loan,
Speaker 1: that could impact, yeah, the rate that you get on
Speaker 1: something you're gonna be paying on for thirty years, which
Speaker 1: sounds unlikely, I think maybe to a lot of folks
Speaker 1: as they're sitting there, but like, no, that that's kind
Speaker 1: of how money works, right. You get a big bonus
Speaker 1: at work and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and pay off my car loan a little
Speaker 1: bit early. I've got six months left. Let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and uh that out completely. And we've got enough money
Speaker 1: now to put a down payment on the house. Like
Speaker 1: we're crushing it. And then you find out that, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, so you don't qualify for the top tier
Speaker 1: really off a really nice rate, or I'm sorry, ma'am,
Speaker 1: you actually are going to owe a little bit more
Speaker 1: on the fees associated with your loan. It's just something
Speaker 1: to keep in mind. Just like Joel said, Uh, it
Speaker 1: actually has a higher chance of happening than you think.
Speaker 1: And so another credit score myth that we wanted to mention,
Speaker 1: carrying a balance will help boost my score. This one
Speaker 1: is sort of like the flip side of the coin
Speaker 1: from what we were just touching on, and a lot
Speaker 1: of folks have bought it into this myth. You know,
Speaker 1: they're thinking, having a nice mix of debt that's helping
Speaker 1: out your score. Uh so maybe not paying your credit
Speaker 1: card balance off I should do the same thing, right,
Speaker 1: It's like keeping that debt around score, that's dumb. No,
Speaker 1: your monthly statement balance it still gets reported to the
Speaker 1: credit bureau, but that doesn't mean that you should carry
Speaker 1: a balance and pay interest to the credit card companies instead.
Speaker 1: There's no need to neglect to pay it off. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna help you. It's only gonna cost you money
Speaker 1: in interest. Yeah, but people just assume, well, let me, like,
Speaker 1: let that balance linger. I'll pay a little bit of interest,
Speaker 1: but it's going to help my credit score, and that's
Speaker 1: just not true. I think it's just oftentimes to just
Speaker 1: folks just fooling themselves, right because like maybe like deep
Speaker 1: down you know that that's probably not true, but you think, no,
Speaker 1: you know, like there's a chance maybe that might be
Speaker 1: the case, but no, like do what you need to
Speaker 1: do to make sure that you're paying your bills. This
Speaker 1: is definitely one that people like to trick themselves on,
Speaker 1: or at least they get tricked by they assume that, yeah,
Speaker 1: if I just don't pay it off in full, I
Speaker 1: might pay a little interest, but it's going to raise
Speaker 1: my score and so it's all gonna wash out in
Speaker 1: the end. I need to work on my credit score,
Speaker 1: and so this is a way to do it, but
Speaker 1: in reality it has no bearing and actually it just
Speaker 1: hurts your personal finances if you do that, all, right,
Speaker 1: Next credit score. Myth we we need to bust Matt.
Speaker 1: Is your banking affects your credit score. Well, that's definitely
Speaker 1: not true, right because, uh, yeah, how much money you
Speaker 1: have in checkings or savings, it doesn't have any impacts
Speaker 1: whatsoever on your credit score. Doesn't matter if you have
Speaker 1: two grand in your savings account, like, that doesn't matter
Speaker 1: to the credit score people. They don't look at that,
Speaker 1: they don't care, right, So yeah, it's it's very possible
Speaker 1: to have a great caredit score but be completely broke
Speaker 1: with nothing in the bank even. Um, However, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean right that cash on hand doesn't matter, and lenders
Speaker 1: will look at your total assets to determine if they're
Speaker 1: going to approve you for any new credit, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't have any bearing on your credit score. Right. The
Speaker 1: amount of money that you have just chilling. And so
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter where you do banking either, right. Some
Speaker 1: people assume that the bank they do business with is
Speaker 1: reporting low account balances or or lets the credit bureau
Speaker 1: know about an overdraft fee that gets incurred, and that's
Speaker 1: just not true. Um, that that stuff doesn't matter, doesn't
Speaker 1: factor into your credit score, and it's not getting reported
Speaker 1: in any way to the credit bureaus. So just know that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the way you do banking, who you bank with, and
Speaker 1: some of those minor infractions that you might run a
Speaker 1: foul of, they're not going to impact your score in
Speaker 1: any way. Yeah, the credit bureaus, they don't care what
Speaker 1: you do with your money. Like, it's not about your money.
Speaker 1: It's it's about other people's money, right, It's about the
Speaker 1: money that you've borrowed and whether or not you're paying
Speaker 1: that back, how you're handling that money. They don't care
Speaker 1: what you do with your money exactly. That's up to you.
Speaker 1: That's you in your business, Like are you a good borrower?
Speaker 1: Not are you a good saber? Exactly. Yeah, another myth
Speaker 1: we wanted to get to. There's this one where you
Speaker 1: should hire someone to help fix your banged up credit score.
Speaker 1: We completely disagree with this one. There's nothing that someone
Speaker 1: on the internet claiming to help your score can do
Speaker 1: that you can't do for yourself. There's so many bold,
Speaker 1: onecious claims on the internet. To Matt, yeah, well you
Speaker 1: got to ignore all the post of all those false headlines. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's this is just a waste of money. Though, and
Speaker 1: oftentimes it's an all out con or a scam. Oftentimes
Speaker 1: they're gonna try to charge you an upfront fee and
Speaker 1: then they end up not being able to deliver on
Speaker 1: the promises, which often includes claiming to be able to
Speaker 1: remove that negative information from your credit report even if
Speaker 1: that information is accurate. They cannot do that. That is
Speaker 1: not true. So avoid anyone who says that they'll fix
Speaker 1: your score if you just pay them some money. And
Speaker 1: I think this is another just too good to be
Speaker 1: true sort of thing right where people are like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: if I don't pay my credit card balance, my score
Speaker 1: will magically go up. Or wait, if I pay this person, um,
Speaker 1: you know, five bucks, a thousand bucks, my problem of
Speaker 1: a crummy credit score will quickly dissipate. It's going to
Speaker 1: be gone. But it's just like a rich quick scheme.
Speaker 1: Like the promises sound appealing, and when you're in that mind,
Speaker 1: you want things to get fixed quickly and you want
Speaker 1: things to be easy. Yes, but in reality that's not
Speaker 1: how it works. And basically you're always swindled out of
Speaker 1: your money because there is no way to just change
Speaker 1: your credit score overnight. Yeah, that's right, just like you
Speaker 1: can't just take a pill and magically get fit like
Speaker 1: it takes hard work, it takes discipline, and really wish
Speaker 1: you could though personal responsibility. But we'll talk more about
Speaker 1: how to raise your your credit score and how you
Speaker 1: can do it without anyone else's help, and we'll get
Speaker 1: to all of that right after this break. All right, man,
Speaker 1: we we got to talk about how people can heal
Speaker 1: their own credit scores without paying big bucks to scam
Speaker 1: artists on the internet. We'll get to that in just
Speaker 1: a second. I wanted to cover just one more credit
Speaker 1: score myth, and maybe it isn't even a myth anymore,
Speaker 1: but you know, a question we've been asked on the
Speaker 1: show multiple times has to do with the impact on
Speaker 1: your credit score by closing a credit card that you're
Speaker 1: not using. This is something that there's still just a
Speaker 1: ton of confusion in that arena over and this is
Speaker 1: important to cover because your credit score, it's composed of
Speaker 1: a number of factors, and really we should we should
Speaker 1: talk about that because you might be hurting yourself on
Speaker 1: two of the main fronts if you cancel an older card.
Speaker 1: So some people I get the impulse they want to
Speaker 1: cancel a card because they just paid off and then
Speaker 1: balance their credit card debt free, and what they want
Speaker 1: to do is get it out of their life. And
Speaker 1: maybe they're like Marie condoing their life and they're just
Speaker 1: I want just to simplify, simplifying, and that we're cleaning house, close,
Speaker 1: close clothes. And then they find this away. Through this away,
Speaker 1: their credit score takes a beating, right, And that's because,
Speaker 1: first of all, the age of your credit matters. Um
Speaker 1: So the longer you've had the card, the more it's
Speaker 1: helping your score. And yeah, if you cancel it, that's
Speaker 1: gonna that's gonna impact you negatively. Also, credit utilization is
Speaker 1: an important term that you've got to be familiar with. Basically,
Speaker 1: the bureaus want you to have a lot of available
Speaker 1: credit but to be using very very little of it.
Speaker 1: Basically it shows restraint, which makes you look like a
Speaker 1: better borrow. Or it's like, oh, look at look at
Speaker 1: Jack over there, or look at Jill over there. It's
Speaker 1: like they have just so much credit access but they
Speaker 1: used so very little of it. They must be a
Speaker 1: stute borrower who doesn't get in over their head. So yeah,
Speaker 1: instead of canceling a card, we would suggest keeping it
Speaker 1: open even once it's paid off in full, which is
Speaker 1: what we suggest, Like, we don't want you to have
Speaker 1: any credit card debt ever, but um yeah, use it
Speaker 1: every couple of months, continue to pay it off on
Speaker 1: in full and on time, and that card is going
Speaker 1: to keep helping you out, even if you found maybe
Speaker 1: better rewards and parks with another card. Or you're like, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm just add a credit card debt altogether, and I
Speaker 1: don't even want to be bothered by by this thing anymore. Still,
Speaker 1: you can still cut it up, or you can still
Speaker 1: stick it in the freezer, whatever you need to do.
Speaker 1: But what you don't want to do is call the
Speaker 1: credit card company and cancel that card altogether. That's right.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned to using a card like maybe every
Speaker 1: couple of months to kind of keep that line active.
Speaker 1: I'll mention that I've got at least three cards that
Speaker 1: I never used. They are cards that I have laid
Speaker 1: to rest, so to speak. Uh, and I only use
Speaker 1: them one like literally I think once a year now,
Speaker 1: and that at least in my case. You know, your
Speaker 1: mileage may vary, uh, But in my case, I've been
Speaker 1: able to keep those accounts open by literally only using
Speaker 1: those cards once a year, uh. And that is a
Speaker 1: City card, a Discover card, and a Capital One card. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so it may not even take you using it
Speaker 1: every couple of months, but it also too, I mean,
Speaker 1: it kind of depends on how many lines of credit
Speaker 1: you have, right So, if you've got I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you've got twelve credit cards, if there's
Speaker 1: one that you just really want to get rid of,
Speaker 1: maybe specifically if it has especially if it has an
Speaker 1: annual fee and you're not getting any value from that card,
Speaker 1: that account would be a great candidate to close. First
Speaker 1: of all, you've got multiple lines of credit already, and
Speaker 1: so it's not like you're going to be significantly reducing
Speaker 1: your card utilization. But again, the fact that you're paying
Speaker 1: potentially ninety five bucks a year, whatever the annual fee is,
Speaker 1: you need to make sure that you're actually getting that
Speaker 1: value from that card if you're going to be paying
Speaker 1: that exactly. I think that is one of the only
Speaker 1: reasons I think I have an article up on the
Speaker 1: site about when and how you should go about canceling
Speaker 1: a credit card. It's we'll put that in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But I think, Matt, the one other thing you could
Speaker 1: do if you have a credit card with an annual fee,
Speaker 1: is you can call your credit card company up and say, hey,
Speaker 1: can you actually transfer me to another credit card that
Speaker 1: has no annual fee with the same the same issuer,
Speaker 1: and often times a will to do that, and so
Speaker 1: it retains that credit history. Um, but you still get
Speaker 1: rid of that annual fee. That's kind of pesky. Exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're happy that you haven't completely lost your allegiance to
Speaker 1: them as a company. Uh. And you are happy because
Speaker 1: you're not having to fork over that money for no
Speaker 1: value in return. And so you know, we also want
Speaker 1: to make sure that you don't feel the need to
Speaker 1: obsess over your credit scored. You touched on this earlier, Joel,
Speaker 1: but like it's it's an important part of your personal finances.
Speaker 1: It's worth keeping tabs on. But it is possible to
Speaker 1: be too attentive to your credit score. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: we want you, if this is you, we want you
Speaker 1: to limit your the amount of time that you're giving it,
Speaker 1: Like maybe just check it once a quarter in order
Speaker 1: to know you know that what your score is looking like.
Speaker 1: You can even just set a calendar reminder for yourself. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is important because it dinged credit score can tip
Speaker 1: you off to something that you might not be aware
Speaker 1: of that might have been added to your credit report,
Speaker 1: maybe even by mistake. Discovers credit scorecard credit Karma they're
Speaker 1: two of our favorite sites for checking your credit. They'll
Speaker 1: even give you a peek under the hood of your
Speaker 1: credit score to see what might be causing the problem
Speaker 1: uh and you'll find some helpful education tools there as well.
Speaker 1: And studies have shown that just knowing your score is
Speaker 1: an important step towards improving it, so that awareness it
Speaker 1: goes a long way towards doing the work to make
Speaker 1: it better. But we don't want it to be something
Speaker 1: that you're checking every single morning, like before you check
Speaker 1: your email, Like it doesn't need to be a part
Speaker 1: of your routine. Yes, no, completely agree. I think that
Speaker 1: the diagnostic feature though of those websites is really helpful
Speaker 1: because if you're saying, Okay, I see what my credit
Speaker 1: score is, it's not in the best spot. I really
Speaker 1: want to raise it to that seven forty plus level
Speaker 1: that Matt and Joel we're talking about. How do I
Speaker 1: get there? Well, you'll see the areas that are holding
Speaker 1: you back, and it might be length of credit history
Speaker 1: that might be one of the biggest things, or it
Speaker 1: might be on time payments, which if you've had a
Speaker 1: few of those, those are going to hurt your credit
Speaker 1: score in a big way. Those will over time fall off.
Speaker 1: But there are all these little things that you can
Speaker 1: see as you're looking at that that diagnostic toolkit on
Speaker 1: those sites where where you can know where to focus
Speaker 1: your efforts on how to make your credit score better.
Speaker 1: And I think, um, yeah, you're not. Don't pay anybody
Speaker 1: money right to do something that they can't actually do.
Speaker 1: But when you look at that and you figure out
Speaker 1: what's holding you back, then you can address it with
Speaker 1: how you handle your credit in the future totally. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you do check your credit score
Speaker 1: and you find out that it's taken a hit, well,
Speaker 1: then make sure to pull your credit report from the
Speaker 1: site Annual Credit report dot com. And I kind of
Speaker 1: alluded to this earlier math that the credit report and
Speaker 1: the score are two different things. The report kind of
Speaker 1: list out all the things that are happening with your
Speaker 1: credit and the score gives you like a numerical reading
Speaker 1: of what you're you know, what's basically on that report.
Speaker 1: And so if there are any errors you're gonna want
Speaker 1: to make sure to file a dispute directly with the
Speaker 1: with the credit bureau where that issue lies. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: something like one in four credit reports contains an error.
Speaker 1: So there's no need to stress if your report has
Speaker 1: something fishy on it. It's not like you are an anomaly. Um.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have have this issue. Sadly. Um,
Speaker 1: the bureaus they don't do an amazing job at responding
Speaker 1: to those disputes. Their track record has only gotten worse
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years. And yeah, here we
Speaker 1: would say that's not right. Um, the credit bureaus need
Speaker 1: to do a better job. And it is borderline infuriating
Speaker 1: that they have the powers that they have to amass
Speaker 1: all the data on us that they do and then
Speaker 1: to package and sell our credit scores um without actually
Speaker 1: having to verify that the information is accurate. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. You've got to be the squeaky wheel in
Speaker 1: order to get that error fixed, because the credit bureaus
Speaker 1: they're big, behemous, and yeah, you've got to be like
Speaker 1: that little David beating up a goliath in order to
Speaker 1: get um change actually to happen to make sure your
Speaker 1: credit score reflects accurately the truth about what's happening with
Speaker 1: your credit. That's right. And by the way, real quick
Speaker 1: annual credit report dot Com you can still go there,
Speaker 1: Like they should call it weekly credit report dot com
Speaker 1: because like it was the middle of the pandemic when
Speaker 1: they switched to you being able to get all three
Speaker 1: reports for free every single week. Um, but I hope
Speaker 1: that becomes normal forever. Well, things haven't changed yet, but
Speaker 1: it's said to go back in the middle of April
Speaker 1: to reset, and so those free weekly reports are running out.
Speaker 1: So if if that's something you haven't done yet, now
Speaker 1: would be a great time to go ahead and get
Speaker 1: get in there and get all three before the usual
Speaker 1: rules come back to play. But but like you're s angel, like,
Speaker 1: we're not big fans of the credit report the scoring
Speaker 1: system as it stands, largely because of the propensity for
Speaker 1: the errors that you're just talking about and the reality
Speaker 1: that the credit bureaus like they could or less about
Speaker 1: the errors themselves or helping you to resolve them, because again,
Speaker 1: you are not the customer. Uh, they are selling your
Speaker 1: data to their actual customers. You are the data. But
Speaker 1: those errors they can prevent. Folks, from getting loans, you know,
Speaker 1: even sometimes getting jobs. But credit scores are a reality
Speaker 1: that we all have to deal with. Um. Not paying
Speaker 1: attention to your credit score or pretending that it doesn't exist,
Speaker 1: that's going to eventually have a negative impact on your life.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be able to qualify for a home
Speaker 1: loan that you really want, or you know, maybe you
Speaker 1: won't qualify for the best interest rate at least uh,
Speaker 1: increasing the monthly cost of that mortgage. You can hate
Speaker 1: the game, but it is still smart to play it. Like,
Speaker 1: even when the rules of the game are changing, like
Speaker 1: even by now pay later, that is starting to become
Speaker 1: something that is getting incorporated into credit scores. It's something
Speaker 1: that we all need to be aware of. We need
Speaker 1: to know how to play the games, even if we're
Speaker 1: not the biggest fan of the game. Yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: give a few final tips, just kind of maybe to
Speaker 1: sum it up. Yeah, like, well, how are just a
Speaker 1: few ways if we were going to give you just
Speaker 1: three or four suggestions on how to improve your credit
Speaker 1: score the most quickly, right, what were your big takeaways
Speaker 1: with the effort? Right? Um, I would say that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. One thing, of course, is to pay your
Speaker 1: bills on time, right, Um, and the if you don't
Speaker 1: do that, that is going to doing your credit more
Speaker 1: than anything else. Um, Late pays or not paying are
Speaker 1: going to be the worst reflection on you as a borrower,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna crush your score. And a single missed payment,
Speaker 1: Matt can lop a hundred points off of somebody's credit score. Um,
Speaker 1: So yeah, use that smartly pay off your debts as
Speaker 1: you've agreed to. Basically, you don't want to get in
Speaker 1: over your head. Don't kid yourself into thinking that taking
Speaker 1: on a big car loan is is smart just because
Speaker 1: it's gonna give your score a bump. Um, that's that's
Speaker 1: a bad move. Intelligently using a few different credit cards
Speaker 1: each month to pay for your needs and then paying
Speaker 1: those balances in full is helpful and then don't close
Speaker 1: those accounts. So, yeah, you want access to these varied
Speaker 1: kinds of credit, but only credit that you can handle,
Speaker 1: only credit that you can use wisely. And yeah, credit
Speaker 1: cards are a portion of those. Using them intelligently is
Speaker 1: going to help your score. Having seasoned credit in your
Speaker 1: possession is a good thing to write. Like we said,
Speaker 1: the longer you've had some of those credit products around
Speaker 1: in your life, especially some of those credit cards that
Speaker 1: you've had for a decade plus. It's like, you don't
Speaker 1: want to get rid of that because that is having
Speaker 1: a helpful impact on your credit score. And and and
Speaker 1: then Matt for for somebody out there who says, I've
Speaker 1: got a really bad score and you know, I can't
Speaker 1: even get a credit card right now, Well, um, if
Speaker 1: your credit score is in really poor shape, we would
Speaker 1: recommend a site like self dot ink, and that's our
Speaker 1: favorite place for people to turn. They have these credit
Speaker 1: builder accounts and they're a great way to quickly build
Speaker 1: up your score through a credit builder a loan. So
Speaker 1: that's one of the first things we would recommend. That's
Speaker 1: one of the best places to go to be able
Speaker 1: to quickly start jump starting your score. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we actually did an episode specifically for people
Speaker 1: who have a rough or or busted up. It's right
Speaker 1: so one thirteen. If you want to dig back into
Speaker 1: the archives and listen to that one, Okay, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: link that in the show notes as well. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there are different tactics that you're gonna want to take
Speaker 1: if your credit score is already just completely in the
Speaker 1: dumps um. But again, this is one of those things
Speaker 1: that you can do and you do not need the
Speaker 1: help of some faux internet professional um to get you
Speaker 1: to where you need to be. That's right. And by
Speaker 1: the way, if you have kids and you want them
Speaker 1: to reach adulthood and have a great credit score, it's
Speaker 1: actually pretty easy to get them started off on the
Speaker 1: right foot. One of the best ways to accomplish this
Speaker 1: is to make them an authorized user on one of
Speaker 1: your credit card accounts, but not give them an actual card.
Speaker 1: And that's the trick. You don't want your eight year old,
Speaker 1: I guess, running around with a credit card. But this
Speaker 1: assumes that you have and you continue to have and
Speaker 1: maintain good credit. But the credit bureaus, they're gonna see
Speaker 1: your child with access to that good credit you know themselves,
Speaker 1: and it will, by association, inflate their credit worthiness. It's
Speaker 1: a nice little, nice little tit nice little hack. We've
Speaker 1: talked about this maybe on the show. Was like a
Speaker 1: year ago, maybe year and a half ago, and I
Speaker 1: haven't checked my kids credit. But at that point in time,
Speaker 1: I added my kids to one of my cards. They're
Speaker 1: still on that card. I still use that card. And
Speaker 1: pay it off on time in full. Uh so, I'm
Speaker 1: guessing they've got pretty stellar credit. I think they say
Speaker 1: their prayers every night, like please Lord, lid Daddy pay
Speaker 1: his credit card building well so he doesn't hurt my credit. Now,
Speaker 1: But now you're right, like that is one of those
Speaker 1: things that you can do for your kids, and it
Speaker 1: can be really helpful for it's it's like a nice
Speaker 1: little service UNI starting them off on the right foot
Speaker 1: a little bit of credit. Yeah. Um, all right, I
Speaker 1: want to ask you one one question here at the end,
Speaker 1: because I think, um, right now, credit scores still matter
Speaker 1: a great deal in our society, right and it's one
Speaker 1: of the things that we're saying that you kind of
Speaker 1: can't get around. You have to pay attention to it.
Speaker 1: It's part of the game, the personal finance game that
Speaker 1: we all play, and so you just have to be
Speaker 1: ready to suit up and do your best. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you think that credit scores in their current iteration
Speaker 1: are think okay, like you're diving into the fiction now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the possibilities I only deal in fact, ten years in
Speaker 1: the future, will credit scores play as big of an
Speaker 1: impact in our personal finance lives as they do today,
Speaker 1: I mean they do now. I think as different apps
Speaker 1: come online, like basically all I feel like all the
Speaker 1: different UH finance apps are in an arms race right
Speaker 1: to get as many customers as possible. Whether that's initially
Speaker 1: UH an app that allows you to transfer money to
Speaker 1: your friends very easily because they have that app as well,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, guess what, Oh, you
Speaker 1: can buy a bitcoin with that app. So you all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, now you can transfer money, you can
Speaker 1: save in that app, and you can also quote unquote invest. UH.
Speaker 1: The next thing that a lot of these apps and
Speaker 1: you know, money management platforms I think are allowing their
Speaker 1: customers to do is then borrow money, which guess what
Speaker 1: if they know all of your transactions and they have
Speaker 1: your history, I could see them not necessarily needing to
Speaker 1: go to the credit bureers and get an actual credit
Speaker 1: report or credit score from them. Uh. So it depends,
Speaker 1: I guess, on what the future of the different finance
Speaker 1: apps look like. That is one path forward, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to say that that's where we're going. I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of I'm laying out the future like this
Speaker 1: could happen, or this could happen. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: necessarily say that that will happen, but do you disagree
Speaker 1: like you seem less optimistic about the future of credit
Speaker 1: score People are so fed up and frustrated with the
Speaker 1: credit bureaus. Something's going to give at some point, and
Speaker 1: I think we've already seen alternative They fed up? Or
Speaker 1: do people just not care? Right Like, like when there's
Speaker 1: a data breach and fifty million people have have there's
Speaker 1: a security just floating around out there in the dark,
Speaker 1: hundred fifty Like people don't care. Were they still have
Speaker 1: the same passwords that they've used for five years? Uh?
Speaker 1: You included I know some of your passwords, and I'm
Speaker 1: always like, I'm pretty sure I can guess you know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to break in my accounts? Well your new
Speaker 1: Netflix passwords? Okay, Well, I'll say this. I think that
Speaker 1: that you know, they get the highest complaints of when
Speaker 1: it comes to scam attempts, that is when it comes
Speaker 1: shut down. And I think that some folks in the
Speaker 1: in the government have already floated the idea that maybe, um,
Speaker 1: a centralized control of credit scores can take place, some
Speaker 1: sort of government run system. I don't know if that
Speaker 1: would be better because the somewhat not really privatized system
Speaker 1: we have right now isn't working very well either. Um
Speaker 1: but I could see just companies making decisions based on
Speaker 1: some of your other public profiles, um so how you
Speaker 1: act on social media and maybe oh my gosh it,
Speaker 1: I know, but I think it's already happening to a
Speaker 1: certain extent. I'm curious to see what happens over the
Speaker 1: next ten years. But it's interesting. So you see it
Speaker 1: maybe going towards a more centralized, you know, mechanism, either
Speaker 1: more centralized or completely decentral I see it being more
Speaker 1: decentralized with these independent different companies who are setting up
Speaker 1: shops with either within an app or just with it
Speaker 1: within a site, but I think more likely and they
Speaker 1: start to communicate to each other when they need like
Speaker 1: some respective information to kind of fill out all the
Speaker 1: dots on. I could see that an application that you've
Speaker 1: that you've submitted that definitely feels less big brother, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, the future is on the blockchain anyway,
Speaker 1: So like that's less direction we're going. But that's gonna
Speaker 1: be it for credit scores, dude. Let's talk about this
Speaker 1: beer for this episode. This was Hello World by Eyeglass
Speaker 1: Brewing Company. Uh, sent to us by Gary. What were
Speaker 1: your thoughts on this beer? All right? So I think
Speaker 1: this was maybe even a touch better than Monday's beer.
Speaker 1: Really it's hard to say that, but I thought you're
Speaker 1: gonna say that this one wasn't as good because I
Speaker 1: thought this one was a touch sweeter. Okay, it was
Speaker 1: a little bit sweeter. It was like a little more juicy,
Speaker 1: a little more yeah, Like I don't know, just juicy
Speaker 1: is the I think you're up in my head, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. Man. I really enjoyed both these beers.
Speaker 1: They were both really really different examples of hazy I
Speaker 1: p A s having different hot profiles. It is just
Speaker 1: amazing the way that different hot varieties mixed together can
Speaker 1: create just a completely different profile. And it always surprises
Speaker 1: me where I'm like, wait, no fruits used in this
Speaker 1: or wait a second, it's just like two different hops
Speaker 1: and that completely changed like the flavor profile. But hops
Speaker 1: are just so um versatile, and so this beer just
Speaker 1: kind of showcased a different kind of hop that had
Speaker 1: a distinctly different flavor profile. But Gary just sending us
Speaker 1: some slammer beers this week. Man. Yeah. Absolutely, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, so you're saying, oh, there's no fruit in
Speaker 1: this beer makes takes me back to one of the
Speaker 1: beers that we said that on, which was Woodland Pursuit.
Speaker 1: That was a Humble Forger beer, And it turns out
Speaker 1: I did look it up and in fact, it did
Speaker 1: have fruit in it on the can. They don't want
Speaker 1: to advertise it. Yeah, on the can, it didn't say
Speaker 1: anything about fruit anywhere on the can. But when you
Speaker 1: go and go to the website or you know, go
Speaker 1: to the brewery, it actually was a fruited I believe
Speaker 1: it was a fruited I PA because that one was
Speaker 1: Woodland Pursuit. It was crazy off the chain fruit and
Speaker 1: you and I were just like racking our brains. Were
Speaker 1: they able to pull that kind of fruit flavor out
Speaker 1: of this beer without any actual fruit and only with
Speaker 1: the hops. I don't think that's what's going on here.
Speaker 1: This This tastes like a classic hazy double I p
Speaker 1: A and I wanted to point out to the label
Speaker 1: for this one. I love it's uh black background green
Speaker 1: ms DOS print. It reminds me a lot of one
Speaker 1: of our favorite local brewis here. Halfway Crooks where they're
Speaker 1: kind of going with like that. I don't know what
Speaker 1: do you call it, like nerd sheep or something like that,
Speaker 1: but Halfway Crooks they've combined like the old world with
Speaker 1: like sheep and the European tradition of pilseners and aggers.
Speaker 1: Sounds weird, but they do it wet and combined it
Speaker 1: with the nursery of Ms. Doss in the early computer days,
Speaker 1: which funny enough. I mean, that's just that's that's the
Speaker 1: perfect blend of the two dudes that started that brewery
Speaker 1: because one of them is from Belgium, yod On, and
Speaker 1: the other owner is Sean He's from Georgia Tech. It's
Speaker 1: another one of the reasons why we love that brewery
Speaker 1: so much. So if you haven't, just right now just
Speaker 1: starch Halfway Crooks and just check out their merch. We
Speaker 1: think it is just the dopest stuff around. And I
Speaker 1: feel bad because we should be talking about spyglass, but
Speaker 1: that we're talking about one of our favorite similar aesthetic
Speaker 1: and it's similar aesthetics on this beer. You'll see in
Speaker 1: the picture of this label. Why we're talking about you
Speaker 1: compare something that you've just experienced to something that you
Speaker 1: love and consider to be excellent. I feel like that
Speaker 1: is the highest compliment. It's a good sign. So Spy
Speaker 1: Glass Rocks, thank you Gary and company for sending this
Speaker 1: one our way. We appreciate it. And Matt, that's gonna
Speaker 1: do it for this episode. For folks who want the
Speaker 1: show notes links to some of the things that we
Speaker 1: mentioned on this episode, just go to our website at
Speaker 1: how to money dot com. That's right. So that's gonna
Speaker 1: be it until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.