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Speaker 1: Hey, hey, ba fam, it is time. It is time.

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Speaker 1: Hey a ba fam, what's up? It's your girl Mandy Money.

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Speaker 1: Happy Friday, Happy b a qa Friday. Shell. I should

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Speaker 1: we just get this over with, since the legacy that

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Speaker 1: Tiffany has left me with is that I must sing

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Speaker 1: it's time for the b a qa a, the b

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Speaker 1: a q a. What you say the b a q

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Speaker 1: a with Manda, the b a q a the v

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Speaker 1: a q a a can y'all even if you're on

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Speaker 1: YouTube right now, if you're watching on YouTube, I did.

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Speaker 1: This is not a boa. This is just the closest

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Speaker 1: blanket I could find that my children. Even though Mommy

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Speaker 1: gets the nice blankets from home Goods, my children always

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Speaker 1: steal them because they need to build forts. And so

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Speaker 1: don't tell me why this really nice home Goods blinky

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Speaker 1: is down here in the playroom. But here's where we're at.

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Speaker 1: So I put on a red lip because it's freezing.

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Speaker 1: We are in the winter. We are in the winter

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Speaker 1: of all winters. This is the time of year when

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Speaker 1: my little Georgia's southern peach heart starts to wither and

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Speaker 1: shribble up. You guys can't see it, but I actually

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Speaker 1: finally listened to my therapist and I got one of

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Speaker 1: those daylight therapeutic light things and it is useful. I

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Speaker 1: recommend it. I can't say for sure if it's like

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Speaker 1: had a huge impact because for me, December, I mean

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Speaker 1: my body is like, okay, fine, it's cold and dark,

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Speaker 1: it's December. It's the holidays when you really need to

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Speaker 1: check on me, check on your girl, check on your

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Speaker 1: seasonal effective disorder. Girlies is the end of February and March,

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Speaker 1: because March has no business being as miserable as it

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Speaker 1: is up here in the North. Okay, but I am

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Speaker 1: really excited for today's episode. Y'all be AQA. You know,

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Speaker 1: in the past, we would do one week career, one

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Speaker 1: week money, but now there's no rules because I'm rewriting

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Speaker 1: all the things for Brown Ambition, and I'm going to

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Speaker 1: do one career in one money question every week. I'm

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Speaker 1: going to do whichever questions I think are really representative

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Speaker 1: or universal problems that can That's just my approach to

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Speaker 1: choosing questions. I'm like, oh, do I think this question

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Speaker 1: could appeal or pertain to like a lot of people?

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Speaker 1: So please keep sending your questions and you can send

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Speaker 1: them to me directly at Brand Ambition Podcast on ig.

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Speaker 1: You can also email us Brand Ambition Podcast at gmail

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Speaker 1: dot com. You can send a voice note, you can

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Speaker 1: type it out whatever you feel. Okay, And you know what,

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Speaker 1: I don't even really do a lot of prep for

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Speaker 1: my answers, so they're going to be really off the cuff.

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Speaker 1: So let's dive on in. Now, get your salt shakers out,

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Speaker 1: because y'all ain't going to sue me, not today, because

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Speaker 1: the disclaimer is going to do the work. Okay, disclaimer,

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Speaker 1: this is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a

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Speaker 1: registered financial advisor. I am not a fiduciary. I am

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Speaker 1: not your financial advisor. I ain't nobody's financial advisor. Okay.

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Speaker 1: I'm just someone who's got a lot of years under

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Speaker 1: her belt in the business and finance space and has

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Speaker 1: been doing Brown ambition for nearly a decade, so there's

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Speaker 1: not much that I haven't seen. I'm also a career coach.

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Speaker 1: I have a thriving career coaching community called the Mandy Moneymakers.

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Speaker 1: Check it out if you haven't Mandymneymakers dot com, Mandimney

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Speaker 1: dot com. And let's dive in, because why wait and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to do my best not to sing the

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Speaker 1: soundtrack to Wicked during this little moment, because listen, I

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Speaker 1: have a microphone in front of me. I got a

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Speaker 1: red lip on and I saw Wicked, and it is everything.

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Speaker 1: It is my entire personality now. But I y'all did

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Speaker 1: not come here to hear me saying defying gravity. That

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Speaker 1: is not why we are here. We are here for

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Speaker 1: this question from Tony on ig and I love a

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Speaker 1: name ending and why but you make it an ee

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Speaker 1: for obvious reasons. Mandy with an eye, Tony with an eye?

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Speaker 1: All right, Tony, Tony says, dear brown ambition. I recently

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Speaker 1: started a catering company, and I'm currently working on my

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Speaker 1: personal credit journey to build good credit so I could

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Speaker 1: apply for a business credit card with a low interest rate.

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Speaker 1: I cried when my credit score took a one hundred

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Speaker 1: point hit. I've taken some steps to pay down all

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Speaker 1: three of my credit cards. First, I was paying off

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Speaker 1: a charged off card, which I was able to settle

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Speaker 1: in full for less than nine hundred dollars in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three. Okay. Second, I applied the avalanche method to

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Speaker 1: paying down the credit card with the highest interest rate.

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Speaker 1: I've been able to cut down at least sixty percent

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Speaker 1: that card's debt. On my third card, I asked my

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Speaker 1: creditor for a lower interest rate so I could afford

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Speaker 1: the payments while I was working while I was looking

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Speaker 1: for gainful employment, which lowered my rate to nine point

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Speaker 1: nine to nine percent. That's amazing. They locked the card

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Speaker 1: for a year and I made a minimum of sixty

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Speaker 1: dollars payment per month. Now the year is over and

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Speaker 1: this card has the highest amount of threeenty eighteen dollars.

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Speaker 1: The second card currently has a balance of nineteen hundred dollars. However,

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Speaker 1: that card is now restricted, and even if I pay

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Speaker 1: off the balance in full, I won't be able to

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Speaker 1: use the card again. The credit limit will still show

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Speaker 1: on my credit report. So my question to you, ladies

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Speaker 1: is would it be best if I close the account

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Speaker 1: that is restricted and pay a settlement amount for the

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Speaker 1: second card. That way, I can save some of the

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Speaker 1: money and put on and put that money toward paying

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Speaker 1: the only active card that I have Now with a

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Speaker 1: high balance, I don't mind my credit taking another hit

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Speaker 1: because I really want to pay off all the debt

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Speaker 1: and then start rebuilding from scratch. With a better credit

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Speaker 1: history and payment happens from an avid listener hopefully Tony. Okay,

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Speaker 1: hopefully Tony. Can I just give you some major props

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Speaker 1: because what I love about your story is that you

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Speaker 1: are not someone who just stuck their head in the

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Speaker 1: ground when it came to tackling various credit card debt.

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Speaker 1: You actually did something about it, and you use some

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Speaker 1: strategies that a lot of people even though maybe we

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Speaker 1: know you could call them and ask them for a

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Speaker 1: lower rate, or you could call them and ask for this,

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Speaker 1: or that, you've actually done it. So I just want

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Speaker 1: to point out some of the great things that you've done.

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Speaker 1: So you chose to settle a credit card debt, So

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Speaker 1: credit card debt settlement, I mean it's going to vary

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Speaker 1: by issuer, right, And we have a really cool episode

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Speaker 1: coming up with a representative her name's Natalia. She's wonderful

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Speaker 1: from the National Debt Relief which is an organization that

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Speaker 1: that's all they do is help customers settle their debt.

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Speaker 1: So we learn a lot about that in that episode,

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Speaker 1: which is going to be coming January. First, stay tuned

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Speaker 1: back to your situation. So when you settle credit card debt,

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Speaker 1: you're basically saying to the credit card company like, I

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Speaker 1: ain't got it okay, and I've been missing my payments.

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Speaker 1: I do want to get this debt taken care of,

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Speaker 1: but what can we do? Can I settle it for less?

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Speaker 1: And if you are pretty the thing is you need

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Speaker 1: to you technically need to be pretty delinquent on that debt.

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Speaker 1: You probably need to have been missing payments for a

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Speaker 1: few months or more and then like and unfortunately, that

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Speaker 1: means your credit will be taking a hit because you've

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Speaker 1: got to be so behind that they're like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this person's clearly, you know, not going to be paying

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Speaker 1: this back. So it's in our best it's in our

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Speaker 1: best interest as a bank to at least get something

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Speaker 1: from them. So yeah, we'll let them settle the debt.

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Speaker 1: So I love that you took advantage of that, even though,

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Speaker 1: like you said, it's brought your credit score down one

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Speaker 1: hundred points. I mean, at this point, your credit score

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Speaker 1: is probably in the poor to fair category and you

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Speaker 1: can that back up. But I'm glad that you're kind

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Speaker 1: of like trying to attack it all at one time,

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Speaker 1: because if you have this this period of poor credit behavior,

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Speaker 1: the good news is that it will eventually fall off

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Speaker 1: and you can you know, get some positive credit behavior

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Speaker 1: to improve your score over time. So but you're just

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Speaker 1: in a tough period. Okay, all right, so we have

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Speaker 1: you've settled that card for less than nine hundred dollars.

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Speaker 1: That was in twenty twenty three. Now you're you know,

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Speaker 1: organizing the rest of your credit cards by highest interest rate,

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Speaker 1: and you've tackled sixty percent of your highest interest rate

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Speaker 1: credit card debt. That's amazing. And so and then you've

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Speaker 1: asked your creditor for a lower interest rate so you

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Speaker 1: could afford your payments while you were unemployed. So you

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Speaker 1: got your rate down to nine point nine to nine percent.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's extraordinary. The average interest rate these days

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Speaker 1: is definitely like, is it almost twenty percent or close

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Speaker 1: to like, it's somewhere around there, you know. And it's

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Speaker 1: interesting to hear that because you've lowered, they've agreed to

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Speaker 1: lower that rate. They said, okay, sure, but we're going

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Speaker 1: to lock the car card so you can't actually make

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Speaker 1: any more payments on it. You can't actually sorry, charge

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Speaker 1: anything else to it. So I kind of like that

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Speaker 1: because it stops you from using that credit card as

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Speaker 1: a crutch or using it in times where you maybe

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Speaker 1: would have when you maybe couldn't technically afford something. So

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Speaker 1: that but that's a repercussion. So if you're thinking about

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Speaker 1: using this strategy to call your credit card and ask

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Speaker 1: for a lower rate, just based on Tony's story, I'm

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Speaker 1: learning that they may say, okay, cool, we'll give you

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Speaker 1: the lower rate, but you ain't gonna be able to

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Speaker 1: use this card anymore. So that's a give and take,

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Speaker 1: all right. So that's great. Now your payments on that

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Speaker 1: card are only sixty dollars. But now the year is over,

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Speaker 1: and going back to that high interest credit card, it's

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Speaker 1: got a balance of about three thousand dollars, all right,

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Speaker 1: So now you're wondering, should I try to settle that

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Speaker 1: credit card balance, that three thousand dollars with a higher

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Speaker 1: interest rate? Should I try to settle it so I

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Speaker 1: can say some of that money and put it on

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Speaker 1: the active card that you have. Now, now this is

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Speaker 1: the thing. It's another settlement. And because you've been on

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Speaker 1: a payment you've basically been on a payment plan, like

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Speaker 1: you've been paying sixty bucks a month, and they've locked

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Speaker 1: in your interest rate. I'm wondering if they would be

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Speaker 1: open to settling that debt with you because you've been

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Speaker 1: current on your payments, and like in my experience, lenders

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Speaker 1: creditors will settle, but they tend to be more willing

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Speaker 1: to settle if you're like severely delinquent. So unfortunately, that

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Speaker 1: could be a situation where you may need to stop

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Speaker 1: making payments to qualify for that. But I think before

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Speaker 1: you do any of that, just call them and ask.

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Speaker 1: You could say, hey, it's been you know how it's

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Speaker 1: been a year since i've and thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for working with me on the rate, But now I

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Speaker 1: really need to like figure out what to do. I'm

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Speaker 1: worried I won't be able to pay the balance in full.

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Speaker 1: Is there any opportunity to settle the debt for less

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Speaker 1: and then see what happens. Then, at this point, your

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Speaker 1: credit score has already taken the hit, so I know

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Speaker 1: that this would cause another hit. You're losing. You'd be

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Speaker 1: potentially losing the the having that credit limit on your

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Speaker 1: credit report. And we know that utilization rate is such

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Speaker 1: a big component of your credit score. So utilization rate

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Speaker 1: is how much available credit you have compared to how

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Speaker 1: much you're actually using. So when you close a credit card,

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Speaker 1: it reduces the amount of available credit you have, So

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Speaker 1: that can I know it's a little confusing, but stay

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Speaker 1: with me. So it reduces how much credit you have.

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Speaker 1: And also, credit scores are so goddamn stupid. Have I

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Speaker 1: mentioned that. It's like, so, here's all this credit that

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Speaker 1: you can use, but we're only going to give you

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Speaker 1: a high score if you don't use any of it,

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Speaker 1: if you use the least amount possible. So it's it's

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Speaker 1: such a trap. It truly, truly, deeply is. And then

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Speaker 1: they make it so easy, they make it so incentivizing

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Speaker 1: to like use that credit card for the points for

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Speaker 1: the airline, for the miles, for the cash back, right,

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Speaker 1: And because of that, we'd use it more than we

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Speaker 1: maybe necessarily would, because we can justify it by saying, well,

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Speaker 1: I should use it because I get more points this way.

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Speaker 1: And then you could end up with the high balance

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Speaker 1: and then you're just stuck there with a really high

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Speaker 1: interest rate. Right, and then it's like, oh, wait, you

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Speaker 1: used the card and you didn't pay it off in full, Well,

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Speaker 1: then we're going to start knocking points off of your

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Speaker 1: credit card debt, I mean your credit score, right, because

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Speaker 1: that is increasing how much credit you're using versus how

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Speaker 1: much credit we gave you. The magic percentage is usually

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Speaker 1: thirty percent or less. So if you've got ten thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of credit across like three different cards, you

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Speaker 1: never want to be carrying more than like three thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars across those cards. So thirty percent is about where

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Speaker 1: you want to stay. But of course, ideally we'd be

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Speaker 1: paying our credit cards off in full, but like we

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Speaker 1: don't live in an imaginary fairy tear land. Okay, sometimes

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Speaker 1: you don't listen. I don't pay my cards in full

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Speaker 1: all the time. Sometimes you just ain't got it. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: there's other priorities, right, But anyway, let me step off

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Speaker 1: of that soapbox for a moment, because credit scores are

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Speaker 1: trash and it's all rigged and like they're dangerous, so dangerous,

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Speaker 1: but I think listen, like if it has worked for you,

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Speaker 1: like if you can call and you can settle that

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Speaker 1: debt for less, and you know, you may get a

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Speaker 1: hit to your credit score, but then you could go

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Speaker 1: and you could get a secured card from a credit union.

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Speaker 1: So a secured credit card, it's not really a credit

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Speaker 1: card at all. But it basically helps you rebuild your credit.

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Speaker 1: You can also get what's call it a credit builder

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Speaker 1: loan through a credit union and this is where and

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Speaker 1: there are some like private companies that are not banks.

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Speaker 1: I believe there's one called self lender, but you get

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Speaker 1: to do your own research to find the best ones.

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Speaker 1: But basically, they extend you some credit and they give

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Speaker 1: you a certain minimum payment to pay each month, and

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Speaker 1: you've got to make those payments on time and you

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Speaker 1: can't like use the card and charge it at grocery

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Speaker 1: restores and stuff like that. And then basically after certain

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Speaker 1: and those payments will be counted toward your credit report

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Speaker 1: and then hopefully will help you rebuild your score. Like

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Speaker 1: I said, I mean, you've got these charge off these

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Speaker 1: charged off accounts that's already dinging your score. You don't

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Speaker 1: have a lot to lose. I mean, I know that

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Speaker 1: you've just started your catering company, and that's what I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm toying around with this, not toying around, but I'm

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Speaker 1: considering that. I mean, your credit score is already on

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Speaker 1: the lower side. You said you took one hundred point hit.

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Speaker 1: You may already have a hard time qualifying for a

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Speaker 1: business credit card or a business line of credit. I

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Speaker 1: honestly think that you should pursue for your business, pursue

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Speaker 1: some non line of credit financing. If you need some financing,

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Speaker 1: you can apply for an SBA loan. You can look

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Speaker 1: at what kind of grants or loans are available through

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Speaker 1: your state or through your There are programs that not enough,

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Speaker 1: especially women of color, that we just are so much

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Speaker 1: more likely to dip into our own piggybank to finance

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Speaker 1: our businesses. And that is not what the majority of

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Speaker 1: successful business owners are doing. They're not using their own money,

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Speaker 1: They're leveraging debt, they are leveraging loans or grants. There's

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Speaker 1: other options for starting up a business. And I highly

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Speaker 1: recommend listening to an episode of our show where we

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Speaker 1: interviewed I interviewed Stacy Abrams, who should have been governor

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Speaker 1: of Georgia. Bo was whatever, It's fine. So Stacy has

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Speaker 1: a book I forget what it's called now where is

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Speaker 1: it is? Somewhere around here, but anyway, she tells a

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Speaker 1: story of how she founded a couple of companies at

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Speaker 1: through her entrepreneurial days and how you know, she learned

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Speaker 1: so much about financing and how that was one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons why her business is closed, and how access

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Speaker 1: to capital is like the biggest hill to overcome as

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Speaker 1: a black, black or woman in business. And yes, we

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Speaker 1: are the fastest growing entrepreneur in the country, but we

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Speaker 1: are also the most underserved when it comes to financing

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Speaker 1: and having access to capital, and that's got to effing change.

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Speaker 1: So I really encourage you to look and see what

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Speaker 1: opportunities you have to raise capital without having to take

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Speaker 1: on debt yourself. Because even if you do qualify for

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Speaker 1: business credit, like how do you have to buy the

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Speaker 1: supplies for your catering company, you may need to, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, hire help to expand and grow and with

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Speaker 1: the debt problems that you're having. On the personal side,

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't tend to feel like you have

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Speaker 1: a bunch of money just lying around that you could

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Speaker 1: go ahead and like float yourself as through your business,

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Speaker 1: and you shouldn't have to. Like if you're a bomb

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Speaker 1: ass caterer and you cook amazing food then and you

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Speaker 1: have like a client list and you have the potential

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Speaker 1: to have a thriving business, there should be opportunities out

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Speaker 1: there for you to get the kind of financing that

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Speaker 1: you need to get your business off the ground and

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Speaker 1: actually open up that opportunity for you. So what is it?

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Speaker 1: The SBA, the Small Business Association. There's loan programs. If

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Speaker 1: you're a minority owned business, get classified as a minority owned.

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Speaker 1: This is something that I'm working on right now too,

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Speaker 1: a minority and woman owned business in the state of

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Speaker 1: New York. I'm trying to get registered as that because

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Speaker 1: that sometimes you're only eligible for these types of programs

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Speaker 1: if you are classified in that way. But there is

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Speaker 1: all there are opportunities to finance that don't have to

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Speaker 1: come out of your own pocket, Okay, And that's definitely

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Speaker 1: a topic that I'm passionate about. I've heard other you know,

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Speaker 1: incredible black female, brown female entrepreneurs talking about the same thing,

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Speaker 1: from Morgan Debonn from Blavity and all the sessions I

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Speaker 1: went to when I was at Afro Tech and Rachel Rogers.

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Speaker 1: We've had Lgope on the show, and she also talks

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Speaker 1: a lot about, you know how a lot of her

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Speaker 1: business and helping women is coaching them on where to

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Speaker 1: find money that is not out of our own Where

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Speaker 1: to find money that is not out of our own

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Speaker 1: our own bank accounts, which is rare because I think

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Speaker 1: we tend to think, Okay, I'm going to do this.

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Speaker 1: I got to pull myself up on my bootstraps. Here's

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Speaker 1: the gag. Ain't nobody else using their bootstraps but us. Okay,

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Speaker 1: everybody else is like catching all cash that check. I'll

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Speaker 1: apply for this, I'll get that, you know, venture capital funding,

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Speaker 1: and I'll get that loan or whatever. It's a yeah,

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Speaker 1: it sucks to feel like, Okay, no one really explained

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Speaker 1: this to us, and that's got to change. So hopefully

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Speaker 1: this can be the beginning of that conversation. I hope

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Speaker 1: that this helped. I think that you're on the right track,

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Speaker 1: and you have been so strategic and smart about the

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Speaker 1: way that you are managing your debt right now, and

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Speaker 1: I just don't want the idea that, Okay, your credit

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Speaker 1: is obviously not great right now. That doesn't need to

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Speaker 1: stop you from launching your business. You just need to

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Speaker 1: be more tactful and strategic about financing your business in

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Speaker 1: a smart way and leveraging resources that may not have

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Speaker 1: to just be you know, your credit, to take on

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Speaker 1: business credit that you may struggle to paid off, as well,

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Speaker 1: maybe other forms of financing. Also, this is not going

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Speaker 1: to be a quick journey. You know. It takes money

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Speaker 1: to pay down debt, It takes time for your credit

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Speaker 1: to improve, it takes time to launch a business. And

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Speaker 1: I just want to acknowledge and like validate the probably

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Speaker 1: the frustration that you may be feeling, like I just

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Speaker 1: want to do this as my dream. I want to

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Speaker 1: get it going, but I have these other things in

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Speaker 1: the way. It may just take more time than you

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Speaker 1: would like it too, but it is possible. And I

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Speaker 1: think that you have everything you need to get done,

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Speaker 1: what you need to get done to make your dreams

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Speaker 1: come true and to make this really come alive. But

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Speaker 1: it just may take a longer time than you would

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Speaker 1: like to and that can be okay, all right. I

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Speaker 1: hope that this helped you, Tony. Thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for being so vulnerable and transparent with your story. Please,

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Speaker 1: you know, send another DM, let us know how it's going,

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Speaker 1: Let me know how going, Let me know if this

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Speaker 1: was helpful, If there's other questions, b A fam I

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Speaker 1: love getting your questions again. Hit us up at Brand

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Speaker 1: Ambition podcast on ij on ig. You can slide into

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Speaker 1: our d MS or email me at Brand Ambition Podcast

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Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. Thank y'all,