Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Mastering Your Money: Fix Your Credit, Learn Fraud Protection, and gain Financial Freedom with Experian.

Transcript

Mastering Your Money: Fix Your Credit, Learn Fraud Protection, and gain Financial Freedom with Experian. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I am Rashwan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: where we encourage.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: People to stop reading other people's success stories and start
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: planning their own. Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: From around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: how they are running their companies, and speak with non
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I am
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Rashaan McDonald, our host this weekly Money Making Conversation.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Master Class show.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: The interviews and information that this show provides off for everyone.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: start living your own. I'm here to help you reach
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: your American dream. My guest is the senior director of
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Public Education and Advocacy for Experience. He leaves experienced national
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: consumer education programs and works with consumer advocates, financial education,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: media and others to help consumers increase their ability to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: understand and manage their personal finances and protect themselves from
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: fraud and identity there please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Rod Grifforth, how you doing.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Rock fantastic, glad to be here.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you for coming on the show, because I'm
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: gonna tell you some broad my email. My phone is
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: being inundated with messages that I don't know if it's
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: real or not. It looks like it may be a bank,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: it looks like it may be a credit card. Tell
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: me what's going on, because I want to start our
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: conversation with what you said right here, educating us about
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: fraud and identity there.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we all get the notices of data breaches,
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: we all get the emails. I get them too, and
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: sometimes phone calls as well. And you know, fraud is
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: something that everybody's after today. I sometimes tell people that
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the currency for today of today isn't necessarily cash. It's information,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: and a lot of times it's personal information. It's your identity.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Because if they can steal your identity, they can use
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: it to do all sorts of things. They can use
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: it to try to apply for frauduct credit accounts, they
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: can use it to apply for IDs, for government benefits,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: for all sorts of things. So the identity thieves are
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: busy trying to trick us into giving them our information.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Our personal and private information, our financial information, so that
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: they can use it to their gain and against us.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: So it's a huge problem and they're getting more sophisticated
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: about it. And artificial intelligence is something that's actually something
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: we're even more concerned about today because you may not
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: even be talking to a person now or getting an
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: email from a person. It could be a machine that
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: is posing as someone you know and playing on those
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: emotional heartstrings to get you to give them and from
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and that's what they want. So we have to learn
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: to kind of recognize those and to know when it
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: probably isn't someone that we know or love, or someone
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: we shouldn't share information with. One example, if the bank
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: asks you for your account number, it's not your bank right.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: A call you asking for anything in a past word,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: asking for an account number, that's not legit. But again, experience.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I'm a guy who is tries to keep my credit
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: score right. Tell it everybody, what exactly is experience and
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: how does it benefit mean?
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: So yeah, experience. We're best known as one of the
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: big three credit reporting companies, so the experience trending equifacts.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: So we collect and share in accordance with the fair
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: credit reporting act. Of course, the credit information, so the
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: accounts that you have and how you're repaying those debts,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: So that's one piece of our business, tell about fraud,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: identity theft. We also have a business that helps companies
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: identify attempts to steal their information or help them recover
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: when they've had a breach. We also help protect people
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: from fraud and identity staff so we use information to
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: help business and lenders, for example, recognize when someone's trying
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: to use information that they've stolen to get your information.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: We have monitoring services that can alert you when something
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: pops up in your credit history that could indicate your
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: victim of fraud, so we help make you aware of
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: potential attempts for fraud. We also have a business that
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: is an identity verification service. For example, if you're working
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: with a Social Security administration and you go in to
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: get your social Security account information, so how much money
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: you get paid when you retire, which at long way
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: from but hope to get there's some day that we
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: have an identity service, so they're using experience information so
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: when you go in, they're matching it to information that
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: helps them ensure you are you and not someone who's
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: trying to access your account fraudulently. So we are working
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: on a number of fronts to help protect people from
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: product identity, to have to help them improve their financial lives,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to help them gain access to information that can help
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: them be more successful.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Now, it is really interesting, and I've heard the word
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: savvy and then the word financially savvy.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Now I don't know what that means.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So help me and help my audience gain a grip
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: on what financially savvy means.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when I think of being financially savvy, it's when
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: you control your money and it doesn't control you. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: you understand how many works you use financial tools to
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: your advantage. So credit is a financial tool of debts,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: the financial problem, and if you can use credit well,
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: it can give you a financial advantage. For example, if
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: you have a credit card and you get cash back,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: or you get airline miles and you make charges with
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: that card discounts on purchases and then pay the balance
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: in full, you're not taking on debt, but you are
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: getting a financial advance. And that's a financially savvy thing
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: to do. You know, when you understand investing, which I'm
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: sure you talk to your listeners about often or saving
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: and having that emergency savings account when you budget. We
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: all hate that word, but it's really a tool to
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: help you be in control of your money rather than
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: it controlling you. And that's what financially savvy. Being finished
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: with seventy is all about to me.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I'm speaking with Rod Griffin.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: He's the senior director of Public Education and Advocation for Experience.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna tell you this. When the credit score.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: You know, my daughter, she's so proud she has an
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: eight hundred plus. You know, Dad, he's kind of wore down.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I got some credit. My hangs between high sixty and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: middle seven hundreds. You know, high six, middle seven hundreds.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: So she laughs at me a lot. I said, but
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you know you're not living a life yet. Now when
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you say credit score, I'm just read it out tomorrow, audience.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: They aren't aware what credit score is. Poor is three
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: hundred to five seventy nine. Fair is five eighty to
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: six six nine. Good is six seventy to seven three nine.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Very good is seven to seven ninety nine. Excellent is
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: eight hundred to eight fifty. Now excellent. Everybody wants to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: be there, like I said, I hang in that at
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: seven hundred mid seven hundred range.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: How does this score put together?
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Rod? Yeah, and it's and it's just to complicate things further,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: there isn't just one score, so there's lots of different
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: score and so there are three credit reports and that's
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: where we have to start. Every credit score uses the
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: information from your credit report to do the calculation. If
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: you're buying a car, they have a credit score that
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: just to surprise you, I Fico has a score for
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: buying a car auto landing score that goes to nine hundred,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: not just eight fifty. So if if you want to
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: win a bet that you have the best scorer, get
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: your auto score, you might have a better than eight
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: fifty or win every time. But the thing to understand
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: is they're all looking at the same stuff. They're all
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: the information for credit report, and they're all looking at
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: number one, how you're paying your bills and you're paying
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: your bills on time or are they late, so like
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: payments are going to hurt your scores. The second thing
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: they're looking at is are your balances on your credit
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: cards really high compared to the credit limits. So if
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: you can keep your credit card balances down and you
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: pay your bills on time, you're going to have good
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: credit scores because everything else builds on those two things.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: They look at the length of your credit history, so
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: how long have you been paying bills and paying them
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: on time. They look at the mix of kinds of
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: accounts you have, said you have car loan or own
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: credit cards, so on. That sort of happens with time
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: as you use credit, and they'll develop that. They look
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: at what's happened recently, So if you applied for new accounts,
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: have you reduced your debts? Have you taken on more debt?
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: So if you're paying your bills on time, keeping your
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: balance as little, you will have good credit scores. It's
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: just behavior over time. You sell people banks like people
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: who are boring. They don't want anything surprising. Just pay
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: the bills on time, keep the balances low. Do that
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: over and over and over you'll have good credit scores.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: So there's no real secret. The important thing get your
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: credit report, know what's in it. It's free. You can
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: get it once a week from each of the three
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: bureaus at annual credit report dot com. You can get
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: a free monitoring service from Experience we'll give you a
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: free report every thirty days along with a Fiko eights ware,
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and most importantly, the factors that are driving that score.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: So when you get a credit report and score from Experience,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: we give you at least four and sometimes five risk
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: factors that explain what is having the most negative effect
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: on the score, so that you can look at your
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: credit report and pay at what you need to work on. So, yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: the thing I tell people is the number doesn't matter,
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: and they look at me like I'm crazy, because it does.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Of course it does, YEA, yeah, well yes it does
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: when you're talking to the bank and they're trying to
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: get a loan. But if we're just like we're talking
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: right now, right, you know, the number doesn't tell you much.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: But if you get your credit report and a number,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: then you have something to work on. You have context
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: around it, so you can look at the risk factors
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: that go with it, and look at your credit report
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: and say, okay, it says my balances on my credit
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: cards are too high. Well, here's the credit cards that
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: have high balances. That's what I need to focus on.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: So it empowers you to act. If all you have
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: is a number, you can't do anything. You know, if
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: I said you know, I would to bet that you're
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: about a seven to eighty. What do you do about that?
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: But if I said, you know, your balances are about
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: thirty percent of your credit credit limit on a card,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: now you know what you can do to reduce the
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: bount and to what you need to focus on. So
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: that's what we want to do, is try not to
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: focus too much on the number, focus on the credit history.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: The number gives you a place to start from.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm Jason Brod. You've already told me some information.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't know the word free reports are free and
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: you say alerts are free.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Why.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I just got to ask you, why don't I know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Rushan MacDonald know that experience you can register for free
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: to get free reports, free alerts, and free scores send
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: to your email box on a regular basis. Help me
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: educate me because I'm sure a lot of people listening
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: didn't know that either. Because I'm being inundated with all
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: this fraudulent stuff and experience having stuff that can bring
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: value to me help me become financially savvy and improve
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: my financial health.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so there we have. Of course, different levels of
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: service with our business, but we have at the base level.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: You go to our app, so you can download our
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: app on your phone or your mobile device, or you
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: can go to experience dot com and enroll in a
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: free monitoring service. And you do, you get a free
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: credit report once a month, You get a free Fyco
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: eight score and the respectors that go with it. So
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: the exchange is will offer you potential access to credit cards.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: You might qualif five four you can tell us. Here's
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the things I'm trying to do. The most powerful word
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: in credit and finance in general, I think is no
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: too little letters. So if you get offers, you don't
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: want them to say no, and that will inform you
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: with your credit score or your credit report and give
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: you the power to act on it. The annual credit
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: report dot com is the free government required site, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: you can get a free report from each of the
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: three credit bureaus once a week, so you get more
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: than one hundred a year if you want them. I
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: guess I mean quite that many, but you can get them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: They typically don't include a credit score, so you can
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: get free credit reports. If you're a victim of fraud,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: you can get free credit reports. So if you got
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: to experience dot com fraud, if you believe you're a
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: victim or or are may have been or are, will
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: give you a free report along with the ability to
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: at a free fraud alert, and then you can get
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: reports and take additional actions if you need to. So
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: there's no real reason to pay for a credit report.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: So today you can get free reports. And I always
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: tell people you should get a report. Why don't they
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Usually they tell me they're afraid to see what's in it,
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: So don't tell me. I asked people, you get your
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: credit report and raise your hand. I'm talking to the audience,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: and you see the heads drop you head, Why you
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: don't be afraid.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaun McDonald.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you this.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: My identity was told and so that's frightening because you're helpless.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: You see these credit card bills coming down, and there
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: was a several stores. They brought a computer over here,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: they brought food over here, and it was just shocking.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: But the only way I could get it back. Was
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna just tell you are in save my credit?
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: You know, with the alerts. I went to you guys,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I told you I fraud was happening. You reacted immediately,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: and then the alerts saved me and they start blocking
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: and it will call me and contact me, is hey,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: is this you?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Is this you make a setting up this account? Is
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: this you? To get it cleaned up?
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: It took about about a year, but I got back
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: back on my feet, And so that goes to my
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: next question. Establishing your credit rod and rebuilding your credit.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: There are two different things.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: How those ones establish their credit and then how do
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: they rebuild it?
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're right, two different things, and having access
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: to credit history. Having a credit report is really important
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: in the financial world. It's one of the first things
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: that people will often look at. So for example, people
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: don't know that when you apply for an apartment lease,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: they look at a credit report. If you're applying for
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: utility service, they'll look at a credit report. When you
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: get a self, they're going to look at your credit report.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: So we know about credit cards, are getting a home
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: on that sort of thing, but it's other parts of
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: their life too. So establishing credits very important. Several ways
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: you can do that. One you can have a family member,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: friend and you as an authorized user to an account
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: and then that account would be reported as part of
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: your credit report. You could apply maybe get qualified for
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: a small loan and have that reported, but that often
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: is difficult to do. So experience also is created something
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: we call Experience Go. When you enroll in our app,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: if you do not have a credit report with us,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: we'll ask you some questions and we'll actually create a
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: credit report for you. So you name your address, self
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: scary numbers, some other details. I'll ask you for a
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: live selfie, so if you wink or smile so we
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: know it's you, we'll create a credit report and all
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: that will have in it is your identifying information. From there,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: we have something we call Experience Boost. Experience Boost actually
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: lets you add your cell phone payments of information, not
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: negative only positive information, but your positive cell phone payments,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: positive utility payments, positive streaming services things like Netflix, Zulu,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: your rent potentially, so we work with a number of
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: property management companies, your insurance payments, and we can capture
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: up to two years in information. Add that to your
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: credit report. So it's possible that if you don't have
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: a credit report at all, with experience, to go from
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: no credit history to having a credit report plus a
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: number of accounts credit scores, not having a report to
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: have a score to scores in the six hundred and
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: thirty range we've seen in some instances just in a
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: matter of minutes. So get you started, not a great score,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: it's going to get you going. And so that's critical
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: is just having that credit report, because that's.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Going to saying but consistent payments. If you have a
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: debit call, that debit.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Call, you have your gas bill or your rent or
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: your Netflix account tied to that debit call, that shows
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: assistant payments. That's what you're talking about, and that in
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: turn can be inputed into your experiment account.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: It starts building a base.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Right, and so with Experience Boosts, we connect to you
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: give us your permission, so it's permission based and tell
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: us I want to add these accounts and this is
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: the savings account or checking account, so academic card, checking
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: account or credit card you pay it with, and we're
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: able to then capture those payments and for each of
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: them you tell us you want to add, will add
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: an account to your credit report, so, and then we'll
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: immediately show you your score result too. So we give
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: you another free report and a score when you start
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: the process, and then we give you a importance score
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: when you finish in rolling. And you can see if
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: there's a difference if you are beginning to build credit
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: or you're working to rehabil it. But I think it's
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: rehabilitate your credit or rebuild it for most people, that's
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: when they see the most impacts. If you have thin
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: credit file, fewer than five accounts, or you've add scores
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: of less than six hundred eighty or so on a
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: fi COO eight score, that's who will typically see the
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: most benefit because there's just not much history there to
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: calculate score with. And so, and it's free. Again, it's free,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: and it's permission based. If you don't want to continue,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: you can tell us to stop. We'll remove the accounts.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: So again we're trying to give people control of that
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: information and to make sure that they have a full
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: picture because those companies might report the negative information if
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: you don't make those payments, but they don't typically report
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: the positive information.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Now, as you're building your account, are rebuilding your account.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: What are there any additional steps that I've missed in
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: here in your conversation.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so several things. So experience boosts might help in
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that regard as well. You know, if you've had some
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: issues and life happens. We all know and have had
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: those experiences and some things, and so you take steps
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: to start to recover, get your report know it's there.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Experience boosts might help in those instances because you're adding
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: positive history. And then it's about you know, having a
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: small account, making the payments on time every single time,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: and that's critical. Work with experience to help you identify
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: what needs to be take care of. If you've been
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: a victim of fraud, I was too. I actually had
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: my tax forms were stolen and so there was a
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: tax file of my name.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: It's really you like me, you know, that's like when
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: it happens raw, it's like you just feel so helpless
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: and then you start trying to figure out how it happens.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: And I think another thing.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: That people need to do is, like I use my
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: credit card a lot, and you really should audit your
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: monthly billy. Sometimes they'll drop little low payments monthly like
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: twenty five dollars or fifteen dollars and they'll just build
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: up over time and you don't know.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I've caught that on.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: My credit card statement because I run a business and
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: so because people will sell your credit card information off
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: and people will start charging monthly low monthly charges that
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: you might not recognize, but it's so low that you
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: don't have time to go back and worry about trying
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: to identify because give her any charge off of a
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: credit card is not credit card bill is not easy. Now,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: rock you know, I'm trying to maintain a financial savvy behavior.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: My health, I'm going to use the word health. You know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: we're in the fourth quarter twenty twenty four, going into
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Should we prepare or can we prepare
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the prior year before you go into the new year
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: being financially healthy?
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? And you know it's about setting goals. And I
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: always tell people, you know, talking about money can be hard,
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: and so I use my personal life. My wife and
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: I talk about money all the time, but we're usually
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: not talking about money when you think about it later.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: So a money conversation doesn't have to be you know,
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: a confrontational sort of thing for us It could be
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: do we want to go out to dinner tonight or
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: do we want to wait until the weekend because we
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: want to do something later? So where are we going
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: to spend that money? It's the real question. But it's
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: a goal setting. Do we want to have a vacation
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: in next year? So we start talking about personal goals
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: and goals we have together rather than the money itself.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And so I tell people start from there because it
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: makes start from a goal perspective. What do you want
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: to do in life? And that could be this month,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: it could be next year, it could be in five years,
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: and set those goals and then start looking at what
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: is the money equation? How do I make sure I
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: have the financial resources to achieve those goals? And it
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: helps set up more positive approach instead of letting money
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: become a problem and then having to figure out how
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: to recover from a problem. Set a goal and start
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: looking forward and head check your credit report, make sure
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: that you're setting aside savings. Build a budget, call us
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: spending plan if you like. I have a college professor
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: friend who does that. So it doesn't like budget. Okay,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: I'm from Texas, some kind of stubborn it's a budget.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna call it.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: No state income taxes Texas. Your good brother over there
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: in Georgia, they're killing me there. They're killing me, Rob.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you this, Rob, you know, and just
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: listening to you, and I hope everybody's listening to just
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: when you're doing.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: If you if you're buying groceries and they got.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: A grocery account, a loyalty plan, get it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I do that. I get discounts on my gas.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: If I buy groceries on a Friday, I get triple
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: points which go to my gas. I have a credit
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: card where if I buy charges on my credit card,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: it gets me faster on my Frequent Flyer plan. And
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: then on my freaking fly plan, I got membership miles.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: That's what you was talking about, being savvy when it
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: comes to how you dealing with your finances and things
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: like that. And I think the big takeaway and I
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: are and hearing you talk about experience as this. Just
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: look at what's out there, you know, and make sure
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: you're aware of the advantages, because you there are some
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: things that can be saved with You're in car insurance.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, and so exactly right, you're living my life
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: because I just bought gas yesterday. I say ninety cents
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: a gallop because a grocery card, right, So you know,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: so the same thing. And when it comes to car insurance,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: same issue. You know it's insurance is expensive. We've seen
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: what inflation has done over the last couple of years.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: Insurance rates are up more than twenty percent over the
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: last year. And Experience actually has introduced another we're talking
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: about what experience does. We've introduced an Experience Insurance auto
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: insurance marketplace, and we help you shop for better insurance.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: We work with forty of the largest insurance providers in
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: the country and we help find the best rates based
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: on where you live, what you need, kind of insurance levels,
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: you know, meeting the minimum requirements, and try to help
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: you shop apples apples. What we found is for people
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: that are working with their marketplace, they save on average
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: about eight hundred dollars a year, so not just a
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: small amount of money. And the other thing that we'll
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: do is help shop for you because shopping for insurance
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: can be difficult. You want to make sure you're getting
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: the same offers for the same coverages. I want to
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: make sure you're meeting your state minimum requirements for auto insurance,
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: for example, and it can be difficult and confusing. So
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: we will monitor for you. If you change insurance providers
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: with us, we'll monitor for you. If we find a
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: better rate, we'll tell you and you can decide whether
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: you want to then shop for change providers and get
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: you an even better rate as they come along, so
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: you don't have to continually shop yourself.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Wow. He's a senior director Public Education Advocacs of Experience.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you, I want to thank you
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: for coming on money making conversations. My big takeaway is
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: now one more audiz because some people I don't want
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: to do coopon.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to shop like that. I shop with coupons.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I we shopped so much that I get free food
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: right there, said to be a coupon saying hey, here's
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: some free this, here's some free this, here's some free this.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Because they want my business and so and some things
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: you know will be six dollars eight dollars nine dollars
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: savings on that particular sale if I didn't come in there.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: And I think the big walk away is just be
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: financially savvy. Just let's see what's out there. Because, like
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: you said, when you got that ninety cents off off
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: your gas bill and filling up, that when I get
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: three cents off or I get ten cents off, I
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: get forty cents off per gallon. Now per gallon, that
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: goes a long way. Thank you for coming on money
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: making conversation, masterclof Brob.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: But I hope you enjoyed it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: I did very much. Thank you for having me, and
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: if I can ever join again, let me know. I'm
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: happy to clearly happy to talk. I love it. Well.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: You know I'm gonna have you back in the first
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: of the year because you know it's always patterns. You know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: people right now they're shopping, They're gonna go out there
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: and by gifts they can't afford buy food for these
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: big Thanksgiving spreads.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: When we come back in January February with me.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking about there's charges that you that
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: you raised and now is impacting your credit score. How
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: do we fix it? So Rob, we have a relationship.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: My brother and I appreciate you taking the time to
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: come in the fall before it starts. So when we
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: talk to them in the spring after.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: They've done their little run awesome. Appreciate you, brother, talk
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to you soon.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Man than you.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: If you want to listen to any episode I want
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: your gifts. Keep winning.