It's time for the b a qa a.
The ba qa which said b q a man good, the ba qa which a fine let b a qa a.
So what is baqa? For the people who've never been here before?
Where you been? Welcome friends? The Baqa is a very special bonus episode of ba that comes out on Fridays, and we answer your questions because we have a bajillion of them from y'all. You can ask us anything career, finance related, business related. Just remember that we are not your financial advisors, your investment advisors, anyone that you pay to actually give you advice, which means we're just making
up things based on our own intelligence. So I say, get your salt shakers out and take it with a huge grain of salt. Whatever we say. But there's no getting around it. We are some smart brown women. Okay, So we love the segment. If y'all want to and that's your questions, you can go to Brandonambission podcast dot com and ask us anything, or you can slide into our dms on ig. We are at brand Ambission Podcast and send us a question there.
Do you want the first question?
I didn't take a breath.
You read it.
There's a lot of talking here.
This is from Ashley from ig Hey, Mandy, I was one of your first Mandy money makers. Woo woo. We love a stand of Mandy. Thank you so much for all that you've done and taught me. My question today is how can I protect myself from identity theft? This morning I woke up to new emails about small business social security account update and a purchase of two new iPhones. Please help, Ashley, do you have to pay for credit security?
Ooh wow, something's going on there, Like they're saying, yeah, your social security account has been updated, purchase of two new iPhones. The first thing I do whenever I get those emails is check the email address that it came from, because I just, for example, I just started to advertise on Facebook a week ago and I got the most legitimate looking email about my AD's account being in violation of their rules, which is like one of the It can happen all the time with your when you're doing ads.
It's really easy to like upset the Facebook gods. And you don't want to do that because then you waste money in time anyway, And I was almost like, I need to click this link and figure out what I've done, but it just something about it, like the formatting. And so I checked the email address and it was like
from an Outlook account, you know. So I think the first thing for to secure yourself is to be aware of what phishing attempts look like, which seems so old school, but they still happen, you know, So check that email address. You can also hover over any hyperlinks and see where it's actually trying to direct you to. And if it's not to, you know, a legitimate website, then I would just say, excuse me, immediately kick it to spam or
to junk. That's how I feel about email. But now it's come into your text do you get do you get fishing? Text now?
Girl?
Yes?
Talking about this the irs, I'm like, girls, so you texted.
Now, I'm like, with your lack of funding right now?
So no, first and foremost that like whatever I get to Mandy's point, you know, I checked the email to say, like, who's the email at just coming from? And then typically I'll call the company directly if that's available to me to call the company directly. But one thing I had to do so when my late husband was still here. His I don't know why but they used to steal
that man's, that poor man's identity all the time. Like literally one time they bought a car and we only knew because they they were like based in I don't know, like upstate New York someplace far where they were getting tickets from easy Paths and so they were.
Going on tour with Janelle's name, Jerelle's name, and then got a loan or.
Something something, and then they were get like, you know, they had an easy Pass account they put in his name and was not paying the ticket, so we were getting easy Pass tickets.
That's how we found out. It was just a mess.
I would say at least three times when I was with him and he said it happened before, Like I'm like, so I'm assuming that his probably information was on some crazy you know, like what it's like the dark web, you know, and so they're probably just swapping it out.
Plus two, Jerell's an identical twin. His twins name is Terrell, so you have Jerrell Smith Terrell Smith, both born on the same day, and so oftentimes they would see each other's things on each other's credit reports, because that happens too with juniors. Oftentimes that will happen, especially if you're in the same house. Your dad is a senior, you're a junior, but you're both named Robert Smith and you live at the same place. So sometimes you'll see your
stuff on each other's credit report. But it happens with twins who have similar names too.
Oh really, so what would they do then? Would they have to like dispute it or yeah?
Girl?
They was like whatever.
I was like, this is why your credits are like whatever.
So when I came along, I said, bab we got do something about this because this is crazy. So we actually, this is not sponsored.
Or anything like that.
They haven't give me any money like as budgety Store or Brownhibition. We actually signed up for LifeLock.
And it stopped it instantly.
Tell me about LifeLock or these Yeah, because I haven't I have never invested in something like that.
I can't remember how much LifeLock costs because now I just like, haven't automated. I think at the time it was like maybe like ten bucks a month. Maybe it's a little bit more now maybe twenty bucks or something.
Whatever it is.
So we got LifeLock, signed up for it, and what I like about LifeLock is even for me. I remember once I went to go open up a bank account at like my regular bank or whatever, and the bank was like, we're not able to and I'm like why, And then I got a text from LifeLock saying someone was trying to open up a bank account. If that's you, click yes, If that's you, click no, and I was like, oh,
that's right, So I had to approve. So I would get a text or email and typically it's a text, email and phone call to say any new card, any new bank account, any new debt that I'm trying to get into. LifeLock would me up and say is this you, which you know like sometimes if you forget like me, which I always forget, and I'm like, why can't you open it?
I'm like, oh, that's right. So that's one thing like LifeLock.
But also too you can go directly to like Experience Equofax TransUnion and you can actually freeze. I did this with Jirell after he passed away. My financial advisor Angelie said right away, Tiffany, because when people know that someone passed away, they know you're in grief, and they will sometimes attack that person's you know, financial credit and background and just start using it up. So I went into
each of those specific accounts and froze his credit. And you can freeze and unfreeze, but I froze it obviously indefinitely, so no one can open up anything in his name. And I just am not paying attention because it's not me, and so that's.
Something so sparker too. I did that now I'm remembering because I was telling Tiffan, like, I think I'm pretty delinquent with my identity, but I did do the credit freeze. This was I mean think for Equifax data breach back in twenty sixteen really spooked me. But I mean there's so many. It's just so many data breaches they can't even keep It's not even that big of a news anymore because it just happens all the time. But yeah,
credit freeze is. And I remember then I started shopping for a mortgage, and I was annoyed by it because I'm like, damn it, I got to unfreeze and all that. So now that I'm not shopping for a mortgage, I did.
You can thaw it, and then it's just annoying because you have to like thaw it at the bureaus where your loan, your lender is gonna request to chut it, you know, but I think it's totally worth it because why wouldn't you want to have that extra layer of protection, you know, because like even opening a cell phone, you can't do that if you have a credit freeze nothing.
So a credit freeze to me is if you know you're not getting anything for a while and something like this has happened, you can freeze just to stop any activity. Let's just say your stuff is in a dark web, I'm freezing it for the next two months, no one is gonna and then after that, if you don't want the issue, like Mandy said, the thaw and freeze, saw and freeze, you can get like a LifeLock or some similar type of company where before anything happens, you know, you get the text or the call.
You just have to prove. And so those two things.
Honestly, since then, you know, Jirell's identity stopped being stolen, and I never had my identity stolen. But I signed up because I was like, well, we're here now, because you could do like a family plan, and so my identity has never been stolen, which is you know there have.
Been things on there.
They're like, I don't recognize this, and I realized, like, oh, the company sometimes has a different working name than a doing business name.
And I'm like, ah, that was me.
Oh god, I've been there. I'm like, I would never spend that much. Meanwhile, it's like, yeah, the little those four am Instagram scrolls they always get me with their kids' shoes ads. Oh man, what else do I was, Oh, there's something else? So oh, A friend of a friend recently lost eight thousand dollars right before Christmas, right before the holiday season, through like it was a phone called tech scam. And so it started with text messages from
her bank. Was City Bank texting her and it looked really legit, and then they escalated to calling her and we're so convincing that she ended up giving her account information over the phone, and then they drained her not hurt, and it was her checking account, which is really painful, you know, because with your checking account it's sometimes harder to get those funds back. And it was a zell or. Sorry, she didn't give them account information, she zelled them. She
zeld them. And if you guys know anything about Zell, one of the pieces of controversy is that you know, you go through these steps when you send a transfer where they're like, be sure you know this person, because if you don't, we are not covering you. Because if it's you who hits the submit button and you know what you're doing, like, we are not libable libable, we're not liable for funds that you lose. So she was I think she's still fighting to maybe get that eight
grand back. But she's like a single mom, and you know, it's a lot of money to lose. So if they're asking you for zell, you deserve to be asking for every ounce of proof, and banks probably will not be doing that. I would just say that first and foremost. And then she ended up I think something struck her
as odd. And then she called City herself, and they were like, oh no, oh no. So if they're if they're saying that they're from City, don't bother about inconveniencing them, Like, don't worry about that, you know, hang up, say cool, you can call me back before they want this eight grand and call your own number directly.
That's the key.
One of the women that we know, I think her name is Shannon she lost her house down payment because they have the scam where you know, when you make the transfer, like the wire transfer when you're purchasing at home, and so what they'll do is they'll you're they'll send you a fake bank like, hey, I know, we said this is the wire number. This is actually the updated wire number. She did not know because it looked official.
Because what they do is they like mimic what your bank sends, and she sent it, and wires are notorious that once it's gone, is gone. They had me social because you know, I bought my house cash five hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
That can't go to the wrong person. So what I did was I'm mosy my way on down to the.
Bank and said look me in there, and that's when we did the wire on the phone.
Like so the key with that is always, always always.
I didn't call the number that was on the paper and we're making the transfer if I think I had the money and like Ally or something like that, and I was transferred to like their bank was like Wells farg or whatever that like I call, I go to the Ally website and called that number there.
I never the key with anybody.
Sometimes somebody is telling you something financial, even if it seems up to I don't, like, I want to hang up, and I'm just gonna call back because I'd rather call back the official number so I know for sure that like, oh, this is who I'm speaking to, versus like who is this? So that was key I was, but I was still nervous because you know, you just you just feel like
you never know, you never know. So thankfully, you know, like it all worked out, because that would have been like you would have seen a weeping willow of a tiffany, like I love that.
And when it's wired and it's gone, you know, Canaries or you know, some other country and you can't get that back. Man, what else? Two factor authentication is huge, or any accounts that you have, because I feel like you break into my Gmail, you have my life, you know everything about me. So two factor authentication, these these basic practices. But I'm glad at least that your like spidey sense has perked up enough to ask, because that is wild and credit monitoring you can I think she said,
what did she ask? Is credit thought she has something about a credit card. Maybe that's the next question. Anyway,
with your credit card. It's smarter to just, you know, in general, buy big things with your credit card or or use your credit card for most purchases if you know you can do that responsibly because you do have Most credit cards offer zero dollar fraud liability, so if there is fraud and it's on your credit card, then they will cover it, you know, no questions ask, Whereas with your debit card, some of them have limits on how much they'll cover or limits on you have to
catch it and poured it within a certain time frame like thirty to sixty days, and if you don't, then there's less of a chance that they'll be able to recover the funds for you. So that's why there's like a bit of a case for using credit versus debit for any big, you know, purchases and things like that. But yeah, stay stay vigilant, y'all, stay woke. Two factor authenticate, look up the email addresses, call them directly. That's our
last that's a good summary, summarized summarration. I can't talk summation, recap of our of our of our advice. We're really really smart, trust us. Okay, cool, let's take a break. It's like I'm gonna get the next one.
Mannis stop, get down, we take a break, Russa, pay some bills and be right back in black.
And we're back.
Man.
You got the next question? Yes?
Sorry, This comes from listener Jelisa Jalsa says, Hey, Tiffany, Amandra. I hope it's okay to call you Mandra. Yes, of course, I love you both so much. My name is Jalisa, like Jalisa from a different Yes.
Girl.
I first let me say I love Love Love the documentary. I'm sure she's talking about Tiffany's documentary. Was it called again?
I'm get Smart form plenty, get.
Smart with Money. And Arianna, who was Tiffany's mentee, is me I need some advice from my financial girlfriends. Sorry, but it's going to be a long one, Julisa, We've seen longer, but it's okay. I'm a little over ten k in debt. It's a mix of credit and a credit card, IRS and a personal loan. Before researching, I opened a BT a BT credit card and was approved for eighty five hundred dollars zero percent interest for eighteen
months with a three percent balance transfer fee. I wasn't aware that you cannot transfer debt from one account to another within the same bank.
Yes. Important.
I work a part time job that gives me an extra four to sixty seven a month, and my full time job gives me an extra two hundred dollars a month after bills have been paid. My question is should I put everything except the one credit card on the beat?
Oh?
I know what BT is? Balance transfer? I'm like, what bank is BT? I'm caught up. Now Should I put everything except one credit card onto the balance transfer credit card and work on paying them both down? Or go back to the basics and use the debt snowball method? Thank you so much for all you do. Okay, So she has ten k in debt. It's a mix of credit card IRS, personal loan. She has gotten approved for up to eighty five hundred dollars on the zero percent
balance transfer card. Okay, she's not going to be able to transfer all of that because some of it comes from the same bank. This is very important. Tell them about it, Tiff. The whole balance transfer thing.
So, balance transfers are when you have, like ideal you have one card that the interest rate you're paying interest on it, and the ideal situation is that you get another card that I can cover what you are on the first card, but they give you no interest payments for ideally more than a year, So her credit score must be pretty decent. They gave her eighteen months because that's like one of the highest that you can get.
And I think that's what I had gotten when I made my balance transfer, which is great, which means let's just pretend like she was able, like you know, the math is easy. Where she owed ten thousand on this one card and a different bank, and she has a balanced transfer card of eighty five hundred. She makes the
transfer over to the eighty five hundred. Some of it will still stay on the old car, you know, the fifteen hundred or whatever left, but now she can every sense that she gives to the new card actually goes to the money owed. So that's the benefit. That's how I was able to get that. You know, remember my my friend who's in jail now, who you know? I had, the jake, the thief who oh he's a child. Well he was in jail temporarily. I don't know IF's still
in jail, let's hope. So he left me thirty five thousand dollars in credit card debt and how I was able to pay it off is I got a couple of balanced transfer cards and transfer the thirty five thousand to those cards so I can focus on just paying the principle, not the principle and the fees and the interest, you know, And it took me about three years to do so. So one, you're you know, you're in pretty decent shape to start.
But what the thing is like you have to be careful because like her, yes, you may not know you can't transfer money from this, like you can't get a Chase balance transfer card and transfer money from another Chase card. Banks use this as a tool to get new business. They don't want your old business, Like are your old news girl? We got you for twenty three point nine to nine apl already, We're not going to give you zero percent. No, but Wells Fargo, but Bank of America,
these other banks they will offer. So you have to be careful to think ahead. Okay, you want to apply for BT at a totally different issue or a totally different bank.
Sorry to interrupt, No, no, so I just so if it was me, because it was me, I would transfer. Well. One, be careful with balance tress for cards too, because sometimes at the end of the eighteen months you have not paid it off, it not only jumps to whatever the new interest rate is, but all the interests might come due from the very beginning. So be careful, careful, careful, Ja Lisa, Like, what are the terms? Because mine was
one of those. So I said, Tippany, I don't care what you do, Sis, you got to get this money off this card in the eighteen months that they've given you, or you're not going to owe. You're not going to owe the twenty percent on like the balance that's left over. You're going to owe the twenty percent on the original balance you transferred over, which is sempre.
So be careful of that too.
But I would honestly transfer over all that I could and then pay my zero percent interest. I would make that card the priority. I would still do the snowball method, but I would make that, you know that the priority to pay down and pay off as quickly as possible, since all your money is going directly to what you owe. But I would ask myself, only transfer over what I know I could pay off in eighteen months, you know, like, so like.
Just to the math because I was one.
I was, go ahead, girl, do that math mind if I do?
Illow me so eighty five hundred over eighteen months, that's four seventy two a month. So you have almost exactly what you need from your part time job to make that a priority and pay it down. But the key is if you let one month go by, then it's going to get more expensive and more expensive. And you
and I have been there. I got a balance transfer credit card for more than that, and I was like, whoo who I didn't think I didn't use the whole balance, But then it feels like a place you can put things because it's zero percent, and then before you know it, you just rack up more and more. So it's and even for me, I know better. You know it got
a little got a little hairy. So you have to be super disciplined, like immediately set up that auto payment so that you're not winding up eighteen months from now, because it'll sneak up on you, like Tiffany said, with a balance, because imagine if you even had like one dollar and then they're like, yeah, morel we'll take that twenty something percent of eighty five hundred and add it on and we'll keep you forever.
Yes, Well, what you could do is this is not the idea.
You could do another balance transfer like a month before for that like that, that would be the worst case scenario. If you still say, like a thousand hours that you just don't have it, you could say, hold up, I'm going to do another balanced transfer knowing that I'm not actually going to have it to get yourself out of that. But you don't want to be jumping, like you know,
from balance transfer card to balance transfer card. But that is definitely like for those of you who are listening who are like, uh haha, I'm in that position where you know, like I thought I was going to be a paid off, I'm not. Then, you know, look for your This is why keeping your credit score decent is so critical because that's going to dictate how good of terms you're going to get with your balanced transfer card.
Yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah, anything else? I mean she said to say she has a mix of credit between her credit card IRS and a personal loan. I would feel like the personal loan probably isn't that high of an interest, so definitely, like TIF said back, you know, use it for your credit card debt first. And foremost and kind of treat it like if you have extra room after you add the credit card debt, then add you know, either the IRS debt or the personal loan.
Can you wait, you can't transfer IRS debt? How does that work?
Charge? I think you would charge it. You would have to call your the credit card company like is it a roll over or do you just charge it?
You see what I mean?
So yeah, because with with balance transfers, I remember you have to tell them how much from your bank, your how much from your credit card you're transferring, what the bank name is, and your account, and then they'll go and grab it. I don't even think that I RS would qualify unless you just use Yeah, unless you just pay what with your credit card? And then that's another three percent processing fee. Probably the IRS probably charge charges
of processing fee. Yeah, not to really be careful about that.
So here's the thing, Like I think the biggest thing that you take away from this is that even when you're like planning on doing good things, there's map it out on paper, like okay, balance transfer, you know what happens if I don't pay it after eighteen months?
Like I used to literally have a notebook for like these kind of choices, can I do this? Let me call the company see if I can do that.
So that way before I make the move of like doing something that's going to put a little ding on my credit card, I can decide this actually makes sense. So certainly, j Lisa, we're proud of you for taking steps.
But just know, moving forward, as you have these questions, what's so great is that you can ask the balance strengthsfer card people whomever you know, like, here are my questions I can decide doesn't even make sense to make to make this decision, you know, just moving forward, but these are questions you can still ask to make the best choice of what money should go on their card and.
Have absolutely But thank you so so much to Lisa. I kind of want to call you KAlSi, but Julisa will do no, heir.
I remember a Different World that used to be my girlj Lisa. Remember she used to date Sindbad that was her boyfriend on I.
Watch a Different World like that, which one waster Lisa Lisa was?
She wasn't I'm trying to think was she in the later episodes? I feel like I think so anyway, she was kind of like the ra. I don't know if you remember she had like shortthir okay, she was a phone one to go back and rewatch as an adult because I love watching Living Single as an adult.
It was so fun and you to go back. Okay, maybe when I'm up all night with a toddler with a newborn and a dollars. All right, Lisa and everyone else, thank you so much for your questions this week. Again, hit us up. We are brodambisspodcast dot com. You can ask us anything or slide into our dms at Brand Ambition Podcast on ig and ask us any questions that you have burning and we will hopefully get to them on the show.
Yes, until next week, Babe, bye.
Hey, ba Fam. We could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambition Podcast is produced by Imani Crosby and Dennis stan Plinsky is our in house tech guru. I am your co host Mandy Woodrif Santos, and we will see y'all next week. Ba Fam.