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