Ruth Phillips, Lester Watt & Shelia Middleton

We're "Asking the Experts" about the importance of credit with Ruth Phillips and Shelia Middleton of Cadance Bank and Lester Watt of Operation Hope on The Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Memphis probably presents the Ben Johnson Show.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say, Beth, I've done me first. Let me
you say.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
She's done Memphis.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Don't get.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No matter the problem she can have.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
So all the phone and the Norman your mine.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
She Jim be ready in the hair by chilling you
to just keep the fund when a wrangle ap pecking
out them Johnson's show, because they've got out. You can
hear every day you d I ain't my bell got

(01:03):
me a missed up in. Good morning, Good morning, good morning,

(01:50):
and welcome in to w d i A The BEB
Johnson Show. It is indeed a pleasure to have you
with us once again on this Tuesday, July thirtieth, twenty
twenty four. Enjoy this fabulous day to day. Get ready
to put your ears on this day as we talk

(02:14):
to our sister friend Ruth Phillips of Cadence Bank will
be here to give us all the information of home
ownership and questions you may ask her. When it's your
turn to talk. You know you can. All you need
to do is dial these numbers nine zero one five

(02:34):
three five nine three four two nine zero one five
three five nine three four two eight hundred five zero
three nine three four two eight hundred five zero three
nine three four two or eight three three five three

(02:56):
five nine three four two will get you in to us.
And if this day, this day, Tuesday, July thirtieth, twenty

(03:17):
twenty four, is your birthday. Happy birthday to each and
every one of y'all out there who may be celebrating
a birthday on this day, we say God, y'all go
out and celebrate your life. Y'all better get better. When

(03:37):
we come back, we'll talk to our girl with pillows
of Cadence Man. Next with me Bev Johnson on the
Bev Johnson Show on w DIA. Good morning, and welcome

(04:59):
back to double A. I'm jamming it up in here
my jazz lovers, Little Bob James and David Sanborne deep
in the woods. Before that, Marcus Miller and Detroit and
Warren Hill. Do you feel what I'm feeling? Good morning,
and welcome into WDIA the Bev Johnson Show. It is

(05:20):
indeed a pleasure to have you with us once again
on this Tuesday. It's a hot Tuesday, y'all in Memphis, Tennessee.
It's July thirtieth, twenty twenty four, y'all, be careful out there,
stay in, stay cool, drink water, check on folks, check on,
check on your pits. Be careful out there. It is
going to be hot. We want you to be around well.

(05:43):
Once again, as we ask the expert, she is back
in the house from Cadence Bank. It's Ruth Phillips, the
assistant vice president, Community Development Lending Division manager and has
always wanted to say, welcome back. Ruth Phillips.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
How are you, sister the morning sister, I am doing
fantastic on this.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
July, this hot hot July Tuesday. Yeah, July thirties.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Can you believe one more day in July? And August,
I know August, and then the kids going back to school.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
I know, summer has ended really really quick. And so
when I heard that the kids in Mississippi they start Thursday, August.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
First, our kids start next week fifth, well August, that
is Monday. Yeah, so they start Yeah, Shelby count Memphis,
Shelby County School starts August fifth. Oh wow, yeah, okay,
it's not like because we were talking who was that?
Somebody was in here, one of my guests, and we
were talking like when we grew up, we didn't go

(06:46):
back to school until after Labor Day, so we had
June July August. Not anymore. They don't have that long.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
North.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
So in the South it was yeah, kids didn't go back, Ruth,
they didn't go back to school till after Labor Day.
You know, you know what Labor Day came, it was
time to go to school. They had three months out
June July, August.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Okay, now you know, I'm from Arkansas.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
We got out in May usually the first usually like
the first or the second week in August, and we
I mean in May when school was dismissed, and we
always went back the second or third week in August
and sometimes the last.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I promise you, My birthday is August the thirty first.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
And for the first six years of my school I
missed school on my birthday because I would be sick.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Every year. I would be sick.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
For six straight years. I did not get to start
school the first day of school. So y'all went back
early in Arkansas, early early August August. But I don't
ever remember going back. And now I could be wrong,
you know, I could be wrong, because back in the day,
I mean that was you had three months out. That
was cross country three, it's three months out.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, my birthdays August twenty first, and I never witnessed.
I was not in school during my.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Birth I can't remember. See listen, she's getting old, you
not me, my sister. I'm back.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
The truck up ran over me.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
You're right, though, I'm getting old people cracking pop on
and but that's okay.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
When I get out of bed in the morning, that's okay.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
But what I say is we're still here. And yeah,
but yeah, really, you had three whole summer months, oh wow, June, July, August,
and then when Labor Day was so oh lord, here
you go, we get ready to go back to school.
But but what happens now is that during the year
they get so many days out. Absolutely, so they get

(08:48):
a lot of days out now because they get us
fall break, a spring break, they get all these breaks.
Oh yeah, some of them get a winter break. Well,
because you're going to get they get fall We didn't
get a fall break. I did get a winter break,
and I did get a spray break, but never a
fall break. And then Thanksgiving was only the day before
Thanksgiving and the day after.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
It was not the week of things. And now these
kids get the whole week of Thanksgiving out. But some
kids go year round, and I kind of like the
year around.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, break like, well the times have changed, and I thought, oh, yes,
they need to get back to school.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
They need something to do for the children. So and
it's really good.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
Like I looked into well, of course you don't have
any little kids anymore, but I look like, I try
to get my grandson to come here for the summer,
but there's only programs through the sixth grade. Yeah, and
so after the sixth grade, there wasn't any programs for
me to select for him to like attend and yeah,
academy schools and stuff like it was before.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
So yeah, they need to go back to school.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah yeah, So so your grandparents and parents get ready
school time.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Next week.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
It's school time. I mean that supply list any day now.
It's make donations too. I've been seeing boxes. I saw
one in your lobby here for school donations to drop off.
And if you don't see one out and you pass
the school, take the school some donations.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, they could use it. And usually they're going to
have some drives and where people can pick up the
you know, we know some parents can't afford to get
a lot of school. There will be places where you
can pick up school supplies.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
I saw a couple of backpack drives this past on
social media this past weekend. I saw and they had
like backpacks and other supplies that they need inside the backpack,
some nice packpack for the kids.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
So I saw that.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
That was nice.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
That's really nice. I love my community.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I do too, I do too well. Welcome back. Today.
We want to talk about the importance of credit.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Absolutely. I think it's one of my favorite subjects.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yes, because it is usually I always say it's the
elephant in the room, the one thing that people wanted to,
you know, worried about or concern But before I jump,
I've been to talking about it.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Of course I did. I have to have my friends.
I can never do this business alone.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
So today I have brought my coworker, my partner in crime,
Miss Sheila Middleton. She lives with Kiten Spank. She's a
community development loan originator and she has about thirty years
of experience and so she's quite skilled in mortgage financing.
And so if you're skilled in mortgage financing, you're usually

(11:28):
skilled in credit. And so she does a great job
at both and I also bought my good friend and.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Partner. His name is Lester Watt. He is with Operation Hope.
He is their coach. He's a coach, a credit counseling.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Coach, actual title financial well being coach, also licensed hood
counselor okay.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
A financial well being coach, and a HUD approved counselor.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
So you get it all with Lester.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
Yes, and so I've brought both of my friends today
so we could share the importance of credit to our community.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Sounds good. Sounds good. So let's begin. So when we
talk about credit, the importance of having good credit or
I don't know, I guess importance of just having credit.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Yeah, let's just say the importance of having credit its period,
just period, credit, just credit.

Speaker 6 (12:24):
It is.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
It is so important. If you think about how credit
just pretty much runs everything. Your credit report is like
a second resume. There are certain companies that will not
hire you if your credit's messed up. So it's really
really important to have a good credit score. Think about it.
Back in the day we're just talking about schools. Think

(12:45):
about it back in the day when you'd get car
insurance and the only thing they do is they check
to see if you had any tickets, so if you
had any accidents right now, they check your credit right
so you're a risk that you may not pay your premium,
which doesn't make any sense, but this is what they do.
They check your credit and if you've got a low
credit score, they're gonna charge you a higher premium. So everything,

(13:06):
just about everything you do in life is credit based.
You go to get that mortgage loan from Ruth or
from Siva, they're gonna look at your credit and it's
going to depend upon what kind of rates you're gonna get.
So those credit scores range from three hundred to a fifty.
When you come to see me, I want to get
you into the seven hundreds.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Well why why lesser? And not to cut you off
because I see sometimes when when I check in, is
your cycles score and they'll have it up to nine hundred.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
There are some auto scoring systems that are actually out
there that will go up to nine hundred. But for
the Fair Eyes of Corporation, or FIGHTCO as it's known,
it's three hundred to eight fifty. Okay, can be a mortage,
and it really depends upon what fight version of Fightco
you have I know, I know Cadence. On one of

(13:55):
their models they use for the mortgage, they use FCO
scoring system for we use is eight. If there's several
of the latest one out there's FIO tense. That really
depends upon what version of FICO you actually have and
what that score actually is. Okay, we can go to
nine hundred for auto version that's.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Out there, and I didn't know that.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
So it's important to have credit bev but I don't
I don't try to push people to necessarily get themselves
in credit debt. But credit can be non traditional credit
that does not actually report to the credit bureaus that
those forms of credit will not provide you a credit score.

(14:43):
But however, if you're trying to get a mortgage, you
can use non traditional credit to build a credit base.
Because we look at credit as your ability to repay,
in your willingness to repay, that score is gonna drive
pretty much what you're willingness you've been willing to pay
your bills on time and not overuse or missuse of

(15:05):
credit that's available to you by running your credit cards
and things over or overloading your monthly debt by getting
a bunch of stuff in your name on credit. Those
type of things is how the score will be kind
of driven. Non traditional credit usually is your rent.

Speaker 6 (15:22):
Utility bills, your cell phone bill, your auto or life
insurance policy, daycare.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
It can be one.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
I have seen people use their four O one K
because that is your willingness to participate. They don't force
you to participate, but your willingness to participate. And then
if your church has an electronic system of keeping up
with your payments or your tithes, I've had somebody use
their tithing record to show that every week or every

(15:55):
bi weeekly, however she was being paid, she paid her tithes.
But that's a willingness that without force, we can use
those items to build credit that would help you obtain
a mortgage. So whether it's through debt that you pay
back or living expenses that you build your credit with,
but you need to have credit, you do you need

(16:16):
to have credit, have something yes, something yes, And so
somebody can step out for you and say, yes, Lester
lives here and he pays every month on time, without
saying I loaned him money and then he paid me
back on time. So either way they're both credit. But
just what if you get a loan with money, then
that'll build a score. If I rent you a place,

(16:39):
that's just going to build you credit history.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
So it's two different.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Oh that's good that you define the two credit score
and credit history.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, but the score will pull pull
into history too, because you tell how show show how
long you've had it, how long you've paid them back.
But some people be they just don't want credit cards.
They don't want a car note, they don't want installment loans,
they don't have student loans. They've been blessed to go
to school for I don't want to say for free,

(17:11):
but you know, on scholarships, so basically for free. So
they didn't get in debt, borrow money to pay back,
so they don't have anything of that nature. But they've
been renting while they were in school. They've had a
car note, not car note, car insurance.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
They've had another good one.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
It's like Netflix, those non traditional debts that you pay
every month. You owe them, you signed up for a
subscription and you pay it every month. We can build
those to help you with your credit as well.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
So yes, is it better to have credit or say, well,
I got the cash, I want to pay the cash
because when you said people don't want credit cards, so
so people might say, I don't know, I got cash.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
That old adage cash is king, right, that applies there,
And think about it if you're a seller, especially with
real estate with properties, if you're a seller, are you
are you going to go and take that person that's
going to do a cash offer that may that's going
to be able to close as soon as that title
clears and takes the house wherever it is, or do
you want to go through that thirty forty five sixty

(18:27):
five ninety day process with going through a mortgage slender
So that person that has that cash is always the
seller is going to almost always select that guy because
they're not going to have to wait to get their money.
So cash is king. But if you're wanting to build
your credit, and that's what I think most of our
listeners want to do so that they can get into
positions so they can get approved for a mortgage song,

(18:49):
then you definitely need to go through the process. And
I know we'll give numbers out here at the end
to give us a call so we can help you.
But yeah, that cash is king in and I've seen
it done several times where Okay, I'm going to take
this cash off instead of waiting that ninety days to
go through that mortgage process closing.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
But the problem with cash, and I'm not saying it's
not king, because it is king.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Money moves right exactly. A lot of consumers don't have
that type of money sitting somewhere. The average home price
was two twenty this past month, two hundred and twenty
thousand dollars. So the average home buyer or person in
the market to purchase a home, they may not have

(19:30):
two hundred and twenty thousand dollars sitting in their bank
account willing to liquidate it and leave them with the
egg in there.

Speaker 7 (19:36):
Now.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Then they have to have other responsibilities, so.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
That may in turn might actually, you know, wipe out
all of your cash and then you have nothing for reserves.
So but if you have the means of keeping money
coming and keeping money going and it's going to be
to your advantage, then yes, you can pay cash or
a property and move right on. But if you are
like probably many of the consumers out here, you need

(20:04):
to finance your home, and financing the home you need
credit some shape form a fashion of credit.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
You're going to have to have that.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
There's a question in business that they say, how do
the rich get richer? And the answer is by using
other people's money, right, So that give goes back to hey, look,
that's how the with the wealthy people. They're not going
to use their own cash. They're going to use the
bank's money in most cases to finance it. But with
the with bed asking the question, yeah, cash is king,

(20:34):
but that's not how the wealthy people do it. They
use other people's money. That's how they keep They keep
their money and use the bank's money to finance.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Correct, because either you're going to pay.

Speaker 5 (20:45):
I see sometimes like I've had somebody come into a
large lump sum of money and they bought.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Their house cash. Remember we had that, you had the I.

Speaker 5 (20:55):
Had the new people buying, and then your people paid
cash for their property. But I also wondered, you know,
if she liquidated all her funds, how she was going
to maintain the property. Because you can buy a house
today and it could be an actually brand new house
and you can turn on the air in this hot
weather we have and it not work. So you know,

(21:17):
if that happened to her, would she be able to
do the repair for the ac or would she be
able to purchase a new ac if they liquidated all
of their cash. But I think that's an individual's decision.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
But I do, like you said, the rich, oh yeah, yeah,
how to rich get riches by using other people's money.
Now the bank's money to finance mostly they project And.

Speaker 6 (21:41):
I think also a lot of times when a client
do pay cash for a house, they forget that your
taxes and your homeowners become due every year. So you
got to keep that in mind as well, because if
you don't may your property taxes or your homeowners insurance,
your property can get foreclosed, meaning it could be a

(22:01):
tax lean and therefore somebody else can buy their property
under you because your taxes aren't delinquent.

Speaker 5 (22:10):
Or if the property is destroyed by natural You know,
we have storms here in Memphis, Tennessee, and we've seen
quite a few over the last few years. And if
you own that house free and clear, and then you
did not keep up your homeowners insurance, when your home
is destroyed, then and you don't have homeowners insurance, what

(22:32):
are you going to do? And then you've liquidated all
your cash, then you'll be back out in the market
to buy another home.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
So cash is keen.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
I think the wise finance until they're able to, you know,
move their.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Cash like you want. My goal is to own our
home free and clear.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
But the gold also is to have enough money saved
up to to take care of the home after it
is free and clear. Yeah, and you did point out
something really good, Chila. Sometimes people own their homes free
and clear and then they don't pay their property taxes.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
So what happens is.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
The county or the city can foreclose on you for
what nonpayment of property taxes, So you still are gonna
have some type of payment even after your mortgage is
free and clear, or even if you pay cash for
a property, you still have to pay the city taxes
or the county taxes. Well, you're gonna have county regardless.
And then you need to have homeowners insurance at all times.

(23:29):
It's like having a car uninsured. If you live in
a home, you don't have homeowners insurance. We see disasters,
we see in this straight line wins. We think it's
just gonna rain, and we look up and who got
seventy and eighty miles per hour winds and causing destruction,
so we need to make sure that we have both
of those covered, even if we do own the home.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Free and clear and liquid at our cash. Cash is keen.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Oh yeah, yeah, cash is keen. If you've just tuned
in this morning, we are are talking about the importance
of credit. Ruth Phillips's ear here, Sheila Milton is here
from Cadence Bank and let's do what from Operation Hope.
If you have a question or two for our guest,

(24:15):
we invite you to call five three five nine three
four two eight hundred five zero three nine three four
two eight three three five three five nine three four
two will get you in to us. You're listening to
double DA.

Speaker 8 (25:17):
We're asking the experts on the BEB Johnson Show only
on w d I A.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Hell over the.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Working Hard to bring you hot days, new selling for
every days off the friend Mondayday. It's the best and

(25:55):
welcome back to w d I A. We are talking
about the importance of credit with my guests Ruth Phillips
and Milton from KATU's Bank and Leicester Watt from Operation Hope.
I know one of the probably big questions that folks
ask is, uh, how do you check your credit? How

(26:16):
do you do that, lester, how do you check credit?

Speaker 1 (26:18):
That's that's a very good question. Number one, you can
come to me. All of our services are free and
we are a nonprofited Operation Hope, and so when we
pull it, it's what's called a soft pool, so it
doesn't create an inquiry, doesn't have a negati effect on
your scores. If you know you need help and you
want to check it, you can come to me. If
you just want to check it and you say, okay,

(26:38):
I just want to know what my score is, I
really don't need any help. You can go to Annual
Credit Report dot com. There are many agencies that are
out there that you can pay to get, but I
always give you the free thing. We the free the
free systems to use, just like Operation Hope is free.
Well it's free to uh to the to the clients
that are out there. But our bank partners like Kaden's Bank,

(27:00):
you know, they pay for you know, to provide the
services that Operation Hope gives. So, but you can go
to Annual Credit Report dot com get a free copy
of your report just to just to check it and
see what's on your credit.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
The version that they give you that's free will not
have a score on it, right, it will not have
a score.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Oh, because I was just getting ready to ask you
about this for you said it will have one, but.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
You can get one with it. You just have to
pay for that. You'll have to pay for that if
you want it, if you want to get it with
the score. But again it goes back, why would you
pay for it? We can come get it for me
for free because the wonder that I'm going to give you,
we'll have a score on it, and you'll be able
to see you and know what your credit.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Because less sir, I've always wondered about that because it
says go to annual credit. So when when you pull
that up, what is it showing you?

Speaker 1 (27:46):
What is it just it's going to show you all
three of the credit all three of the EQUOFAX, Experience
and transiending, so you can see all three of the
bureaus can tell you everything that's on there. So one
of the things that I strongly recommend is to go
look at your credit report to see what's on there.
And if you know you've got good credit, you really
don't need to know the score. You want to check
your score to make sure you get no one's use

(28:07):
your name fraudulently open up some credit cards in your
name and you don't know anything about and your credit
could be ruined because they're not paying those cards. So
you really want to check it at least I would
say every six months, just to check it to make
sure that everything on your credit report should be on
there or shouldn't be on there, so you can know.

(28:28):
So if you can go hit and file the speech.
If you see something that's not on there, then you
can go and get those the speech files to get
that taken care of, to get it off. So strongly
recommend that at least every six months, at a minium,
you go and check your report and your credit report
dot com. Since COVID happened, they'll let you go and
check it anytime, just because there's been so much fraud
out the folks getting their credits taking advantage.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Of Okay, okay, that's good. That's good to know, because
I thought that you would see a score. I've never
checked it on there before.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, you can go. You can get it with a score,
you just have to pay for it. But again, the
one that I'm gonna do, uh, you know, it'll it
will have a score on and give you an idea
of what you know where you are. And then the
things that I tell you to do, they're gonna be
to to to increase that score. And and as Ruth said,
I'm just not going to help you with your credit.
We're gonna talk about budgeting. We're going to talk about, uh,

(29:21):
how you're spending your money. We'll go over all of
those things, will put a system in place for you.
And then I'm not just gonna leave you out there.

Speaker 9 (29:28):
When we meet.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
We do that first initial meeting, we're gonna we're gonna
talk about the credit. I'm gonna give you that work plan,
and then before we get off that phone, i'm gonna
give you i'm gonna set another appointment time with you
for next month that we're going to do a follow
up meeting so you can give me a report on
where you are and the things that you've done. And
then after the third meeting, then I'm gonna pull the
credit again. Again. Remember it's a softball, so it's not

(29:51):
creating an inquiry. And if you started to work on
the things that I've given you, then we should see
an increase in that score. So that's I'm gonna be
there working with you. And a lot of times clients
will ask me, well, can you just do this for me?
Can you just go ahead and do this for me?
Go ahead and do that. I have companies they'll pay
to say they'll just they say, they'll just do it
for me. Well, I'm going to teach you how to fish.

(30:14):
They're gonna just give you a fish, right, They're gonna
go and fix it yourself, but I'm gonna teach you
how to do it so that you can know what
do you need to do and you can help yourself
and your family generational with the information that we're gonna
give you.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Sounds good, all right?

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Okay, so Lester.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
A lot of times people I have seen where you
can get your free credit report all three bureaus. But
then I have people who spread them out. They may
get first quarter Equifax, just get what's Equifax, I mean
kind of you know you you know what I'm talking about,
and then like the last quarter, they may actually pull

(30:53):
a full all three together and then pay for a score.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Okay, tell me how that works.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
So if you're gonna when you go to pull your
credit like number one, I don't recommend that you just
pull one and get and get get all three of
them so that you can see what's going on. So
as you may know most your you have. When Cadence
Bank reports, or anybody else reports to the credit bureaus,
they actually have to pay Equifax, Experience and TransUnion to report, right,

(31:22):
they have to pay for that. So if you go
and somebody uses your name to go buy a car
and this car dealership only uses TransUnion or only uses Equifax,
and it's not going to show up on there, so
you could be pulling the one that's not doesn't have
the fraud of information on it. So you really want
to check all three whenever you pull them, so that
you can get and see what information is done. Because,

(31:44):
like I say, the creditors actually have to pay the report.
That's why you don't see MLG and W bill reporting
unless you're delinquent. That's why your cell phone bill doesn't
report unless you're delinquent. Right, they're going to report if
you're delinquent because they don't want to spend that money.
But if you're delinquent with them, then MLGNW is going
to report you. Hey, she's delinquent with us and they're

(32:05):
going to put it on your credit hoping that you
will come and pace you can get that delinquency and
moved off your report. And that's why you guys, and
I think that's a great thing we mentioned earlier about
your non traditional credit. I think that's a great thing
that the banks are doing to help folks become homeowners
to get approved for mortgage. So that's a great thing.

Speaker 9 (32:24):
That's the reason why.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
Okay, well, then pull all three and then look at everything,
and then if you want to score, you most definitely
have to pay for a score. Sometimes I see when
I get my credit card email or my statement in
the mail, it'll tell me what my credit score is.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
How accurate is that when it comes to scoring?

Speaker 1 (32:46):
All right, So again it depends upon what version of
Fico that they're using. So let's say it again. We're
using Fyco Scoring eight when you guys go to get
a more mortgage song. I've looked at some of you
guys reports from some of the clients, and you're using
on the mortgage side, you're using version four. So version

(33:07):
four may have one score, Version eight may have another score.
Version ten of fight code may have another score. So
the information is all the same, all three of the
different versions, right or any version, They're all the information
the same. It's just that the mathematical calculations used to
come up with the score are different, and that's why

(33:28):
the scores are different because each version has a different mechanism.

Speaker 9 (33:31):
Don't go away. The BEV Johnson child returns after these messages.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
We have a lot of clients that talks about Credit Comma.
Oh can you tell our listeners how all right?

Speaker 1 (33:50):
So so not to because if you're getting something so
that I don't want to talk bad about any company.
But if you're getting a free version of anything, then
take it for what it's worth. You're getting a free
version of it, and that's okay. I just don't like
it when you're actually having to pay for these services
when I know they are free versions that you can

(34:11):
get out there and again with. It depends upon the
version that Credit Comma or any agency is using to
know if that information, you know, if it's if it's
going to get them approved for a mortgage on because
most of the time that's the thing that comes. They'll
tell me some other company told them that their credit
score was, you know, a six forty and when I

(34:35):
go and pull it, and you know, it's a five
seventy five, and so I.

Speaker 9 (34:40):
Know we've got work to do.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
But it's just because the version of Fiico that they've
used and pulling that score, it's not going to get
them approved for mortgageon. So when I start with a
credit cloud with a low credit score, then I'm gonna
give them that full word plan on everything they need
to do when we have that first meeting, and then
we're just gonna meet each month and go over. But yeah,
there are a lot of It just really depends to

(35:02):
ask your question. This really depends upon which version of
Fiico that that company is actually using. And I don't
know what version of credit Karma uses, but I have
seen some you know, seen it be higher than than
what I've seen on my end when I pull up.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
We are talking this day. If you've just tuned in,
we are talking about credit and if you need to
know something about credit. As always, we do invite you
to call five three five nine three four two five
three five nine three four two eight hundred five zero

(35:37):
three nine three four to two or eight three three
five three five nine three four two will get you
in to us. You're listening to the bed of Johnson
Show on Double Dia.

Speaker 9 (36:05):
Don't go away to bev Johnson Show returns after these messages.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
I mean, I'm telling everyone I see and.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Talking yo.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Everyone, and we're talking credit with Ruth Phillips, Shela Middleton,
and Lester Wad. We're talking about the importance of credit
and that it is really important Ruth when people are
trying to come and get a mortgage for a loan,

(36:48):
mortgage to buy so they can be a homeowner.

Speaker 5 (36:51):
Absolutely, you must have acceptable credit. Okay, again, it's not
always based on what your score is. I have seen
people with some great scores, but they've had some bruises
in the history, which the system looks at that as well.
I've also had people who had no credit, no score

(37:11):
who are now currently happy homeowners because they used their
non traditional credit rent utilities, cable, cell phone bills, things
of that nature that they pay on time to show
that they were credit worthy.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
So credit is important.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
A lot of times people think it's first, but remember
we talked two weeks ago about what's two months ago.
Is the most important thing is your ability to repay,
and then credit is your willingness to repay. So you
have to have income, but then you have to have
the willingness and have showed the willingness to repay over
the last two years, last twelve to twenty four months.

(37:51):
When we look at your credit report is really critical.
We want to make sure that you've been paying those
bills on time, no taking your balance over the high
credit and that means you passed your limit and that's
negative as well. That usually causes your credit score to drop.
But those things are the things that you have to
look at. But we do monitor and not monitor well,

(38:13):
we monitor your credit too. After you start your mortgage
process and you've obtained a property, we will put a
monitor on your credit just to make sure that you're
not out creating other bills.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
And some people do do that. They'll be under.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Contract, they'll go buy a whole appliance package on credit. Well,
now I have to count that in your debt to
income ratio. And I've had times where people no longer
qualified because they went out and created new credit debt
which affected their debt to income ratio. But it is
one This is the second most important thing in your package.
But just like income, we can figure out a way

(38:50):
to restore your credit. And that's where Operation Hope comes
into play with us here at Cadence. So if I
run into people who have bruises on their credit and
they need assistance to help either build a score or
someone to teach them how to utilize the credit, that's
where our partnership here at Operation Hope is so important
and we build a soot. We have built a solid

(39:11):
relationship with the coach there, Lester Watt. Lester does a
fantastic job, and I'm just not bragging on him because
he's here, but I do it behind his back. He
does a fantastic job of partnering with the customer trying
to get them to see the importance of improving their credit.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
He's not gonna fix your credit.

Speaker 5 (39:33):
He's going to show you how to restore your credit
and how to keep it restored. He also takes time
out to show them how to get on that B word,
the budget, and that when you're on a budget, it'll
help you not overspend, It helps you save, it helps

(39:54):
you stay in balance. I just don't say budget, I
say he gonna help me with my balance, help me
stay in balance so I can be able.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
To be prosperous. So That's how I look at credit.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
You must have credit in order to obtain a mortgage
period non traditional or your traditional credit. Again, our partnership
here at operation with Cadence here At we use Operation Hope.
I use him exclusively and usually he can let me
know immediately if it's going to take them thirty days,
sixty days, ninety days after he's made their appointment with

(40:27):
them and he's met with them, how long it's going
to take them to restore.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
And that's important. And again I love the costs for
Operation Hope.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Tell them what your cost is Lester Absolutely free. I
call it free ninety nine, but it's free. We don't
charge for any of our clients for our services. And
I say that with all due respect.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
We don't.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
We never charge the clients, right, But our bank partners
like Caden's, they actually pay for me being there in
their office. I'm located in their office in white Haven
twelve twenty two East Range Rope is where my office
is inside the Cadence Bank. But they pay for the
service of us actually being able to provide what we
do here for free. Yeah, so, and I'll give you that.

(41:10):
I'll put checks in the mails for those lives coming up.

Speaker 5 (41:13):
I got you want to don't catch it? That'll be
one of them checks. Mayby go frame my miody said
that check. But that's how important the community is to Cadence.
It's important to us that we do right by people
and that we keep our community up. And then I

(41:34):
have services available to help the community. It's a financial
world out here now, and then you need to know
if it's not taught and home, and it's not you
didn't catch it in school.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
It's not late too late to catch it. We have
people who are all ages.

Speaker 5 (41:50):
Who actually finally, oh I get it, and then they
began to work on their credit. But it's important to
us here at Cadence that we do things that are
good for our commune unity. And one thing we've done
is partner with Operation Hope. I have seen a significant
not just myself but all of my loan officers.

Speaker 6 (42:08):
Yeah, I have seen a great deal working with Lester
and Operation Hope. As far as my clients getting pre
approved and closed at the closing table.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Thank you les Oh yeah, you do a great job.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Really he really does do a great job.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
And like I said, it's a change not just for
a transaction, but for an entire lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
So credit, Yeah, it's important. It's number two.

Speaker 5 (42:34):
When you're trying to purchase a home, it's got to
be your number two. Number one is what you gotta
have a job.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
You gotta have that job.

Speaker 5 (42:43):
You gotta have some money to pay to repay the loan.
That's why credit comes in as the second key I
think is most important and buy the home.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Okay, one of the things you always already talked about,
you know, checking your credit. How do you do that?
Lester talked about if you go on there to make
sure that something's on there that's not supposed to be
on there. Right, So when you how do you make

(43:14):
sure you're having good credit? I mean, what do you
need to do? Lester?

Speaker 1 (43:19):
All right, Yeah, so you definitely need to understand the
five things that actually make up your credit your credit score.
So when you understand those five things and how they work, then.

Speaker 9 (43:32):
Whether you're in Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram, thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
That you can make some positive changes. So, first thing,
thirty five percent of your credit score comes from your
payment history, So it's so important that you pay your
bills on time. Because you pay bills on time, thirty
five percent your credit score is positively affected. On the
flips out of that, if you pay your bills late,
then thirty five percent of your credit score is negatively affected.

(43:59):
So you really want to make sure that you're paying
your bills on time. Thirty percent of your credit score
comes from the amount that you owe on revolving debt
or your credit card debt, So you want to make
sure that you keep those balance to limit ratios on
your credit cards below thirty percent. So give you an example.
Let's say if you've got a credit card and a

(44:20):
limit on that card is one thousand dollars, you want
to make sure that that balance on that card stays
below three hundred dollars or thirty percent in the example.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
If you do.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
If you go over that thirty percent, then Fyco has
a mechanism built into it where it's going to penalize
you because you're if you're constantly carrying that balance over
thirty percent, it's showing Fyco that you're using money that
you don't have. And so you want to make sure
you keep those balance to limit race shows before below
the thirty percent. Then ten percent of your credit score

(44:50):
comes from your types of credit, and so when I
look at it, it's just a mixture of revolving and
installment debt. When I look at that, then I'll give
you make some recommendations. If I see the you don't
have enough for one or the other, and then ten
percent comes from new credit. Really want to be careful
not have a bunch of people pulling your credit. Those
inquiries still on your report for two years. They have

(45:12):
a negative effect for a full year, and then your
credit history oftentimes not cadence ruth and see them know better,
but clients will come to me and they'll say, my lender, shit,
my debt to income ratio is too high and I
need to close down some of my accounts. No, that

(45:34):
is the worst thing that you can do is start
closing now credit card accounts when you're trying to build credit,
because fifteen percent, the last part, fifteen percent of your
credit score comes from that credit history, and when you
close it down, the minute you close it down, that
history is wiped out and it's going to negatively affect
your score. So you really want to make sure that
you're not doing that. So understanding the credit can the

(45:57):
five things that make up your credit can help you
move your score. So when we look at it, when
I look at it, that's all I'm doing is looking
at the credit report, seeing what the issues are and
then using that and coming up with my part of
my work plan. So that was the five Those are
the five things. You have. Payment history, thirty five percent
the amount you o and revolving that is thirty percent.

(46:18):
Ten percent is for your types of credit revolving in installment,
and then ten percent for a new credit of those
inquiries and in fifteen percent is from your credit history.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
So when you're doing when you're doing that, Lester, trying
to make sure you have good credit. So don't don't
go out and try to get another credit card.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, yeah, no, especially if you're trying if you're trying
to buy a house that yeah, that's right. Don't go
out and buy anything once you get it, once you
once you get the application into Ruth or Sheila, don't
go by nothing. I have had friends that so I
want to go buy my wife this new car to
go with the new house and give it as a
supplies to it. Don't go buy anything. If you want
to do that, that's fine. If you've got it like that,

(47:02):
but get wait until you close, get the keys to
the house before you go and buy anything, because Ruth
will tell you and see the day before you close,
they're gonna do what's called a saft pool just to
make sure that you haven't opened up anything new on
the right correct.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
So so you just don't go buy anything. Don't just
go out and start buying stuff. If you know your
credit's good, just just wait before until after you get
the keys to your house, if you want to go
out and start buying something.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Because because people, I'm glad you said that. People be thinking, well, okay,
I got Ruth gave me a long let me go
start buying something for my house.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
No, no, no, no, don't don't try to don't try
to get that house furnished the first week or first month, right,
just take your time and slowly build into it. And
I have a lot of clients that come to me
after I have something that I'm working with right now,
that are already in their house and we're just getting
their budget back on track.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
That's because they got into their new home, let me guess,
and then they went by and charged up credit card
debt because all of a sudden, they've been waiting ten
years to buy a house and they've tried to fill
it with furniture in two days, and so they've gotten themselves.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Back in debt.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
Not thinking, well, I've got to pay a house note
every month, and then you're paying rent and most of
the time the house notes less.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
But however, anything can come up.

Speaker 5 (48:20):
I advise them all take your time filling your house
with furniture, because.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
It is one thing to be house poor. Furniture poor.

Speaker 5 (48:32):
You can't really enjoy life because you lost that balance
budget and now you're out spending more money than you're
actually bringing home. And now you're just adding added stress
back into your life. And that's because we've gone a
good credit restoration with Operation Hope and gotten those credits
course to seven hundred.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Don't lose it in the first ninety days.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
But if you do and it happens, return to Operation
Hope so lesser can help you get back on track.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Yep. And use your family members.

Speaker 10 (48:59):
I mean, does anybody do housewarming things anymore when they
buy new houses. I remember back in the day, do
the house warming things and invite the family over and
let the family buy stuff. Pa don't give up on that.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
That's a good thing. I don't know if any of.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Them they do. They still have housewarmings, house blessings.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Do the list, don't y'all do the list?

Speaker 5 (49:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Do do the list. Thing is put on there, the
wish list for the washer, the dryer. I'm just I'm
giving That's what I would do.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
Or take a room at a time. Just be wise
in your spending. There you go be Why isn't it.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well we are talking credit today? Yeah, you want to
know something about credit. Well, the experts are.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
In the house.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Ruth Phillips of Cadence Bank is here, Sheila Middleton is here.
Less what of Operation Hope is here to help you?

Speaker 6 (49:55):
All of these?

Speaker 2 (49:56):
A day by three five nine three four two is
our number one eight hundred five zero three nine three
four two eight three three five three five nine three
four two will get you in to us. You're listening
to w d IA.

Speaker 9 (50:55):
Whether you're in Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram. Thank you for listening to the Bev Johnson
Show on do w d I A Memphis Black Business BEPJ.

Speaker 6 (51:07):
Justin Show, Bell Chomps Memphis Talking and all away.

Speaker 8 (51:15):
Help you go, you go, so get ready.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
In time.

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Just sh.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
Let's go bell justin.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
We make gold.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Right here, roug.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
Listen to what to say?

Speaker 5 (51:38):
You know, it's time of the Belts show, the show Lucky.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
We are rocking and rolling on this Tuesday. It's July thirtieth,
twenty twenty four. Here in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm talking with
my guest, Ruth Phillips is here and Sheila Middleton from
Canance Bank. Let's to watch from Operation Hope. We're talking
about the importance of credit. So hold on callers and
listeners as we continue our conversation. But as always, I

(52:11):
gotta tell you about my favorite place. Yeah it is.
It's the Rocking Chair of Memphis fifteen forty two Elvis Presley,
because we rock with the best entertainment in town and
the best soul food around. The Rocking Chair of Memphis
is open Wednesday through Sunday, eleven am to five pm

(52:33):
and serving up some of the best soul food Memphis
has to offer, like fried chicken and baked chicken, and
smothering pork chops, smoke turkey necks, Miss Ann's Chitlin' Yaw
macaroni and cheese, candy games, black eyed peas, great Northern beans, catfish,
buffalo fish, yeah, turkey neck, Yeah, they got them in

(52:55):
the house. Cabbage, greens, pinto beans, corn bridge, you name it.
They have it at the Rocking Chair and they also
have desserts. So Wednesday through Sunday eleven to five go
by and get your meal from the Rocking Chair. Now

(53:15):
you can have it dine in or take out and
call him at nine zero one four two five five
two six four nine zero one four two five five
two six four They will have your meal ready for
you there. Open up tomorrow Wednesday through a Sunday eleven

(53:36):
am to five pm. And tomorrow it's Stumping Thursday with
John Disco Hound. He's he's celebrating all the leos. You
are leo, y'all? Well, go on by the Rocking Chair
on August first, fifteen forty two. Elvis Presley, John the
disco Hound Lord is celebrating leos. It is absolutely free

(53:58):
until seven pm. Celebrity guests will be the legendary Doctor's
gonna be in the house, DJ E B T FM
Freak Master, So come on by and the line dancers
will be there. All, they're gonna have a good time
on tomorrow. And also we're gonna be getting ready for
next month because the Rocking Chair is gonna have their
all white affair. I'll be telling you all more about that,

(54:22):
but tomorrow or on Thursday, it's just go hound thumping.
Thursday and July thirty first, they're celebrating the birthday of
Ricky or day old Ricky. He's mister they call him
mister Rocking Chair celebrating his birthday on July thirty first.
So I told you the Rocking Chair we rap with
the best entertainment in town and the best soul food around.

(54:46):
Give them a call, y'all, nine zero one tomorrow four
two five five two six four four two five five
two six four, and don't forget on Friday, it's Ladies' night.
Ladies get in free until eight o'clock. Yeah man two,
and on Saturday as well. So check out the Rocking Tier.
They rock with the best entertainment in town, the best

(55:06):
soul food around. Fifteen forty two Elvis Presley and tell
them Bev Johnson sent you. We are talking credit. We

(55:52):
are going, ladies and gentlemen to our phone lines to
talk to Bootsy.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
Hi Bootsy, well, good morning to you and your gifts.
I would like to talk to you about your credit.
How much credit do with our need to start a business.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
Is Fortunately, sir, we only do mortgages up to a
four plex, so this save.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Your home homeowners, not for business my bag.

Speaker 4 (56:21):
How much grade do you need to purchase a home?

Speaker 5 (56:24):
Well, it depends on the loan type if you're going
to own or occupy the property. Unfortunately, I can just
give you a few guidelines. FHA says from five hundred
to five eighty your down payment has to be ten
percent and you can excuse me, have to have and
approve eligible, which is a system that they use to

(56:45):
reap underwrite your file. Anywhere from five to eighty and up.
You need you know, regular three and a half percent
down So it just depends. Unfortunately, we can't just tell
you what you're going to be approved or unapproved unless
you make full application.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
If you need a.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
Business loan, you can call my branch and ask for
Tanya right. She can give you direction for a business loan.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Let me give you the number right w R I
g H T.

Speaker 4 (57:14):
Okay, the number is all I.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
G H T Tanya right, her numbers nine zero.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
One, okay, seven five one seven five.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
One, yes, sir, five six zero.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Zero five six zero zero.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
Yes, sir. But if you know someone who needs Tanya,
T O N I A.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
E O I an. Okay, Now what you're saying. If
I knew somebody, I'm gonna call Bell Johnson, Tim I
got somebody that might be interested in a person's a house.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
Absolutely, let let Bev know and she knows how to
get in contact with us. And at the end of
the show, we will provide our phone numbers for you.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Okay, thank you, Bootsy, right number, thank you, You're welcome.
Thank you, Bootsy. When we are talking about credit, and
I wanted to ask this to you all that what
about people who have filed Lester and Ruth Sheila, they
filed bankruptcy. Doesn't bankruptcy mess up your credit? No it doesn't.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
No, it's temporary. It's temporary.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
And I say that with joy because if you file
bankruptcy and sometimes life happens, life be life, and things
be happening. We jump in over our heads, we lose
our jobs. You know, things happen and people do. That
is an option for you, and so insworder for you
to stop the continuous cycle of the bad credit reporting.

(58:51):
That would may be an option. That's a good place
for you to call Ursula there who can discuss with
you that. But it's life after bankruptcy. There's life while
you're in a bankruptcy. If you're in an active Chapter
thirteen and you have been in the program for twelve
consecutive months and you get permission from the court, you
go back to bankruptcy court gets your attorney to ask

(59:13):
the judge if you can purchase a home, you may
be granted that opportunity. Faha says, those are the requirements
in order for you to be in a bankruptcy and
get their financing. Chapter seven it is two years from
date to discharge. You know, again call Ursula about whatever
you need to put into bankruptcy. But two years from

(59:35):
the date of discharge, not the day you file. But
have some people filed this month and they may not
get all of their business in order to September, so
your discharge date would actually be September. So two years
from September twenty twenty four, you would be eligible to
buy a home.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
It is that's Faha conventional. You need to be out
for four years, four years on.

Speaker 6 (59:59):
A conventional loan, if you're doing a Chapter seven. Okay, briefly,
I'm just gonna talk about foreclosures. Yes, okay, if you
have a property that foreclosed on you're trying to do
a FHA loan, it's two years, three years from the
foreclosure date, and on a conventional loan it is seven years.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Okay, that's on.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
We're dealing with foreclosures. So it's life after bankruptcy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
There is life.

Speaker 5 (01:00:30):
There's life after bankruptcy. There's home ownership after bankruptcy. Again,
things happen, people get involved in things and they lose control,
and there's life after foreclosure. You do have an opportunity
to it's not permanent owning a home. You can restructure,
get yourself back together, and then still come back and

(01:00:50):
buy a house.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
I'll say this. I've got a client that I'm working
with right now, and she's already in the seven hundreds.
But as Ruth said, she filed the seven bankruptcy and
we've got to wait until November. Ending of November is
when her discharge date is, and so that way we
can send her back and get her out to get
approved for long. But she's in the seven hundreds. But
you've got to wait that two year time period out

(01:01:13):
before she can go and get approved. But I've been
working with her for over the last year, just getting
her credit together. So it like we said, there is
life after bankruptcy. If you filed and you spend discharged,
give us a call. I said, We'll get numbers out
at the end, but give me a call so we
can go. Now it's the time to start working. If
you've gotten through it and you've been discharged, you want

(01:01:33):
to go and start working on it sooner than later,
so you can get ready once that time period is up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Good.

Speaker 5 (01:01:39):
Now, if you have a dismissed bankruptcy, you got in it,
maybe for some reason you stop making the payment.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
I'm not sure why. Maybe the payment was too much.

Speaker 5 (01:01:47):
And then if you are in one and you decide
the payment is too much, go back to your attorney
before you just stop making it and you got to
sit down and work on something, because they may be
able to redo the payment.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Again.

Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
That's a great question for Ursula and I I think
she's young. She'd been here this week, I think it
was I know she was here last week. Yeah, yeah,
I know she was here last week. Last saw her
live last week. But it's a good opportunity for you
to reach out to her and ask her that question.
But there's life after bankruptcy dismissed.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
That's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
But if if you are a repeat user of filing
chapter seven or thirteen, or repeat of what a bunch
of dismissed, you might have to stay clean, re established
credit for a year or two and get your score up.
So that is also another good place for operation hope.
But there are mortgage opportunities available in bankruptcy and out

(01:02:41):
of bankruptcy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Good. What about lester? I know when we talk about credit,
and I know URSL talks about this all the time,
but what about when you have co signed for somebody?
You sign for somebody to get a car, you know,

(01:03:03):
and your name is on that. How is that going
to affect your credit? When when you want to decide
you want to buy something or and then you've co
signed for somebody.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Yeah, I would. I tell clients this all the time.
You you really just want to be careful and not
co signed, because that's when you co sign for you're
basically telling that lender if he or she does not pay,
then I will pay. That's what co signing means.

Speaker 8 (01:03:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Some people just say, oh, when I see that that
that identifier that says either see for co signer or
JAY for a joint on the credit bureau. And they'll say, oh,
that's not my car. That's that's my son's car, right,
but it is your car and it's gonna count. They're
they're gonna calculate and your your lender's gonna calculate that
in your debt to income ratio. So if you've got

(01:03:49):
plans of doing your own thing, buying a house, don't
co sign for anyone. But if you do, and I
get it, I know sometimes that you know, we want
to help our children out, you know, family members or friends.
If you're going to do it, then do it right
so it doesn't so that you know what's going on.
So instead of letting that person make that payment each month,
and I've had clients to come back, we pulled the

(01:04:10):
credit and they didn't even know that the truck had
been repossessed.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
Right, wow, So so you let.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
You tell them, all right, I'm gonna co sign for this,
but I'm going to you're gonna give me the money
the payment is.

Speaker 8 (01:04:23):
Due on this date.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
If you're going to do it, I say don't. I
say don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Okay, so let me back you up.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
Let's sir just a little bit, and I understand where
you're saying it and the position you're saying it from.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
Let the person who co sign make the payment.

Speaker 5 (01:04:39):
However, if you're getting a mortgage and you have a
co signing debt, then I can not count that debt
in your debt to income ratio. If I can prove
the person you co sign for is making the monthly payment,
how do I prove that canceled checks bank statements? I
have a loan right now, I have twelve months of
bank statements showing that the grandson is making that payment

(01:05:02):
from his own account, that Grandma is not attached, she's
not sending money to He's not sending money to grandma
for grandma to make the payment. However, if you co
sign for someone, make sure you understand and a lot
of the truth in lendings that come with the co signing,
they don't say co signing, they say joint. They say joint,

(01:05:23):
and that means both of you are equally obligated to
make that payment period, and so that's what you need
to do. I would you have the right to check
with the mortgage. The mortgage and people co sign for mortgages,
you have the right. If you are the joint person
on the debt for an automobile, you have the right
to call that creditor and say, I want to know

(01:05:44):
the payment history. Then you can stay ahead of that
so you can make sure that the son, the grandson,
the daughter, the.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
Grand boyfriends people, you know, all of those things.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
Husband's too, wives are making those payments and making them
on a in a timely fashion.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Whoever the bar is, you can make sure. But a
lot of those debts.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
If you're gonna you can still get a mortgage, but
you need to prove that the sun is making those payments.
When you give me cash, cash is not keing and financing,
I have to know where it is not keen, No,
not in a financing work. I can't track it. I
can't track it. I can't track where you got that

(01:06:25):
car note from. Because now you're giving me a cash
deposit every month, and so this month you gave me
three hundred dollars, but the car notes two ninety nine.
And I'm being funny, but that penny the underwriter may
actually say no, that's not the payment, so you have
to be careful with that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
But I do not advise people to pay the payment themselves.

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
They need to prove that the person they jointly co
sign for is actually making that payment and keep up
with it, Harriet.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
You can, and you can go to end your Credit
Report dot com and take a look. It's gonna tell
you right there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
It's going to be on both your It'll be on
both your reports.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
It'll be on both reports. So you can go on
there and actually take a look and see if they're
making the payment or if you're going to do that.
And I know I have a lot of clients that
are parents that have co signed for children and they
just oh, I got to get this car. I got
to help my son or my daughter get this car.
If you're going to do it, you just want to
stay on top of them and make sure that they're
making that payment right. And I understand Ruth saying that

(01:07:27):
there's some ways that we can get out of it
and not count it in the debt to income ratio,
but in you in protecting your credit, because that is
your credit that you're putting your you know, your name
on the line for and you just want to make
sure that that you're that you're that they're making that
payment so it doesn't negatively affect you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Correct.

Speaker 5 (01:07:44):
And again, if you're on their debt as a joint owner,
you have rights to the history because it's part of
your it's your debt too because if that person just say,
something happens to that person, god forbid they die.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
So they're been coming after you for the debt, so
anything of that nature.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
So yeah, if you have a child on here who's
actually co signed for, and then they're like, oh, I
ain't gonna I'm gonna tell you about my card.

Speaker 3 (01:08:13):
Note, that's fine.

Speaker 5 (01:08:14):
Just call the person who's servicing your kernel because there
you are jointly together. That's why you should keep a
copy of the paperwork at all times.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
And so so the bottom line is, if you're trying
to get a home, Ruth and Lester, don't even think
about co signing for somebody right now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Yeah, yeah, definitely not, definitely, not right now if you're
trying to get a home. But in my opinion is
like you shouldn't look teach them now, start early, Start
your children now early, building the credit teaching them the
importance of credit so that they can go and get
this on their own and they don't need you. So
if you teach them to pay their bills on time,
and then they're gonna build their own credit score and

(01:08:56):
they'll be able to go out and get it themselves
so that you don't have to do it. I strongly
strongly recommend not co signing for anyone because you know,
what is that old saying, no good deed goes unpunished.
Something happens and then it could come back to bite you.
So I strongly recommend go against co sign And.

Speaker 5 (01:09:16):
If they haven't been good stewards over their own credit,
and that's a lot of times what happens with it,
they're not a good steward over their own credit, so
they got a bunch of bruises and bumps.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
And so now.

Speaker 5 (01:09:29):
You're co signing, you already know they've never paid anybody back.
So did you think it was going to be different?

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
I don't know. I just feel different about that.

Speaker 5 (01:09:37):
I'm not a big co sign or fan period, and
it's because I've seen people do it the right way,
but I've also seen people do it the wrong way.
I've seen kids, parents co sign for them to get
a house, and then once they get the house, they
know their parents are able to make the payment, and
they just stopped making the payment. So now the parents

(01:09:58):
are parents, they're paying your house. No, and that's because
the parents want to keep their credit in good standing.
So I just think it's both ways.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
I agree.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
But again, if you do co sign, and that's that's
your right and that's something between you and your child
or you and your person significant other, then you need
to make sure you track the history to make sure
that they're making the payment every month, and especially if
they've never paid anybody I would be calling every.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
Month that would, like you said, if they don't, if
they didn't take care of their own, what do you
think you think they're going to take care of yourself? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
No, stare with We are talking this day with our experts.
How's your credit? You want to know? If they want
to know, you can act because if you're thinking about
buying a home, you need to have some credit. Ruth
Phillips is in the house, Sheila Middlington is in the house.

(01:10:54):
Lester Watt is in the house. Have a question about credit,
the importance of credit. We're talking this day on the
BEB Johnson Show on do w d I A.

Speaker 8 (01:11:20):
We're asking the experts on the BEV Johnson Show only
on w d I A. You're listening to the BEB

(01:11:57):
Johnson Show. Here's Johns and.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
We're talking about the importance of credit with Ruth Phillips.
She's a Middleton. And Lester Watt is here going to
our phone lines, ladies and gentlemen to talk to common man.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Hi, common man, Hey, hey bebe howre you going?

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
I'm doing well in yourself doing doing fine.

Speaker 7 (01:12:21):
I got a question for miss Phillips. But I was thinking,
as I was thinking while I was older north Side,
I think I might know the answer when miss Phillips,
when you said it would be important to be able
to prove like in a case of you know, being
a joint being joined on the debt, to prove that

(01:12:41):
the other person is paying the debt, the person that
you're consigned for. I guess, so why why would that
be important? And I was thinking to myself, did you
say that in regards to like if I want to
use my credit for myself?

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
Correct?

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
So if I'm buying a house, to say I'm buying
a house and I co signed a debt for a
less stir, and I don't want that debt to be
included in my debt to income ratio that the bank
is requiring. So I would make sure that I can
prove that Lester makes that payment every month from his
own account at least for the last twelve months, and

(01:13:17):
he needs to have at least twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
Months or more.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (01:13:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:13:21):
It came to me in the middle of my hold
and now was like, okay, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:13:24):
Gonna have to explain this to us.

Speaker 7 (01:13:25):
I don't sound dumb, but I figured it out once
I thought about it or not, that's what I came to. Yeah, okay,
so that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
That makes sense, So.

Speaker 7 (01:13:34):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
All right, thank you for calling incoming man, Thank you
comming man.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Right, all right, all right, good information to know. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Oh yeah, no question is a dumb question. So somebody
else wants somebody else wants to want to know that. Sure,
I just don't want to call. So just you have
questions calling And a lot.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
Of times that's one of the things that hold people
up is the co signing. Yeah, and you know, I
see it quite often, but I'm like, well, just make
sure they're actually making the payment, but because they may
not be able to trust that that person's gonna make
the payment. A lot of the parents have the children
or they're not children, they're adults. Send them the cash,

(01:14:17):
like Lester was saying, and make the payment. But then
I can't prove that that cash came from that child
to make the payment and that was the purpose for it.
So you have to end up counting the debt in
their debt to income ratio. And sometimes they can still qualify,
but they may not be able to qualify for the
house that they want. It affects the amount a loan
that they can actually get.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Okay, what else we need to know about the importance
of credit.

Speaker 5 (01:14:45):
Before you go know, before you go monitor your credit
take it seriously. Don't pay for monitoring. You can always
go to Annual Credit report dot com. I know he
recommend you pull them all at one time, but if
you have no use for it, Equifax is what really
reports in this area first, then TransUnion, then Experience. So

(01:15:06):
if you just want to keep a monitor, do that.
Make sure that you pay attention to If you get
emails saying somebody's open up a debt in your name,
you get phone calls.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Make sure you pay attention and call the creditors back.

Speaker 5 (01:15:19):
If they've opened up in your name, let them verify
your name, social data birth. Don't you go willingly give
it out to them, because now they have it. See
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
Now they have it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:30):
So if they're calling you about that, but just kind
of monitor your credit, stay on top of it. You
should want to be in the seven hundred club credit
score club, that's what I call it. Then you'll get
the best rate as far as a mortgage. You'll get
the best rate for car loans, you'll get the best
rate for car insurance.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Cell phones.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
A lot of times you don't have to have a
deposit on a cell phone if you've got your credit
and good standing. Same thing for MLGNW, same thing for
your utility not utilities, a cable, all of those things
you may not have to put a deposit down if
you have if you're credit worthy. So if you're not
buying a home and you want to be credit worthy,
then you should most definitely reach out to Lester at

(01:16:13):
Operation Hope. I was reading this morning. I get mortgage
things all the time. Is that over eight million people
in the United States right now today, according to a
statistic that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Came out from.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
Zoom Zillo excuse me this morning, that eight million people
in the United States are mortgage ready, that they're actually
paying rent for more than what.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
They actually would have to pay for a mortgage.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
So I think this is a perfect day and a
perfect time to encourage you to move forward with home
ownership and get say goodbye to your landlord. There are
down payment assistance programs available, and we're going to bring
up City of Memphis next month bev to talk about
their twenty five thousand dollars. We have ten thousand dollars

(01:16:59):
at Cadence and we can partner those twenty five and
ten together and that's thirty five thousand dollars that's.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Available if you're eligible for it.

Speaker 5 (01:17:08):
So this is a great time to be a homeowner.
But that was an interesting statistically eight million people who
are income ready to own a home and they are
yet renting. So take that into consideration. And then, like
I said, credit is so important, make sure you stay
up on top of your credit.

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
Make sure and.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Again Lester, what's a good credit score when you're going
to go see.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
Ruth, Well, Ruth can get risk could tell you she
can get them done a lot. Lord, I always say,
I want to get you in the seven hundred. I
get you in the seven hundreds on Equifax, Experience TransUnion.
You're going to get the best rate that's out there,
right and you even with succeedy probably what you would
is what they would say to do it. But I
want to get you in the seven hundreds. So that
way you know, no matter what you get, you know

(01:17:52):
wherever the interest rates are. And I here a lot
of people say, oh, I don't want to buy a
house because the interest rates are so high. Now, No,
go ahead and buy your house. When the interest rates
go down, then just go back and refinance and take
advantage of the rate. You don't you don't have to
wait until, you know, until the interest rate go down,
because it was ding COVID when we had two and
a half and three percent interest rate. That ain't coming back.

(01:18:12):
So don't wait, don't wait until then, go ahead and
get that house now and.

Speaker 5 (01:18:17):
Then mav like sometimes I can remember one of my
favorite customers came from the radio. She was so convinced
she had bad credit, and I think I shared that
with you. She came from the radio show, and she
came in and she was convinced she had bad credit.
That lady had a seven ninety eight, wow, seven ninety eight,
and whoever had done her mortgage originally had convinced her

(01:18:40):
that she had bad credit and gave her a higher
rate and hire everything and so just because she didn't know.
So if you're not sure, and then, like I said,
she stayed in that late.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
I remember the rate.

Speaker 5 (01:18:50):
Eleven point nine was her interest rate on her mortgage.
And of course we cut the mortgage in thirds because
there was a few It was probably back in twenty twenty,
twenty nineteen when she did it. But she had great credit,
but she was not aware of it because she allowed
somebody else. So that's why it's important for you to
monitor your own credit. Mortgages can go down as low
as five hundred on a FHA loan. But I am

(01:19:13):
like Lester, the higher score, the better opportunity and the
better choices you have as far as which mortgage best
fits for you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
So and for five hundred you need ten percent down payment,
five eighty you need three and a half.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
See the big difference there at six and a half
percent difference in how much money you're gonna come out
of your pocket some of the down payment. The state
issue programs they have credit score requirements of six forty.
A lot of the other programs, you know, they may
actually the one. I'm getting a lot of construction questions
most of the time. The construction you need to have
at least a six eighty or higher on your credit score.

(01:19:47):
So it just depends. Again, seek a professional. Don't make
the decisions on your own.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
And last, you say ten did you say y'all giving
ten grand? Now that I heard?

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
Is that news?

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
It I didn't known for thirty days.

Speaker 5 (01:20:04):
I am giving ten thousand dollars away for a mortgage
that's called conventional max. Okay, if you're interested, you can
reach out to myself, to Shila Middleton. I have Tina
Pillow in the Whitehaven area, and I have a new
employee named Greg Spike, and he will be in your
bartlet area. Call us for details and we're going to

(01:20:25):
share the numbers. After this, we can call us for
details on it. But it is a ten thousand dollars grant.
And Ben, what that means is that when we close
on the loan, there's no second mortgage. There's nothing else
to follow behind it. Nothing is your property and it's
your ten thousand dollars, and it's used into the transaction.
You do have to put three percent down, but that

(01:20:47):
three percent can come from what that ten thousand dollars.
So yes, we do have it and we are passing
it out right now. I'm excited about it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
That's big.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
That's major, Yes, major.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
She let any other last word? Oruld you like to
say to our listeners?

Speaker 6 (01:21:02):
The last words I would like to say basically is knowledge.
You have to have the knowledge and you have to
do the work. You have to have the knowledge and
you have to do the work. Once you do those things,
you will, I would say, be more grateful and more

(01:21:22):
humble when you get your home.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
That's what I'd like to say.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
All right, all right, any other last words? Lesson uh?

Speaker 1 (01:21:30):
Just if you need to call me, uh me, I
want to go ahead and give brout so uh area
code nine zero one two seven three four five for seven.
I'll say that again, aery code nine zero one two
seven three four five for seven, give me a call.

(01:21:52):
Like I said, all of our services are free. And
as she the said, uh, knowledge is power when it
is used.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
So you got.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
We shared a lot of good information here with you today,
but it won't become powerful to you until you pick
up the phone and callars, so make sure you use it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Sounds good, Ruth Phillips.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
Okay, I'm gonna share the loan officers that I do
have who you if you're interested, and you may want
to reach out to them to find out about the
ten thousand, or even just to get qualified for the
mortgage first.

Speaker 3 (01:22:19):
I have Sheila Middleton.

Speaker 5 (01:22:21):
You can reach me at nine oh one four zero
nine two zero three five. Have someone in White Haven,
Tina Pillow. Tina's number is nine zero one six zero
four seven seven seven three. I have Greg Spite.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
He is in the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
Wolf Chase area branch.

Speaker 5 (01:22:44):
It's nine zero one two eight nine nine five seven six.
And of course I have myself, Ruth Phillips in the
South Wind area. It's nine oh one six four three
one one two one. And I've given everybody a self
phone number, so that means that we are available after five.
We are here to serve your needs and to unlock

(01:23:06):
the door to home ownership. So we look forward to
hearing from our callers.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
Sounds good. Thank you, You all gave some great information today.
I appreciate always Sheila and Ruth and Lester. Thank you
all so much. You are so welcome. Thank you callers,
Thank you listeners for joining us this day on The
BEB Johnson Show. We do, we really do, appreciate you.
So until tomorrow, please be saved. Keep a cool head, y'all,

(01:23:34):
don't let anyone steal your joy. Until tomorrow, I'm BEB Johnson,
and y'all keep the faith.

Speaker 7 (01:23:44):
The views and opinions discussed on The BEB Johnson Show
are that of the hosts and callers and not those
of the staff and sponsors of WDA.

Speaker 3 (01:24:25):
Edwards in your home.

Speaker 9 (01:24:27):
Election or Google home. She's got Memphis talking.

Speaker 3 (01:24:32):
It's the BEV Johnson's show on the station that's still goodwill.

Speaker 1 (01:24:35):
And good times.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
AM ten seventy WDIA