December 5, 2025 • 30 mins
Gingerbread and mistletoe also bring out the scammers and thieves and protecting yourself is important. Experts say consumers should be checking their credit report regularly and some of us need a "credit literacy" refresher. On this episode, we're talking to Margaret Poe, Head of Consumer Content & Global Digital Experiences for TransUnion, to learn about new tools and be reminded of other options to protect ourselves this holiday season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Gingerbread and Missile Toe also bring out scammers
and thieves, and protecting yourself is important, experts A. Consumers
should be checking their credit report regularly and some of
us need a credit literacy refresher. On this episode, we're
talking to Margaret Poe, head of Consumer Content and Global
(00:27):
Digital Experiences for TransUnion, to learn about new tools and
to be reminded of other options to protect ourselves this
holiday season.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the show, miss Poe. I'm so glad you
could make some time to talk to us today. It
is the season for scams.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Right exactly. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So, why don't you start by telling everybody kind of
what you do, What is your job, what makes you
the expert in this field?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So, I'm really thrilled to be working at TransUnion. Your
listeners may know us as one of the three major
credit bureaus of the United States. It's US experience in equifect.
We are based in Chicago, but we operate globally and
a big part of my role is talking to folks
like you and trying to get the information out there
(01:18):
about how to protect their credit and data identity, and
so that is everything from you know, how to avoid
falling victim to scams, how to protect your credit proactively,
and how to respond if you are a victim of
identity sect.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, so all those are extremely valuable things. I'm sure,
thankfully I have not had to deal with much of
any of that. I should probably knock on something, but
today we're talking about the kind of online offers and
things like that that kind of trip people up right,
what's your best advice during the holidays.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, the holidays are such a busy time of year.
You know, it can be really wonderful and fantastic meeting
with family and friends. At the same time, it can
be technic and stressful, and scammers know that, and they
know that people are really out there shopping, so it
can be a time when people do fall with them
to scams or frauds. So there are a couple of
(02:19):
things that would typically recommend. One is just the overall
idea of being suspicious if something seems too good to
be true, if it's an offer that doesn't really seem
like a real offer, take a beat, think about whether
it is real, try to look into it and do
your research before you commit to anything. So yeah, that's
(02:44):
really the first tip in terms of just like being wary,
being suspicious, and communicating that to others in your world,
to your family and friends. You know, if somebody's talking
about this great offer they got, you know, over the phone,
really careful them to look into it. To look up
the company that allegedly was calling them, find the actual
(03:06):
phoneubro online, call them and ask so do your diligence
and really look into it. Another big steps that we
recommend is taking proactive steps to protect your credit. So
at Transnion and the other bureaus, we offer what's called
a credit freeze, which is a great proactive step you
can take to protect your credit. And when you place
(03:29):
the credit freeze, it's completely free. You could do it
online really quickly, in just a couple of minutes with
each of the bureaus. And when you do that, then
no one can actually take out credit in your name fraudulently.
So if someone a fraudster was trying to create a
credit card in your name, say they got a hold
of some of your personal information as they tried to
(03:52):
take out that credit card, they would be blocked and
they wouldn't be able to open it up, and then
you wouldn't be subject to that fraud. Credit freeze is
a really good tool that we recommend people take advantage.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of, Okay, And is that a complicated process?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's really not. You can do it with all three bureaus,
that's Transnion Experience and Equifax. You can do it online.
Just takes a couple of minutes creating an account, setting
it up, and then freezing it. And if you then
do need to take out credit, say you're taking out
a new credit card, you're applying for a mortgage, you
can unfreeze it or temporarily lift the freeze, do your shopping,
(04:32):
you know, do that credit inquiry, and then freeze it again.
So it doesn't hamper you from doing what you need
to do in terms of accessing credit, but it does
protect you from fraud.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay. And I know some people will freeze their debit
card or their credit card and only unlock it when
they use it, and that's helpful too, but this is
kind of better than.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That, right, Yeah, it's different, and that can be a
source of the confusion. So I'm glad that you're referencing
that you can do that that can be a great
way to protect yourself. But a credit freeze with directly
with the burous is really a surefireware way to protect yourself.
So with a credit freeze, your credit is completely frozen
(05:19):
and no one can take out credit in your name.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Okay, And when it comes to a credit freeze, my
other question would be, when you have a new baby
and you get their Social Security card, should you consider
freezing their credit until they're eighteen? Is that something that's
worth doing or is it really not a worry.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought that up. We
have found that childhood md seft is increasing. It's an
increasing threat, and it's not something that a lot of
people are aware of. So when you are under eighteen,
you don't typically have credit unless a parent or other
trusted adult ads you have an authorized user on their
(05:58):
credit card for example, But for the most part, you
don't have credit. You don't have a credit report if
you're under eighteen. However, if someone gets access to a
miner's personal information and takes out they have credit card
in their name, a loan of some kind, then they
would have this credit on their account, which is of
course fudulent. So if you do freeze the miner's credit,
(06:23):
that can help protect them from that happening. And we
have information on how to do this on our website
at TransUnion dot com. We have step by step for
how to freeze the miner's credit.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Okay, so that's really helpful. What about you know, I
know it's the holidays, we're shopping, we're doing stuff. I
love the idea of freezing your credit. But let's say
you're in the process of getting a mortgage or a
car loan or some other thing that requires you to
use your credit. Are those the kind of things that
you can still lock it back or do you need
(06:56):
to leave it unlocked for a while.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah. So when you are actively shopping for credit, whether
it's say you're looking to buy a house, in general,
we recommend that you try to bunch your inquiries within
a couple of weeks, so you know, once you've made
an offer, it's accepted. Then you go into the underwriting
process and you're shopping for mortgage. It is smart shop
(07:19):
around and to get a couple of different quotes from
different lenders. And if you do that in a pretty
short period of time, say a couple of weeks, on
your credit reboard, it will effectively be counted as one
hard inquiry. So that's a good thing for your overall
credit because you still may see a hit to your
credit score, but it's going to be less than if
(07:39):
you were shopping for, you know, a mortgage over a
long period of time six or eight weeks or something.
If you're doing that, then you may have the impact
of a couple hard inquiries, But if you're shopping just
within a couple of weeks, then it really only has
the impact to one heart inquiry. And at the same time,
then if you're unfree is your credit you're only unfreezing
(08:01):
for that couple of weeks, and then once you're done,
you know, doing that shopping and you've locked in the mortgage,
you can freeze again.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay, so let's talk credit scores from it. I know
that at least in my lifetime, I've known of at
least once or twice where it's the way it's calculated
has been changed and adjusted and different things have had
different weights added to them or taken up, you know,
taken off. Yeah, things like that. There's also speculation and
(08:33):
this course is coming from online, so take that for
what it is. But you know, wealthier people are suggesting that.
You know, granted, when you're wealthy, maybe your credit score
doesn't matter as much because you're using debt to build wealth.
But for the average person who doesn't have that kind
of wealth, how important is your credit score?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah, I love that you brought this up because there
are a couple miss conceptions and kind of confusions that
are out there when I'm talking about a credit score.
I think it can be helpful to start with the
credit report. So your credit report is really the list
of all of the credit you've taken out or inquired
(09:17):
into taking out. You know, if you apply for a
credit card and you get a hard inquiry, that shows
up on your credit report. You'll also see any credit
accounts that are being reported to the bureaus. So if
you have a credit card, if you have a student loan,
a personal loan, an auto loan, a mortgage, these types
of accounts all if you're on your credit report. Along
(09:37):
with public record information things like bankruptcyes or collections, all
of that information is on your credit report, and these
lenders are reporting that information to the bureaus. Like Transunions
about once a month. So if you're paying your get
your credit card bill once a month, you pay it
once a month. That payment history is then being reported
(10:00):
on your report once a month and stuffated about monthly.
All that to say that the credit report, you know,
it's changing pretty frequently and the different banks or lenders
are reporting at different times of a month. So where
your credit report stands at the beginning of the month
maybe been different than at the end of the month.
(10:21):
That's all the report, and you can get your report
for free every week. You can get that through annual
Credit Report dot com as well as directly from TransUnion
through Credit Essentials, you can get that for free, and
you can download that from TransUnion dot com. So the
credit score is a number that is based on the
information in your report. There are different models, and those models,
(10:46):
to your points, tend to be based on algorithms that
do shift over time. If you get a score from TransUnion,
it will be what's called advantage score three point zero
credit score. You may have also heard of a Pyco score.
They're both scores. They both you know, are three digit
number based on your report, but the algorithm that makes
(11:10):
up that score just varies a little bit from model
to the model and in terms of the factors that
go into it. So I'm mentioning an algorithm. The algorithm
is really looking at a couple of different factors. The
most important across all the models is going to be
your payment history. So if there's one thing that I
(11:30):
really like to stress this folks who you know, maybe
they don't have time to learn about every single credit
scoring factor in depth, that's fine. If there's really one
thing to stress, it's that payment history. So making a
payment on time every month is absolutely critical. Just one
mispayment can have a negative impact on your score.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Okay, we can only check our credit report like once
a year, right.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, that's another interesting point because one that has actually
changed so where you can get all three of your
credit reports from a website called Annualcreditreport dot com, and
we definitely recommend folks go there. You can get your
reports from Transient Experience and Equobax, and it's really critical
that you do that, review them and make sure everything's accurate. However,
(12:18):
since the pandemic, actually you've been able to get these
reports on a weekly basis through that site. So it's
called annual credit reports dot Com. But you can actually
get your reports on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Okay, So that's helpful for keeping track of everything and
knowing if something pops up, you know, if you're taking
if you're watching it, then you'll notice kind.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Of like your bank account exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay. So as far as the holidays go, I know,
this is a time when a lot of people use
their credit cards to buy gifts and whatnot. What's your
advice about that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, it can be a time of increased spending for
a lot of folks, be included. You know, you're buying flights,
go visit family, you're buying presents, you're buying holiday meals.
There's a lot that can really end up add up
at the end of the year. And so I mentioned
that that first most important credit score factor is your
payment history. The second most important factor is credit usage
(13:17):
or credit utilization, and what that means is the amount
of your total available credit on a revolving basis that
you're using. So, say you have one credit card and
it has a limit of just one thousand dollars. If
you spent five hundred dollars in a given month, you know,
during the holiday season, because you're buying all these things,
(13:39):
you'd be using fifty percent of your total credit. There'd
be a fifty percent credit utilization ratio. That doesn't maybe
sound that bad if you're thinking about it. You're not
using all your credit, but in fact, we recommend that
you keep that utilization at thirty percent or lower if
you can. With the lower it is the better because
the ratio it really does have a significant impact on
(14:04):
your credit score, and it is based on all of
your revolving credit. So if you just have that one
credit card with one thousand dollars limit, you'd want to
be spending say three hundred dollars in a month or less.
If you had two credit cards each with a thousand
dollars limit, then you know you could you could double
that and keep within that utilization ratio. So you can
(14:26):
control your utilization ratio basically in two ways. You can
increase the amount of total credit you have available to you,
and you can reduce them you were spending in a
given month.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Okay, so let's say that somebody heard that and they're like, well,
I need to, you know, look at expanding my credit.
So I'm going to look into getting another credit card
or something. What factors do the banks and whatnot look
at when deciding whether to open up a second line
of credit or a new card or a loan or
(15:01):
something like that. When it comes to somebody, you know,
when they're applying for those things, are what are the
financial agencies looking at?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, so when you're looking to take out credit, the
lender will be considering your finances and your credit. When
it comes to your credit, they'll be looking at your
credit score, and that of course is based on your
payment history, your overall utilization, the number of inquiries you
have on your report, and the mix of credit you have.
(15:32):
In general, it's better to have a mix of credit types,
so an installment account like a mortgage, as well as
a revolving account like a credit card. So a lender
will be considering all of these things in your overall
credit score to determine if you're a good risk, you know,
a good person to lend credit to. If they determine
(15:55):
that you are and you're approved, you'll typically have a
hard inquiry that'll show up on your report and they
impact your score. But at the same time, if you're
applying for a new credit card, you're going to benefit
from that increased credit limit, and that can help your
utilization and of course just give you access to additional
credit should you need it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay. And I always heard the you called them installments
and revolving and I've heard that, but I've also heard
them called secure and unsecure credit. I know what that means,
but could you explain it for anyone in the audience
that hasn't heard that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, So, a secured, say, credit card, would be one
where you put some kind of collateral against it, you know,
whether it's money or an asset. Unsecured would be whether
where you don't have that in place.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay. And that would apply to loans as well, So
like when you take out your car loan that is
secured because your car would be repossessed if you don't
pay it. Correct, Yep, exactly, Okay, what is Can you
give us an example and just a one. I mean,
we're not looking for anybody's credit report, but just a
generic example of what it would look like to have
(17:07):
a good, diverse amount of credit if you're looking to
open a new line, versus what it would look like
to be you know, not as good of a candidate
for that extra line of credit.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah. Yeah, So in general, there are different factors that
come into play, and the payment history, like I mentioned,
is a big one. The utilization is another important factor.
But another factor that is still important is your credit mix.
So it's like I was saying that you want to
have ideally an insolvent loan, whether that's a student loan,
(17:47):
a personal loan, or a mortgage car loan potentially as
well as a credit card that's revolving. And if you
can have a couple of credit cards that will increase
your limit, and then as long as you have that
strong payment history on them, that can really improve your
credit standing overall. Now, we know that access to credit
(18:10):
is something that a lot of people have to kind
of work toward, and you start without any credit basically,
you know, like I was saying, up until you're eighteen,
you can't take out credit for the most part. Maybe
you could be an authorized user, but in general, you
have to start building credit once you're eighteen and older,
and that can be kind of a slow and gradual process.
(18:33):
So there are different products and services that are available
to help people start building credit from scratch. You can't
just necessarily start from zero and get like a really
enticing credit card, you probably wouldn't be approved, but you
could start from zero and maybe get a credit builder
loan where you know, put in a certain amount of
(18:54):
money and then pay back the payments on a monthly basis.
That gets reported to the bureaus and you can build
credit that way. If you are able to become an
authorized user on someone else's credit account, that can be
another way to build your credit history. That can work
well with parents and children or other family members, as
(19:14):
long as both people in the relationships agree to be
responsible with that credit. So these are a couple of
ways that you can build credit, and it is something
that we like to stress is gradual and happens over time,
it doesn't happen overnight. And it maybe also that once
you then can get a credit card, it's a relatively
(19:36):
low limit credit card, so then you're not even able
to spend too much on it because of that utilization factor.
But if you pay it regularly each month, likely over time,
you can inquire with that lender ask them to increase
your limit, and if you have a good credit history,
they'll be able to increase that. So that's another way
(19:58):
to expand your access to credit over time.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Okay, And when we're talking about holidays, do people tend
to take out additional credit cards this time of the
year or is that just my imagination?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
No, they definitely do, and in fact that transnion. We
did some Consumer Pulse research just this month and we
found that, in fact, nearly one hundred and seventy five
million Americans have at least one active credit card, and
going into this holiday season, we do expect more folks
to be opening cards because as they shop this holiday season,
(20:35):
consumers are telling us in this research that they're planning
to use credit cards overall forms of payment. So credit
cards are really the preferred payment method and it's what
folks are intending to use this holiday season.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Okay. Now, would you say, given your position that the
more people are using credit cards, does that have any
indication on the health or stability of our economy? Do
you think?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, it's it's a really interesting question because we see
credit usage go up and down. Over the past two years,
we've been seeing it increasing, and like I said, we
or expect to see that continuing to increase the use
of credit is something that's good. We believe that, you know,
having access to credit is helpful for Americans. They can
(21:26):
tap into that as stand emergency happens, but it's also
just a good way to responsibly spend their money, pay
it back, and build up this credit over time, because
once you build up a healthy credit history, you can
access that going forward. Then if something unexpected happens, you
can always tap into that credit. You know, if we
see an increase in delinquencies, that can be a sign
(21:48):
that consumers maybe are struggling. But right now, yeah, we're
expecting to see that growth in credit usage. And as
long as consumers are aware of what it takes to
use credit responsibly, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, And let me ask you this. As I was
growing up, one of the things that I was taught
a little bit into my adult life was even though
we grow up and as kids we think credit is
credit is credit. You know, if all I'm doing is
(22:25):
things from a rent a center or ordering from finger Hut, yeah,
I know these places, you know, these places that market
a lot to low socioeconomic minorities and low income families.
If if that's where I use the majority of my credit,
(22:47):
and I don't ever branch out to something that's considered
more reputable. Do you pigeonhole yourself when it comes to
stuff like that? Is that actually still possible?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah. We recommend that people really read the fine print
and especially the terms when they take out any credit
because there are, like you're saying, a lot of different
opportunities available, Like, for example, there's credit card, but there's
also a buy now, pay later loan, and you know,
both can be good options, but it's important that you're
looking through the details and you understand what kind of
(23:21):
interest rate you're going to be paying. I think that's
really the most critical thing to consider. If you are
using a service that has a high interest rate and
you know you're not paying your balance and full, say
with their credit card, then you're paying that interest each month,
and that can really add up quickly. You may have
it may not have necessarily a negative impact on your
(23:44):
credit per se if you're paying that every month, but
if you're paying an interest when you know maybe if
you were spending less or using a different payment method
you wouldn't pay interest, that has a pretty negative impact
on your overall finances. So that's why I think it's
really important to shop around and be critical about where
(24:06):
you're taking out credit and the types of ways that
you're using your money. We actually have a product that
TransUnion is called Credit Essential. You can sign up for
free on our website Transiti dot com and this gives
you access to your report and score from TransUnion and
in addition, it gives you access to personalized offers. So
that can be a good way to shop around pretty
(24:28):
easily and see, Okay, if I'm looking for some additional
access to credit, here are say some credit cards I
may be likely to qualify for, and I can get
that information right there instead of having to really shop
around and not know really if it's a trustworthy source
of information.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I love that, and so let me ask you this. Obviously,
each of the credit bureaus has a different way that
they calculate the score, although they're usually within a certain points,
you know, close together. But then when we go to
do different things, whether it's by a car or buy
a house, you know, open a new credit card, there
(25:09):
are different ways that each of those things is calculated
as well. So how do we really know when we're
looking to use our credit if we're in the process
of rebuilding and we don't have a super great score.
But it's not awful.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
How do we know what.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Our credit score actually is going to be for the
transaction the thing that we're trying to get credit for.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, that's a really great question, and that's when that
comes up a lot when we're talking to folks out
in the community, because you're right, there are different credit scores,
and typically for different types of transactions, they use different scores.
In general, like you say, they should be pretty close.
So if you're checking your report and you're checking your score,
(25:53):
say with it, whether it's with TransUnion or somewhere else,
if it's the app built into your bank, you'll have
a good sense of where you stand on at least
one of the reputable models. So tracking that over time
can be really important, and we do try to stress
that you don't need to obsess over relatively small changes
(26:14):
in your score. It'll fluctuate naturally throughout the month, throughout
the year as information is added or remote from your report.
So in general, if you have a good sense of
where you stand and you're checking that report and score,
that'll be a good way to more or less know
where you stand. If you are looking to, say, apply
(26:34):
for a mortgage or you're looking to buy a home.
A pre qualification or pre approval can be a good
way to get a more precise sense of where you
stand and what's going to be available to you. And
you can get that from a lender. You know, when
you're starting to shop for a home, you can go
to a lender and ask for a pre qualification or
(26:55):
a pre approval and then they can tell you about
what you know, amount of financing that would be available
to you in the interest rate.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Okay, sounds great. So I know we're coming up close
to the end of our time. Let me ask you this.
I'm just curious. You're the expert here. Is there anything
the audience needs to know that I didn't know I
needed to ask you about it?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, that is a great question. I think there when
it comes to fraud, maybe that's where it might be
helpful to just stress a couple other things. So we
talked about protecting yourself with a credit freeze. That's a
great tool to lock down your credit and really protect yourself.
(27:39):
But of course, there are many folks who are dealing
with an identity saft situation and they may be wondering
what do I do next. What we recommend is that
they say they're reviewing their report and they notice something suspicious,
they'll look see what that lender is that they don't recognize.
Recommend calling them directly. You should find the information there
(28:01):
on your report, telling them that you don't recognize the transaction,
do you believe a fraud? And then the next thing
that you'd want to do is to dispute that information
with the credit bureaus. And you can do that with
TransUnion and the other bureaus. And that's a really good
way to handle that fraudulent information on your report and
(28:23):
then get it removed.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Okay, wonderful. All right, So unfortunately we are going to
have to say goodbye, but I want to give you
another chance to plug a couple of those websites, not
just you know, your employer, but the credit essentials and
where to get your credit report.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, so it is really important, like we've been talking about,
to check both your report and your score. And you
can get all three of your credit reports from Annualcreditreport
dot com. Despite the name, you can actually get them
every week. So that's a really convenient resource for folks.
And then the other thing that i'd recommend is that
you get your you can get actually a daily report
(29:04):
and score directly from TransUnion, and that is an app
that you can download at TransUnion dot com. You'll see
your report and score along with those first lines offers
that I mentioned.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Wonderful. That sounds awesome. Well, thank you so much for
coming on the show and for making time to discuss
all these things, because I know somebody out there is
hopefully going to learn something today and be able to
better protect themselves.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News
Network and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
Welcome to Virginia Focus. I'm Rebecca Hughes of the Virginia
News Network. Gingerbread and Missile Toe also bring out scammers
and thieves, and protecting yourself is important, experts A. Consumers
should be checking their credit report regularly and some of
us need a credit literacy refresher. On this episode, we're
talking to Margaret Poe, head of Consumer Content and Global
(00:27):
Digital Experiences for TransUnion, to learn about new tools and
to be reminded of other options to protect ourselves this
holiday season.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Welcome to the show, miss Poe. I'm so glad you
could make some time to talk to us today. It
is the season for scams.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Right exactly. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So, why don't you start by telling everybody kind of
what you do, What is your job, what makes you
the expert in this field?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So, I'm really thrilled to be working at TransUnion. Your
listeners may know us as one of the three major
credit bureaus of the United States. It's US experience in equifect.
We are based in Chicago, but we operate globally and
a big part of my role is talking to folks
like you and trying to get the information out there
(01:18):
about how to protect their credit and data identity, and
so that is everything from you know, how to avoid
falling victim to scams, how to protect your credit proactively,
and how to respond if you are a victim of
identity sect.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Okay, so all those are extremely valuable things. I'm sure,
thankfully I have not had to deal with much of
any of that. I should probably knock on something, but
today we're talking about the kind of online offers and
things like that that kind of trip people up right,
what's your best advice during the holidays.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, the holidays are such a busy time of year.
You know, it can be really wonderful and fantastic meeting
with family and friends. At the same time, it can
be technic and stressful, and scammers know that, and they
know that people are really out there shopping, so it
can be a time when people do fall with them
to scams or frauds. So there are a couple of
(02:19):
things that would typically recommend. One is just the overall
idea of being suspicious if something seems too good to
be true, if it's an offer that doesn't really seem
like a real offer, take a beat, think about whether
it is real, try to look into it and do
your research before you commit to anything. So yeah, that's
(02:44):
really the first tip in terms of just like being wary,
being suspicious, and communicating that to others in your world,
to your family and friends. You know, if somebody's talking
about this great offer they got, you know, over the phone,
really careful them to look into it. To look up
the company that allegedly was calling them, find the actual
(03:06):
phoneubro online, call them and ask so do your diligence
and really look into it. Another big steps that we
recommend is taking proactive steps to protect your credit. So
at Transnion and the other bureaus, we offer what's called
a credit freeze, which is a great proactive step you
can take to protect your credit. And when you place
(03:29):
the credit freeze, it's completely free. You could do it
online really quickly, in just a couple of minutes with
each of the bureaus. And when you do that, then
no one can actually take out credit in your name fraudulently.
So if someone a fraudster was trying to create a
credit card in your name, say they got a hold
of some of your personal information as they tried to
(03:52):
take out that credit card, they would be blocked and
they wouldn't be able to open it up, and then
you wouldn't be subject to that fraud. Credit freeze is
a really good tool that we recommend people take advantage.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of, Okay, And is that a complicated process?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
It's really not. You can do it with all three bureaus,
that's Transnion Experience and Equifax. You can do it online.
Just takes a couple of minutes creating an account, setting
it up, and then freezing it. And if you then
do need to take out credit, say you're taking out
a new credit card, you're applying for a mortgage, you
can unfreeze it or temporarily lift the freeze, do your shopping,
(04:32):
you know, do that credit inquiry, and then freeze it again.
So it doesn't hamper you from doing what you need
to do in terms of accessing credit, but it does
protect you from fraud.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Okay. And I know some people will freeze their debit
card or their credit card and only unlock it when
they use it, and that's helpful too, but this is
kind of better than.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That, right, Yeah, it's different, and that can be a
source of the confusion. So I'm glad that you're referencing
that you can do that that can be a great
way to protect yourself. But a credit freeze with directly
with the burous is really a surefireware way to protect yourself.
So with a credit freeze, your credit is completely frozen
(05:19):
and no one can take out credit in your name.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Okay, And when it comes to a credit freeze, my
other question would be, when you have a new baby
and you get their Social Security card, should you consider
freezing their credit until they're eighteen? Is that something that's
worth doing or is it really not a worry.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought that up. We
have found that childhood md seft is increasing. It's an
increasing threat, and it's not something that a lot of
people are aware of. So when you are under eighteen,
you don't typically have credit unless a parent or other
trusted adult ads you have an authorized user on their
(05:58):
credit card for example, But for the most part, you
don't have credit. You don't have a credit report if
you're under eighteen. However, if someone gets access to a
miner's personal information and takes out they have credit card
in their name, a loan of some kind, then they
would have this credit on their account, which is of
course fudulent. So if you do freeze the miner's credit,
(06:23):
that can help protect them from that happening. And we
have information on how to do this on our website
at TransUnion dot com. We have step by step for
how to freeze the miner's credit.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Okay, so that's really helpful. What about you know, I
know it's the holidays, we're shopping, we're doing stuff. I
love the idea of freezing your credit. But let's say
you're in the process of getting a mortgage or a
car loan or some other thing that requires you to
use your credit. Are those the kind of things that
you can still lock it back or do you need
(06:56):
to leave it unlocked for a while.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah. So when you are actively shopping for credit, whether
it's say you're looking to buy a house, in general,
we recommend that you try to bunch your inquiries within
a couple of weeks, so you know, once you've made
an offer, it's accepted. Then you go into the underwriting
process and you're shopping for mortgage. It is smart shop
(07:19):
around and to get a couple of different quotes from
different lenders. And if you do that in a pretty
short period of time, say a couple of weeks, on
your credit reboard, it will effectively be counted as one
hard inquiry. So that's a good thing for your overall
credit because you still may see a hit to your
credit score, but it's going to be less than if
(07:39):
you were shopping for, you know, a mortgage over a
long period of time six or eight weeks or something.
If you're doing that, then you may have the impact
of a couple hard inquiries, But if you're shopping just
within a couple of weeks, then it really only has
the impact to one heart inquiry. And at the same time,
then if you're unfree is your credit you're only unfreezing
(08:01):
for that couple of weeks, and then once you're done,
you know, doing that shopping and you've locked in the mortgage,
you can freeze again.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay, so let's talk credit scores from it. I know
that at least in my lifetime, I've known of at
least once or twice where it's the way it's calculated
has been changed and adjusted and different things have had
different weights added to them or taken up, you know,
taken off. Yeah, things like that. There's also speculation and
(08:33):
this course is coming from online, so take that for
what it is. But you know, wealthier people are suggesting that.
You know, granted, when you're wealthy, maybe your credit score
doesn't matter as much because you're using debt to build wealth.
But for the average person who doesn't have that kind
of wealth, how important is your credit score?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Yeah, I love that you brought this up because there
are a couple miss conceptions and kind of confusions that
are out there when I'm talking about a credit score.
I think it can be helpful to start with the
credit report. So your credit report is really the list
of all of the credit you've taken out or inquired
(09:17):
into taking out. You know, if you apply for a
credit card and you get a hard inquiry, that shows
up on your credit report. You'll also see any credit
accounts that are being reported to the bureaus. So if
you have a credit card, if you have a student loan,
a personal loan, an auto loan, a mortgage, these types
of accounts all if you're on your credit report. Along
(09:37):
with public record information things like bankruptcyes or collections, all
of that information is on your credit report, and these
lenders are reporting that information to the bureaus. Like Transunions
about once a month. So if you're paying your get
your credit card bill once a month, you pay it
once a month. That payment history is then being reported
(10:00):
on your report once a month and stuffated about monthly.
All that to say that the credit report, you know,
it's changing pretty frequently and the different banks or lenders
are reporting at different times of a month. So where
your credit report stands at the beginning of the month
maybe been different than at the end of the month.
(10:21):
That's all the report, and you can get your report
for free every week. You can get that through annual
Credit Report dot com as well as directly from TransUnion
through Credit Essentials, you can get that for free, and
you can download that from TransUnion dot com. So the
credit score is a number that is based on the
information in your report. There are different models, and those models,
(10:46):
to your points, tend to be based on algorithms that
do shift over time. If you get a score from TransUnion,
it will be what's called advantage score three point zero
credit score. You may have also heard of a Pyco score.
They're both scores. They both you know, are three digit
number based on your report, but the algorithm that makes
(11:10):
up that score just varies a little bit from model
to the model and in terms of the factors that
go into it. So I'm mentioning an algorithm. The algorithm
is really looking at a couple of different factors. The
most important across all the models is going to be
your payment history. So if there's one thing that I
(11:30):
really like to stress this folks who you know, maybe
they don't have time to learn about every single credit
scoring factor in depth, that's fine. If there's really one
thing to stress, it's that payment history. So making a
payment on time every month is absolutely critical. Just one
mispayment can have a negative impact on your score.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Okay, we can only check our credit report like once
a year, right.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, that's another interesting point because one that has actually
changed so where you can get all three of your
credit reports from a website called Annualcreditreport dot com, and
we definitely recommend folks go there. You can get your
reports from Transient Experience and Equobax, and it's really critical
that you do that, review them and make sure everything's accurate. However,
(12:18):
since the pandemic, actually you've been able to get these
reports on a weekly basis through that site. So it's
called annual credit reports dot Com. But you can actually
get your reports on a weekly basis.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Okay, So that's helpful for keeping track of everything and
knowing if something pops up, you know, if you're taking
if you're watching it, then you'll notice kind.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Of like your bank account exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Okay. So as far as the holidays go, I know,
this is a time when a lot of people use
their credit cards to buy gifts and whatnot. What's your
advice about that.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, it can be a time of increased spending for
a lot of folks, be included. You know, you're buying flights,
go visit family, you're buying presents, you're buying holiday meals.
There's a lot that can really end up add up
at the end of the year. And so I mentioned
that that first most important credit score factor is your
payment history. The second most important factor is credit usage
(13:17):
or credit utilization, and what that means is the amount
of your total available credit on a revolving basis that
you're using. So, say you have one credit card and
it has a limit of just one thousand dollars. If
you spent five hundred dollars in a given month, you know,
during the holiday season, because you're buying all these things,
(13:39):
you'd be using fifty percent of your total credit. There'd
be a fifty percent credit utilization ratio. That doesn't maybe
sound that bad if you're thinking about it. You're not
using all your credit, but in fact, we recommend that
you keep that utilization at thirty percent or lower if
you can. With the lower it is the better because
the ratio it really does have a significant impact on
(14:04):
your credit score, and it is based on all of
your revolving credit. So if you just have that one
credit card with one thousand dollars limit, you'd want to
be spending say three hundred dollars in a month or less.
If you had two credit cards each with a thousand
dollars limit, then you know you could you could double
that and keep within that utilization ratio. So you can
(14:26):
control your utilization ratio basically in two ways. You can
increase the amount of total credit you have available to you,
and you can reduce them you were spending in a
given month.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Okay, so let's say that somebody heard that and they're like, well,
I need to, you know, look at expanding my credit.
So I'm going to look into getting another credit card
or something. What factors do the banks and whatnot look
at when deciding whether to open up a second line
of credit or a new card or a loan or
(15:01):
something like that. When it comes to somebody, you know,
when they're applying for those things, are what are the
financial agencies looking at?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, so when you're looking to take out credit, the
lender will be considering your finances and your credit. When
it comes to your credit, they'll be looking at your
credit score, and that of course is based on your
payment history, your overall utilization, the number of inquiries you
have on your report, and the mix of credit you have.
(15:32):
In general, it's better to have a mix of credit types,
so an installment account like a mortgage, as well as
a revolving account like a credit card. So a lender
will be considering all of these things in your overall
credit score to determine if you're a good risk, you know,
a good person to lend credit to. If they determine
(15:55):
that you are and you're approved, you'll typically have a
hard inquiry that'll show up on your report and they
impact your score. But at the same time, if you're
applying for a new credit card, you're going to benefit
from that increased credit limit, and that can help your
utilization and of course just give you access to additional
credit should you need it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay. And I always heard the you called them installments
and revolving and I've heard that, but I've also heard
them called secure and unsecure credit. I know what that means,
but could you explain it for anyone in the audience
that hasn't heard that.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, So, a secured, say, credit card, would be one
where you put some kind of collateral against it, you know,
whether it's money or an asset. Unsecured would be whether
where you don't have that in place.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Okay. And that would apply to loans as well, So
like when you take out your car loan that is
secured because your car would be repossessed if you don't
pay it. Correct, Yep, exactly, Okay, what is Can you
give us an example and just a one. I mean,
we're not looking for anybody's credit report, but just a
generic example of what it would look like to have
(17:07):
a good, diverse amount of credit if you're looking to
open a new line, versus what it would look like
to be you know, not as good of a candidate
for that extra line of credit.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah. Yeah, So in general, there are different factors that
come into play, and the payment history, like I mentioned,
is a big one. The utilization is another important factor.
But another factor that is still important is your credit mix.
So it's like I was saying that you want to
have ideally an insolvent loan, whether that's a student loan,
(17:47):
a personal loan, or a mortgage car loan potentially as
well as a credit card that's revolving. And if you
can have a couple of credit cards that will increase
your limit, and then as long as you have that
strong payment history on them, that can really improve your
credit standing overall. Now, we know that access to credit
(18:10):
is something that a lot of people have to kind
of work toward, and you start without any credit basically,
you know, like I was saying, up until you're eighteen,
you can't take out credit for the most part. Maybe
you could be an authorized user, but in general, you
have to start building credit once you're eighteen and older,
and that can be kind of a slow and gradual process.
(18:33):
So there are different products and services that are available
to help people start building credit from scratch. You can't
just necessarily start from zero and get like a really
enticing credit card, you probably wouldn't be approved, but you
could start from zero and maybe get a credit builder
loan where you know, put in a certain amount of
(18:54):
money and then pay back the payments on a monthly basis.
That gets reported to the bureaus and you can build
credit that way. If you are able to become an
authorized user on someone else's credit account, that can be
another way to build your credit history. That can work
well with parents and children or other family members, as
(19:14):
long as both people in the relationships agree to be
responsible with that credit. So these are a couple of
ways that you can build credit, and it is something
that we like to stress is gradual and happens over time,
it doesn't happen overnight. And it maybe also that once
you then can get a credit card, it's a relatively
(19:36):
low limit credit card, so then you're not even able
to spend too much on it because of that utilization factor.
But if you pay it regularly each month, likely over time,
you can inquire with that lender ask them to increase
your limit, and if you have a good credit history,
they'll be able to increase that. So that's another way
(19:58):
to expand your access to credit over time.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Okay, And when we're talking about holidays, do people tend
to take out additional credit cards this time of the
year or is that just my imagination?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
No, they definitely do, and in fact that transnion. We
did some Consumer Pulse research just this month and we
found that, in fact, nearly one hundred and seventy five
million Americans have at least one active credit card, and
going into this holiday season, we do expect more folks
to be opening cards because as they shop this holiday season,
(20:35):
consumers are telling us in this research that they're planning
to use credit cards overall forms of payment. So credit
cards are really the preferred payment method and it's what
folks are intending to use this holiday season.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Okay. Now, would you say, given your position that the
more people are using credit cards, does that have any
indication on the health or stability of our economy? Do
you think?
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, it's it's a really interesting question because we see
credit usage go up and down. Over the past two years,
we've been seeing it increasing, and like I said, we
or expect to see that continuing to increase the use
of credit is something that's good. We believe that, you know,
having access to credit is helpful for Americans. They can
(21:26):
tap into that as stand emergency happens, but it's also
just a good way to responsibly spend their money, pay
it back, and build up this credit over time, because
once you build up a healthy credit history, you can
access that going forward. Then if something unexpected happens, you
can always tap into that credit. You know, if we
see an increase in delinquencies, that can be a sign
(21:48):
that consumers maybe are struggling. But right now, yeah, we're
expecting to see that growth in credit usage. And as
long as consumers are aware of what it takes to
use credit responsibly, that's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, And let me ask you this. As I was
growing up, one of the things that I was taught
a little bit into my adult life was even though
we grow up and as kids we think credit is
credit is credit. You know, if all I'm doing is
(22:25):
things from a rent a center or ordering from finger Hut, yeah,
I know these places, you know, these places that market
a lot to low socioeconomic minorities and low income families.
If if that's where I use the majority of my credit,
(22:47):
and I don't ever branch out to something that's considered
more reputable. Do you pigeonhole yourself when it comes to
stuff like that? Is that actually still possible?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah. We recommend that people really read the fine print
and especially the terms when they take out any credit
because there are, like you're saying, a lot of different
opportunities available, Like, for example, there's credit card, but there's
also a buy now, pay later loan, and you know,
both can be good options, but it's important that you're
looking through the details and you understand what kind of
(23:21):
interest rate you're going to be paying. I think that's
really the most critical thing to consider. If you are
using a service that has a high interest rate and
you know you're not paying your balance and full, say
with their credit card, then you're paying that interest each month,
and that can really add up quickly. You may have
it may not have necessarily a negative impact on your
(23:44):
credit per se if you're paying that every month, but
if you're paying an interest when you know maybe if
you were spending less or using a different payment method
you wouldn't pay interest, that has a pretty negative impact
on your overall finances. So that's why I think it's
really important to shop around and be critical about where
(24:06):
you're taking out credit and the types of ways that
you're using your money. We actually have a product that
TransUnion is called Credit Essential. You can sign up for
free on our website Transiti dot com and this gives
you access to your report and score from TransUnion and
in addition, it gives you access to personalized offers. So
that can be a good way to shop around pretty
(24:28):
easily and see, Okay, if I'm looking for some additional
access to credit, here are say some credit cards I
may be likely to qualify for, and I can get
that information right there instead of having to really shop
around and not know really if it's a trustworthy source
of information.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
I love that, and so let me ask you this. Obviously,
each of the credit bureaus has a different way that
they calculate the score, although they're usually within a certain points,
you know, close together. But then when we go to
do different things, whether it's by a car or buy
a house, you know, open a new credit card, there
(25:09):
are different ways that each of those things is calculated
as well. So how do we really know when we're
looking to use our credit if we're in the process
of rebuilding and we don't have a super great score.
But it's not awful.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
How do we know what.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Our credit score actually is going to be for the
transaction the thing that we're trying to get credit for.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, that's a really great question, and that's when that
comes up a lot when we're talking to folks out
in the community, because you're right, there are different credit scores,
and typically for different types of transactions, they use different scores.
In general, like you say, they should be pretty close.
So if you're checking your report and you're checking your score,
(25:53):
say with it, whether it's with TransUnion or somewhere else,
if it's the app built into your bank, you'll have
a good sense of where you stand on at least
one of the reputable models. So tracking that over time
can be really important, and we do try to stress
that you don't need to obsess over relatively small changes
(26:14):
in your score. It'll fluctuate naturally throughout the month, throughout
the year as information is added or remote from your report.
So in general, if you have a good sense of
where you stand and you're checking that report and score,
that'll be a good way to more or less know
where you stand. If you are looking to, say, apply
(26:34):
for a mortgage or you're looking to buy a home.
A pre qualification or pre approval can be a good
way to get a more precise sense of where you
stand and what's going to be available to you. And
you can get that from a lender. You know, when
you're starting to shop for a home, you can go
to a lender and ask for a pre qualification or
(26:55):
a pre approval and then they can tell you about
what you know, amount of financing that would be available
to you in the interest rate.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Okay, sounds great. So I know we're coming up close
to the end of our time. Let me ask you this.
I'm just curious. You're the expert here. Is there anything
the audience needs to know that I didn't know I
needed to ask you about it?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, that is a great question. I think there when
it comes to fraud, maybe that's where it might be
helpful to just stress a couple other things. So we
talked about protecting yourself with a credit freeze. That's a
great tool to lock down your credit and really protect yourself.
(27:39):
But of course, there are many folks who are dealing
with an identity saft situation and they may be wondering
what do I do next. What we recommend is that
they say they're reviewing their report and they notice something suspicious,
they'll look see what that lender is that they don't recognize.
Recommend calling them directly. You should find the information there
(28:01):
on your report, telling them that you don't recognize the transaction,
do you believe a fraud? And then the next thing
that you'd want to do is to dispute that information
with the credit bureaus. And you can do that with
TransUnion and the other bureaus. And that's a really good
way to handle that fraudulent information on your report and
(28:23):
then get it removed.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Okay, wonderful. All right, So unfortunately we are going to
have to say goodbye, but I want to give you
another chance to plug a couple of those websites, not
just you know, your employer, but the credit essentials and
where to get your credit report.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yeah, so it is really important, like we've been talking about,
to check both your report and your score. And you
can get all three of your credit reports from Annualcreditreport
dot com. Despite the name, you can actually get them
every week. So that's a really convenient resource for folks.
And then the other thing that i'd recommend is that
you get your you can get actually a daily report
(29:04):
and score directly from TransUnion, and that is an app
that you can download at TransUnion dot com. You'll see
your report and score along with those first lines offers
that I mentioned.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Wonderful. That sounds awesome. Well, thank you so much for
coming on the show and for making time to discuss
all these things, because I know somebody out there is
hopefully going to learn something today and be able to
better protect themselves.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I hope you've enjoyed today's show. Thanks for tuning into
the show on your favorite local radio station. You can
now listen to this show or past shows through the
iheartapp or on iHeart dot com. Just search for Virginia
Focus under podcasts. I'm Rebecca Hughes with the Virginia News
Network and I'll be here next week on Virginia Focus.
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