July 2, 2025 • 29 mins
Think your credit score is just a number? Think again. In this episode, Jess and Brandon break down the five key components of your FICO score—and why they matter more than you think.
Learn how to:
- Boost your score with smart, strategic moves (not guesswork)
- Avoid the myths that hurt more than help
- Protect yourself from identity theft with simple, overlooked security steps
Your credit score doesn’t define you—but it does impact your financial options. Tune in to take control of your credit and open doors to better rates, approvals, and opportunities.
Visit prenups.com/sugardaddy to learn more about fair prenups that help couples plan for a healthy financial relationship.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:44):
In today's episode, we aregoing to talk about credit, the
five factors that impact yourFICO credit score, checking your
annual credit report andlocking your credit bureaus for
safety.
This is a quick one, but it'sgoing to be meaningful.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sugar Teddy Podcast yo Learn how to make them
pockets grow.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Financial freedom's where we go Smart investments,
money flow meaningful.
Hey babe, what are we talkingabout today?
Today we're talking aboutcredit and what goes into our
credit score, because peopleneed to know that there are a
variety of factors that go intotheir credit score and what you
can do to boost your credit.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, yes, unfortunately, credit is kind of
a game you have to play sadlyIn the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, in the.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
United States, but there is a correct way to play
it and there's a wrong way toplay it, so we want to make sure
that you guys understand whatare the things that you should
be doing in order to help andfit your credit?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yes, and we all know, or should know, that your
credit score can have a positiveimpact on things like the kinds
of loans that you are able toget.
If you need to purchase avehicle, you want to open,
sometimes, your utilitiesgetting a new cell phone,
putting a deposit down on anapartment, getting a new cell
phone, putting a deposit down onan apartment, the higher your
(02:05):
credit score, the more favorableyour terms and conditions, as
well as your interest rate,which we know is what's going to
ultimately determine whatyou're paying and how miserable
that interest rate is.
So the better your credit, thebetter the interest rate
typically is.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Also, the big thing is we want to stress is that
your credit score doesn't defineyou.
So if you've had some issues inthe past, you've had some hard
times where it leads to you nothaving a good credit score.
This is not to shame you oranything of that nature.
This is to provide you withinformation to help you improve
your credit score so that youhave better options available to
you.
(02:42):
Like I said, it doesn't defineyou, but having a good credit
score is very beneficial in alot of ways.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yes, you are not your credit score.
Having a low score fromwhatever has happened in your
past is not who you are as aperson.
It doesn't make you a badperson None of that.
We don't believe any of thathere, so that is not what this
is about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You know also, the thing is too is like okay, if
you have an 800 credit score,congratulations, Good for you,
but it doesn't change you.
I mean, it doesn't make you anybetter than anybody else.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, exactly, but there are things you can do to
boost your credit score.
But the first thing you need toknow is that your credit score,
your FICO credit score, is madeup of five components and they
are broken down by percentages,meaning that all of these five
components are not weightedequally.
So that's an important thing.
So 35% of your credit score ismade up of payment history.
(03:33):
So this is why, if you've everheard, don't close your oldest
credit card, this is one ofthose reasons Because you want
to have that long-termestablished credit.
Because you want to have thatlong-term established credit.
So one thing that my mom and Ithink your mom did for you is
they put us on to their creditcards as authorized users when
we were teenagers.
So, technically, I've had anAmerican Express card since I
(03:57):
was 17 years old, right, so thatis one of my oldest standing
accounts, and what you want tomake sure that you're doing is
that you're paying any kind ofbills on time.
So your payment history onthose longstanding accounts, on
all of your accounts.
But those longstanding accountsreally are important.
So if you want to help boost,for example, your child's credit
(04:19):
score, you can make them anauthorized user If you're using
credit cards responsibly, maybethey get to put their gas on it.
Maybe they, you know, when theygo to the movies they put their
charges on there.
Then it gets paid off and soyou have that good standing of
paying your bills on time.
That's what you're trying tolook for here.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That is the biggest part of your credit score is
making sure that you do not misspayments on any type of loan
that you have, so that you'renot missing credit card payments
, you're not missing studentloan payments, you're not
missing mortgage payments, thosethat is the heaviest weight on
your credit score and it's alsothe hardest thing to come back
from when you've missed a ton ofpayments.
(04:59):
Because basically, what it is isthat they take a timeframe I'm
not sure exactly what thetimeframe is from a year
standpoint, but within, within,like just say, for hypothetical
sake here say five years for thepayments, and if you miss a
payment it's going to take fiveyears for that to roll off.
That's terrible.
So it's like you know, once youmake a payment and you miss one
(05:19):
, it's going to take a long timefor it to roll off.
So you could have kind of likea speeding ticket.
Like a speeding ticket, youcould have missed a couple of
payments, like four years ago,yeah, and now you've made every
single payment on every singleone of your debts, but those
four or few payments that youmissed four years ago are still
going to be there for a certainperiod of time until they roll
off.
Yeah so the biggest thing thatyou want to make it on time.
Early is even better.
Yes, because, like I said, thisis the biggest weighted part of
(05:48):
your credit score.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right, real quick .
I want to speak to the personlistening who feels like they
can't work with a financialplanner yet because they're
carrying a lot of debt.
First of all, I see you and Ineed you to know.
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You're not behind, you're justin a tough season.
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(06:15):
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(06:37):
This is about helping you getunstuck, not making you feel
like you failed.
If this sounds like what you'vebeen needing, go ahead and
schedule a call with me.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's take the first steptogether.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
The next is 30%, which is your credit utilization
, and this is how much of yourallotted credit are you using.
You want to keep this number aslow as possible.
So if you have a credit cardwith a $10,000 limit on it, you
don't want to be sitting at$9,900 on that credit card
because your utilization rate isgoing to be extremely high.
(07:13):
If you can keep yourutilization to under 30%, that's
where you want to be.
I mean the lower the better.
Right.
You want to have a lot ofaccess to funds to this credit
without actually using it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And ideally, in this scenario, when you're saying,
like you know, a 30% crediteulage with the credit cards, we
always stress Did you sayeutelage I mean Is that a word
Usage?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
We're going to have to look that one up.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Usage.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
People love your words and then they'll send me
messages like this really is aword, look, and I'm like okay,
it just sounded really weird.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I don't know.
It came out of nowhere, if youknow if utilage is a word, let
me know.
But for this scenario, you know, with the 30% usage you on your
credit cards, we're stillstressing Pay those off, yes,
Monthly.
Pay off the entire balance eachmonth because you don't want to
have to pay those high interestrates.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, exactly.
So this is also one of thosethings where if you're going to
be calling which we alwaysencourage on an annual, maybe
even once a year, twice a yeartype basis calling your credit
card companies asking them toraise your spend limit, because
(08:25):
that helps inversely positivelyaffect your credit utilization.
If you have a higher allottedamount of money that you can
spend and you're not spending it, then you have a lower
utilization, which is againgoing to factor into this.
So let's say you have a $5,000credit limit on one of your
credit cards, you've been payingon time, maybe you have a zero
balance, you've had it for acouple of years.
Call them A, ask them to loweryour interest rate because you
(08:49):
should be doing that and a lotof times they will, even if it's
for a certain amount of timeand then ask them for a credit
increase because if you have ahigher amount of money that you
could spend and have access tobut you're not using it, that
will positively impact thiscredit utilization score, this
percentage that you want to keepas low as possible.
(09:10):
So typically you can do thatonce, maybe twice a year,
especially if you're in goodstanding and the more credit you
have accessible to you with theleast amount of usage, the
better.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, and for those individuals who are trying to
improve their current creditscore, let's just say you are
sitting right now at 40% creditcard utilization.
Asking for that credit increasecould help drop you to that 30%
, or maybe a little bit lowerthan that, and that will
increase your credit score.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Exactly.
That's where that gaming partcomes in.
Maybe you haven't paid off thatdebt, but if your available
credit goes up, then this islike fractions, right, you're
inversely, percentages,percentages.
Yeah, you're helping yourpercentage.
Your credit history is 15% ofyour score and this is how long
(10:01):
you've had those accounts.
So, again, maybe you have a lotof money in the bank, maybe you
have a ton of savings, but maybeyou've been scared of credit
cards and now it's time topurchase a car, get an apartment
, and they're like, oh, youdon't have any credit history.
And you're like, yeah, I payeverything in cash, I have a ton
of savings.
Like this is what we want,isn't it?
No, it's not.
(10:22):
And this is why it's a game,because we need to.
Especially if we're going tohave teenagers, young adults, we
need to be setting them up tohave a credit history.
And so, again, adding anauthorized user, this is
something that you can do tohelp boost that credit history
for your children.
Because, not having any credithistory, even if you have a ton
of money in the bank, you'reresponsible, you're paying
(10:44):
everything in cash.
Now, banks don't know thatyou're a responsible lender
because you have not borrowedany money right, or a
responsible, not lender, aresponsible borrower, excuse me.
So they want to actually seewhat your history is with
borrowing money and they want tosee that that's a positive one.
(11:04):
So having some sort of credithistory is going to be important
, and it's 15% of your score.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I also want to stress here is that there are
other people within thefinancial social media realm
that are like oh, you don't needcredit cards, you don't need
credit for this and this andthat.
That can be true, but it's amuch more strenuous process to
do anything when you don't havea credit history.
Can it be done?
Yes, Would it be easier if youjust opened up a small credit
(11:33):
card Significantly.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Brandon is talking about Dave Ramsey, who loves to
say that you don't need to havea credit card or credit history
to get a mortgage, which is true, but, again, the process of
proving that you are aresponsible borrower without a
credit history is much moredifficult and requires a lot
more paperwork.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And a lot more money up front.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And a lot more money up front.
So like, why go through that?
Credit cards are not bad wetalk about that all the time If
you use them responsibly youunderstand these components,
like Dave Ramsey looked me inthe face and told me you don't
use credit cards.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, credit cards aren't bad.
It's when you have bad habitsand use credit cards incorrectly
.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Right, but I'm glad that we have the credit history
that we have, because anytimewe've needed a mortgage, a
refinance, a new car, whateverit is, it's been easy breezy
because we have such alongstanding credit history.
10% of your FICO score is newcredit, so how often are you
opening up new lines of credit?
(12:37):
So, whether that's a personalloan, mortgages, car loans,
credit cards, there's like thisfine balance of like.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
This is the gaming part, because they don't want to
see you opening up too many newcredits.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Because then that's just saying to them that's a red
flag that like you don't haveenough money, why are you
opening?
So many new lines of credit,but then you don't want to have
too little, because then thatjust affects your credit score
from a negative standpoint.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right, this is also when, let's say, you are in,
maybe, an underwriting processfor a mortgage, your lender has
probably said don't go and buyanything big, don't open a new
credit card, don't buy a car,don't go buy furniture.
You need to keep whatever's inthis bank account and these
balances as steady as possible.
Right now we are not openingand pulling credit from other
(13:25):
places, so you have to bestrategic.
You have to make sure thatyou're, you know, kind of
playing the game.
So we recently posted I openedtwo credit cards within a day of
each other, which I haven'tdone in years, but one of them
was offering 70,000 AmericanAirlines miles and then the
other one was offering 18 monthsof zero interest for balance
(13:48):
transfers.
And so, because we knew we weregoing to be moving some money
around and some debts around,those two credit cards made a
lot of sense and so I openedthem back to back and I haven't
done anything else since.
Right, my credit score went downtwo points like a month after
and then went up, I think, 12points a month after that.
Again, I knew that we didn'thave anything else coming up.
(14:11):
We weren't going to be openingup any big lines of credit,
nothing like that and because ofthose two credit cards I ended
up adding another almost $50,000to my available credit, so my
utilization score again went waydown.
So it's a game.
You have to be strategic.
But those store credit cardsespecially if you're a younger
(14:33):
person and you're listening tothis, and stay away.
You're at Old Navy andVictoria's Secret and Kohl's and
all these places.
Those are the credit cardswhere I'm like, really stay away
.
Like those APRs are so high.
The benefits do not outweighthe payments.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Also.
The thing is too like.
This is when you also hearabout the difference between,
like, a soft pull and a hardpull for checking your credit
score, and you don't want tohave too many hard pulls because
then that can affect yourcredit score negatively.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, a hard pull is, you know, those car loans,
personal loans, mortgages, softpulls, depending on the type of
credit card, is typically like astore credit card, um.
So sometimes you'll see offerswhere it's like this is not a
hard pull, you know, no dings toyour credit score.
This is why they're saying that, because if you have too many
of those, it will negativelyaffect your score.
(15:23):
So just be mindful.
Yes, and then the last thing isyour credit mix, which comes in
at another 10%.
So, 10% credit mix.
This is what kind of availablemoney do you have to you?
Is it on credit cards?
Is it personal loans?
Do you have a mortgage?
Do you have a car loan?
All of those loans are set updifferently.
A personal loan is set updifferently than a credit card.
(15:45):
A credit card is different froma mortgage.
A mortgage is different from acar loan.
They want to show that you havelike a mixed bag of loans.
Again, not too many.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and once again, this is the game portion of it
that you kind of have to playthe game to make things easier
for yourself in the long runBecause, like I said, you could
be someone that just has.
You're doing well, you have agreat income and you're like why
don't I just pay everything forcash?
This is where it can negativelyaffect you.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Right.
One thing that I really like todo and this is just me kind of
being neurotic, but I reallylove paying off our credit cards
throughout the month, so Idon't wait until the payment due
date.
Some of our credit cards areset up on automatic payments,
especially the ones where wedon't typically spend, so maybe
there's like a randomsubscription that's still on
(16:35):
there for 30 bucks or something.
I'd rather that automaticallypay and may not have to think
about it.
But for the cards that we usefor our daily spending, which
end up being several thousanddollars a month, I like to just
pay that as I think of it, I'llopen my app, I'm looking at our
points, our miles, et cetera,and I just make a payment.
(16:55):
Because, again, all of that isgoing to factor into that
utilization, right?
If I pay off my card two weeksbefore its due date, well, guess
what?
My utilization of what I haveavailable versus what I'm using
has now been processed, and sothose are ways where you can
make smaller payments throughoutthe month, to kind of gamify
(17:17):
this score.
And a lot of times, if you'remaybe going through a credit
repair program, something likethat, they'll tell you make
multiple payments throughout themonth instead of waiting for
you know the actual due date.
There's also a differencebetween the due date and the
statement date.
So those are things that youneed to look at, because that is
a rolling calendar whensomething is due and the
(17:39):
statement close date is notnecessarily the date that your
actual bill is due.
So looking at those and gettingahead of the payments from the
statement close date versus thedue date can be a very positive
thing for your credit score.
Yeah, all right.
So, as a quick recap, 35%payment history, that's are you
(18:01):
making your payments on time?
Don't be in default, don't bedelinquent, don't be late.
Pay on time Absolute bareminimum.
Pay the bare minimum instead ofbeing late.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
One extra call out there is also there is a
difference on your credit scoreif you are 30 days late compared
to 60 days late, compared to 90days late.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And you'll see that on your statement.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So like 30 days late is not as bad as 60 or 90.
But just don't be late.
Yes, that's the idea Don't belate, but just letting you know.
If it happens, if you hit that31st day, go ahead and pay it.
So it's only 30 days late andnot 60 days late.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that's true.
30% is credit utilization.
So again, how much of the moneythat you have available to
borrow are you actually using?
Try to keep that as low aspossible, preferably under 30%,
but the lower the better.
15% is your credit history.
So how long have you hadavailable credit to you?
(18:55):
10% is new credit.
How often are you opening upnew lines of credit for yourself
?
And then, 10% is that creditmix.
Is it a mix of mortgage,personal loan, credit cards, car
loans?
We want to see that there are avariety of loans or assets
available to you, moneyavailable to you.
So keep that in mind the nexttime you you know open a credit
card, get a loan, start payingoff your things.
(19:15):
That there are these fivefactors that go into your credit
score.
Now, these next two things we'vetalked about often.
We cannot stress them enough,especially with all of the
online shopping.
Most of us have our cards savedto various portals or Amazons
or you know whatever.
It is Shopify.
You need to make sure that yoursocial security number on
(19:38):
Experian, transunion and Equifaxis stored as a freeze, so you
can go into TransUnion, equifaxand Experian and basically
freeze your credit, and whatthat means is that somebody else
cannot open a new line ofcredit in your name.
(20:00):
So this is where we're talkingabout having your identity
stolen, right?
We don't want that.
We don't want to see thatpeople are opening accounts in
our name, and so the easiest andfastest and freest way that you
can do that is to freeze yourcredit bureaus.
You can thaw them or unfreezethem at any time.
(20:22):
So when I just talked aboutopening those two credit cards,
I actually had to go in.
Yes, it's a little bit of apain in the butt, but guess what
?
I'm never tempted to open arandom store credit card or, you
know, get got at the counter tosave 10%, because I have to go
through a whole process to thawmy credit in order to open up my
bureaus so that my credit canbe pulled.
(20:44):
So this is one of the best waysthat you can safeguard yourself
from fraudulent activity, aswell as people opening credit in
your name.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, this is the easiest way, because when your
identity is stolen, one of thefirst things they're going to do
is try to open up a new creditcard.
Yep, because that's the easiest, because none of it has to be
done in person.
Nothing of that nature could doit all online, and so freezing
your credit bureaus completelyprevents that from occurring.
So, you know, it's like I said,like just as you have to set up
an online profile for each ofthe separate bureau bureaus, and
(21:17):
then you can go ahead andeasily take a button.
You just click, go ahead andfreeze it all.
It is so simple, simple and somany people don't do it.
It is crazy, like honestly, todo all three.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
take the maybe 20, 30 minutes to set them all up to
set them all up and have themfrozen I've had mine frozen for
so long that, like I still havethe paper copies of it because
they didn't always have anonline portal.
Now on Experian, TransUnion andEquifax, you have an online
portal.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
You can literally do it on the app.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I mean, there's no excuse.
So if you are still gettingaccounts open in your name, your
identity is stolen.
That's on you, Honestly.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Also one additional thing that we do outside of that
is, with our credit cards.
We have alerts set up to let usknow when purchases are made.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
And the reason for that is, like I'm going to say,
like a year or so ago I got analert that I had made like two,
three purchases back to back atWalmart, while I was just
sitting on the couch watching.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
TV.
Not even that was yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And I was like you know, I had the alert set up and
thankfully went ahead and sawthat.
So once I saw the alerts, what Iimmediately did is I froze the
card itself so that no morespending could be done on it,
went ahead and called into mycredit card company and let them
know.
Hey, you know these last threepurchases.
They were not me, that's not,and they were all taken care of.
But all that happened was allthat was.
(22:40):
That was able for me to catchit so quickly because I had the
alert set up.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, and I'll take it even a step further, because
I have so many credit cards andmost of them I don't use.
I either lock those or I havevery, very low spend limit set
for notifications.
So for most of them I have anotification that any purchase
over $20, I get a text message.
So I can tell you right now, ifsomebody were to try to use one
(23:06):
of my cards that I don'tactively keep in my wallet, I
don't actively use it I wouldinstantly get a text message
saying you know, this amount ofmoney was spent $21 was spent
and I would know that somebody'strying to do something.
Because typically what peoplewill do, especially if they're
trying to steal your identity orsteal your credit, is they'll
(23:27):
make small transactions first.
They're not going to go out andbuy thousands of dollars,
they're going to test it,they're going to go to the gas
station, they're going to buy aCoke, they're going to buy some
snacks, whatever.
And so setting up those alertsfor the small limits helps you
stay alert to what's going on.
So in most cases you canactually lock those credit cards
(23:48):
so that they can't be used atall, but then definitely set up
the spending alerts.
And then, for the cards thatyou're using frequently.
You can do the same thing, rightAny purchase over $100, any
purchase over $500, whateveryour spend patterns are, try to
figure out what's outside ofthat pattern so that you're
alerted very quickly.
I can tell you, because I veryrarely shop at Walmart, that if
(24:12):
I, if there's a charge atWalmart, I always get a text
message from that credit cardsaying was this you?
Because it's outside of mynormal spending pattern.
So there are things that youcan do that are completely free
of charge.
Only take you a few minutes toset up so that you can stay safe
.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And once again, this is also another layer of
protection when it comes tousing credit cards that is not
available to you on a debit card.
So in my scenario, somebody gotmy credit card number trying to
make purchases.
I was able to stop it, call itin.
No money was taken out of mypocket.
Now, if I had been the personwho always used my debit card
out and about going to a storeand swiping it and someone got
(24:50):
that number, that would havebeen actual cash out of my bank
account, so it would have beengone and it would have been a
much longer process for me toget it back if I actually did
get it back.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, because the bank is not as incentivized to
get your money back versus theirmoney.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They're way more incentivized to get their money
back.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, and then really the last thing, aside from
understanding what goes intoyour credit score and how to
properly maintain your creditcards so that you're not a
victim of identity theft, is toalso check your annual credit
report.
So you can do that once ortwice a year at least.
I don't know if the rules havechanged, but at least once now a
(25:30):
year you can do it completelyfor free, I know, during COVID
times they did it twice For afew years.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
it was like you got at least two times a year free
yeah, bare minimum check yourfull credit report.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
This has nothing to do with your score.
Typically, you have to pay anadditional amount to actually
get your score.
Most of your credit cards, evenyour banking institution, will
now give you a roundabout figureof what your score is.
You know your FICO score, so Iwouldn't worry about that.
What you're looking for in yourannual credit report is what
are the accounts that are onthere yours, yours?
(26:03):
Are they opened in your name?
Are you aware of them?
Is there something that shouldhave been closed that's now
still showing open?
Are you owing money somewherethat you completely were unaware
of?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Or if it's showing like you missed payments and you
know you didn't miss anypayments.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Right.
So there's a dispute processthat you can go through, because
all of those things again aregoing to impact your credit
score.
You want to make sure that whatis on your credit report is
yours and unfortunately, youknow, in this day of social
media, I constantly see peopleyou know on threads and on
Instagram saying, hey, I foundout that my cousin opened a
(26:38):
credit card in my name, myparent opened a credit card in
my name.
It's rampant.
So unless you are activelyprotecting yourself, you are not
protected.
Don't assume that people aren'tout here opening your mail,
getting your credit card offersapplying in your name.
You don't know unless you lookat your annual credit report.
(27:00):
So don't be a victim.
Be proactive.
Lock your credit bureaus tomake sure that nobody can open
anything without your permissionand then check your annual
credit report so that you knowwhat is on there.
Is it correct?
Do you need to make a dispute?
Even Brandon found two thingslast time that he needed to
dispute that now we're kind oftracking to resolve.
(27:22):
So it can happen to all of us,especially, you know, us in this
elder millennial age range.
Most of us open credit cards inour 20s and so if you've just
been living life and notchecking on these things.
It's been probably 20 plusyears.
It's time to check.
So, all right, share thisepisode with a friend.
(27:43):
Hopefully this has been helpfulto you.
Remember the five factors thatgo into your FICO credit score.
Lock those credit bureaus onExperian, transunion and Equifax
.
It's completely free.
It'll only take you a fewminutes and make sure that you
are checking your credit reportat least once a year.
We'll talk to you soon, don'tforget.
Benjamin Franklin said aninvestment in knowledge pays the
(28:06):
best interest.
You just got paid Until nexttime.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
We are so glad to have you aspart of our Sugar Daddy
community.
If you learned something today,please remember to subscribe,
(28:27):
rate, review and share thisepisode with your friends,
family and extended network.
Don't forget to connect with uson social media.
At the Sugar Daddy Podcast, youcan also email us your
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at thesugardaddypodcast atgmailcom, or leave us a
voicemail through our Instagram.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Our content is intended to be used, and must be
used, for informationalpurposes only.
It is very important to do yourown analysis before making any
investment, based upon your ownpersonal circumstances.
You should take independentfinancial advice from a licensed
professional in connection with, or independently research and
verify any information you findin our podcast and which you
rely upon, whether for thepurpose of making an investment
decision or otherwise.
This episode is sponsored by Prenupscom.
The truth is, every marriedcouple has a prenup a set of
rules that defines your legaland financial relationship with
your spouse.
You either choose your ownrules or use what your state
gives you.
At Prenupscom, they writeprenups that actually help
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(00:22):
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That's prenupscom.
Backslash sugardaddy and getthe prenup that helps you stay
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Already married, no worries,they do post-nuptial agreements
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That's what Brandon and I didafter eight years of marriage.
(00:44):
In today's episode, we aregoing to talk about credit, the
five factors that impact yourFICO credit score, checking your
annual credit report andlocking your credit bureaus for
safety.
This is a quick one, but it'sgoing to be meaningful.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Sugar Teddy Podcast yo Learn how to make them
pockets grow.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Financial freedom's where we go Smart investments,
money flow meaningful.
Hey babe, what are we talkingabout today?
Today we're talking aboutcredit and what goes into our
credit score, because peopleneed to know that there are a
variety of factors that go intotheir credit score and what you
can do to boost your credit.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, yes, unfortunately, credit is kind of
a game you have to play sadlyIn the United States.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yes, in the.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
United States, but there is a correct way to play
it and there's a wrong way toplay it, so we want to make sure
that you guys understand whatare the things that you should
be doing in order to help andfit your credit?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yes, and we all know, or should know, that your
credit score can have a positiveimpact on things like the kinds
of loans that you are able toget.
If you need to purchase avehicle, you want to open,
sometimes, your utilitiesgetting a new cell phone,
putting a deposit down on anapartment, getting a new cell
phone, putting a deposit down onan apartment, the higher your
(02:05):
credit score, the more favorableyour terms and conditions, as
well as your interest rate,which we know is what's going to
ultimately determine whatyou're paying and how miserable
that interest rate is.
So the better your credit, thebetter the interest rate
typically is.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Also, the big thing is we want to stress is that
your credit score doesn't defineyou.
So if you've had some issues inthe past, you've had some hard
times where it leads to you nothaving a good credit score.
This is not to shame you oranything of that nature.
This is to provide you withinformation to help you improve
your credit score so that youhave better options available to
you.
(02:42):
Like I said, it doesn't defineyou, but having a good credit
score is very beneficial in alot of ways.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yes, you are not your credit score.
Having a low score fromwhatever has happened in your
past is not who you are as aperson.
It doesn't make you a badperson None of that.
We don't believe any of thathere, so that is not what this
is about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You know also, the thing is too is like okay, if
you have an 800 credit score,congratulations, Good for you,
but it doesn't change you.
I mean, it doesn't make you anybetter than anybody else.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, exactly, but there are things you can do to
boost your credit score.
But the first thing you need toknow is that your credit score,
your FICO credit score, is madeup of five components and they
are broken down by percentages,meaning that all of these five
components are not weightedequally.
So that's an important thing.
So 35% of your credit score ismade up of payment history.
(03:33):
So this is why, if you've everheard, don't close your oldest
credit card, this is one ofthose reasons Because you want
to have that long-termestablished credit.
Because you want to have thatlong-term established credit.
So one thing that my mom and Ithink your mom did for you is
they put us on to their creditcards as authorized users when
we were teenagers.
So, technically, I've had anAmerican Express card since I
(03:57):
was 17 years old, right, so thatis one of my oldest standing
accounts, and what you want tomake sure that you're doing is
that you're paying any kind ofbills on time.
So your payment history onthose longstanding accounts, on
all of your accounts.
But those longstanding accountsreally are important.
So if you want to help boost,for example, your child's credit
(04:19):
score, you can make them anauthorized user If you're using
credit cards responsibly, maybethey get to put their gas on it.
Maybe they, you know, when theygo to the movies they put their
charges on there.
Then it gets paid off and soyou have that good standing of
paying your bills on time.
That's what you're trying tolook for here.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That is the biggest part of your credit score is
making sure that you do not misspayments on any type of loan
that you have, so that you'renot missing credit card payments
, you're not missing studentloan payments, you're not
missing mortgage payments, thosethat is the heaviest weight on
your credit score and it's alsothe hardest thing to come back
from when you've missed a ton ofpayments.
(04:59):
Because basically, what it is isthat they take a timeframe I'm
not sure exactly what thetimeframe is from a year
standpoint, but within, within,like just say, for hypothetical
sake here say five years for thepayments, and if you miss a
payment it's going to take fiveyears for that to roll off.
That's terrible.
So it's like you know, once youmake a payment and you miss one
(05:19):
, it's going to take a long timefor it to roll off.
So you could have kind of likea speeding ticket.
Like a speeding ticket, youcould have missed a couple of
payments, like four years ago,yeah, and now you've made every
single payment on every singleone of your debts, but those
four or few payments that youmissed four years ago are still
going to be there for a certainperiod of time until they roll
off.
Yeah so the biggest thing thatyou want to make it on time.
Early is even better.
Yes, because, like I said, thisis the biggest weighted part of
(05:48):
your credit score.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right, real quick .
I want to speak to the personlistening who feels like they
can't work with a financialplanner yet because they're
carrying a lot of debt.
First of all, I see you and Ineed you to know.
You're not broken, you're notbehind.
You're not behind, you're justin a tough season.
I created something just foryou because I've had people
reach out who are serious aboutchanging their money story.
But the full financial planningpackage just wasn't the right
(06:15):
fit yet.
So I built a new servicethrough Oak City Financial
that's focused completely ondebt reduction.
No fluff, no shame.
You'll get a one-time planningsession completely on debt
reduction.
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If you want extra support whileyou climb out, it's $300 to get
started and $100 a month.
If you want that ongoingguidance, that's it.
(06:37):
This is about helping you getunstuck, not making you feel
like you failed.
If this sounds like what you'vebeen needing, go ahead and
schedule a call with me.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's take the first steptogether.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
The next is 30%, which is your credit utilization
, and this is how much of yourallotted credit are you using.
You want to keep this number aslow as possible.
So if you have a credit cardwith a $10,000 limit on it, you
don't want to be sitting at$9,900 on that credit card
because your utilization rate isgoing to be extremely high.
(07:13):
If you can keep yourutilization to under 30%, that's
where you want to be.
I mean the lower the better.
Right.
You want to have a lot ofaccess to funds to this credit
without actually using it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And ideally, in this scenario, when you're saying,
like you know, a 30% crediteulage with the credit cards, we
always stress Did you sayeutelage I mean Is that a word
Usage?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
We're going to have to look that one up.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Usage.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
People love your words and then they'll send me
messages like this really is aword, look, and I'm like okay,
it just sounded really weird.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I don't know.
It came out of nowhere, if youknow if utilage is a word, let
me know.
But for this scenario, you know, with the 30% usage you on your
credit cards, we're stillstressing Pay those off, yes,
Monthly.
Pay off the entire balance eachmonth because you don't want to
have to pay those high interestrates.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, exactly.
So this is also one of thosethings where if you're going to
be calling which we alwaysencourage on an annual, maybe
even once a year, twice a yeartype basis calling your credit
card companies asking them toraise your spend limit, because
(08:25):
that helps inversely positivelyaffect your credit utilization.
If you have a higher allottedamount of money that you can
spend and you're not spending it, then you have a lower
utilization, which is againgoing to factor into this.
So let's say you have a $5,000credit limit on one of your
credit cards, you've been payingon time, maybe you have a zero
balance, you've had it for acouple of years.
Call them A, ask them to loweryour interest rate because you
(08:49):
should be doing that and a lotof times they will, even if it's
for a certain amount of timeand then ask them for a credit
increase because if you have ahigher amount of money that you
could spend and have access tobut you're not using it, that
will positively impact thiscredit utilization score, this
percentage that you want to keepas low as possible.
(09:10):
So typically you can do thatonce, maybe twice a year,
especially if you're in goodstanding and the more credit you
have accessible to you with theleast amount of usage, the
better.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, and for those individuals who are trying to
improve their current creditscore, let's just say you are
sitting right now at 40% creditcard utilization.
Asking for that credit increasecould help drop you to that 30%
, or maybe a little bit lowerthan that, and that will
increase your credit score.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Exactly.
That's where that gaming partcomes in.
Maybe you haven't paid off thatdebt, but if your available
credit goes up, then this islike fractions, right, you're
inversely, percentages,percentages.
Yeah, you're helping yourpercentage.
Your credit history is 15% ofyour score and this is how long
(10:01):
you've had those accounts.
So, again, maybe you have a lotof money in the bank, maybe you
have a ton of savings, but maybeyou've been scared of credit
cards and now it's time topurchase a car, get an apartment
, and they're like, oh, youdon't have any credit history.
And you're like, yeah, I payeverything in cash, I have a ton
of savings.
Like this is what we want,isn't it?
No, it's not.
(10:22):
And this is why it's a game,because we need to.
Especially if we're going tohave teenagers, young adults, we
need to be setting them up tohave a credit history.
And so, again, adding anauthorized user, this is
something that you can do tohelp boost that credit history
for your children.
Because, not having any credithistory, even if you have a ton
of money in the bank, you'reresponsible, you're paying
(10:44):
everything in cash.
Now, banks don't know thatyou're a responsible lender
because you have not borrowedany money right, or a
responsible, not lender, aresponsible borrower, excuse me.
So they want to actually seewhat your history is with
borrowing money and they want tosee that that's a positive one.
(11:04):
So having some sort of credithistory is going to be important
, and it's 15% of your score.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I also want to stress here is that there are
other people within thefinancial social media realm
that are like oh, you don't needcredit cards, you don't need
credit for this and this andthat.
That can be true, but it's amuch more strenuous process to
do anything when you don't havea credit history.
Can it be done?
Yes, Would it be easier if youjust opened up a small credit
(11:33):
card Significantly.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Brandon is talking about Dave Ramsey, who loves to
say that you don't need to havea credit card or credit history
to get a mortgage, which is true, but, again, the process of
proving that you are aresponsible borrower without a
credit history is much moredifficult and requires a lot
more paperwork.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And a lot more money up front.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And a lot more money up front.
So like, why go through that?
Credit cards are not bad wetalk about that all the time If
you use them responsibly youunderstand these components,
like Dave Ramsey looked me inthe face and told me you don't
use credit cards.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, credit cards aren't bad.
It's when you have bad habitsand use credit cards incorrectly
.
Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Right, but I'm glad that we have the credit history
that we have, because anytimewe've needed a mortgage, a
refinance, a new car, whateverit is, it's been easy breezy
because we have such alongstanding credit history.
10% of your FICO score is newcredit, so how often are you
opening up new lines of credit?
(12:37):
So, whether that's a personalloan, mortgages, car loans,
credit cards, there's like thisfine balance of like.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
This is the gaming part, because they don't want to
see you opening up too many newcredits.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Because then that's just saying to them that's a red
flag that like you don't haveenough money, why are you
opening?
So many new lines of credit,but then you don't want to have
too little, because then thatjust affects your credit score
from a negative standpoint.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right, this is also when, let's say, you are in,
maybe, an underwriting processfor a mortgage, your lender has
probably said don't go and buyanything big, don't open a new
credit card, don't buy a car,don't go buy furniture.
You need to keep whatever's inthis bank account and these
balances as steady as possible.
Right now we are not openingand pulling credit from other
(13:25):
places, so you have to bestrategic.
You have to make sure thatyou're, you know, kind of
playing the game.
So we recently posted I openedtwo credit cards within a day of
each other, which I haven'tdone in years, but one of them
was offering 70,000 AmericanAirlines miles and then the
other one was offering 18 monthsof zero interest for balance
(13:48):
transfers.
And so, because we knew we weregoing to be moving some money
around and some debts around,those two credit cards made a
lot of sense and so I openedthem back to back and I haven't
done anything else since.
Right, my credit score went downtwo points like a month after
and then went up, I think, 12points a month after that.
Again, I knew that we didn'thave anything else coming up.
(14:11):
We weren't going to be openingup any big lines of credit,
nothing like that and because ofthose two credit cards I ended
up adding another almost $50,000to my available credit, so my
utilization score again went waydown.
So it's a game.
You have to be strategic.
But those store credit cardsespecially if you're a younger
(14:33):
person and you're listening tothis, and stay away.
You're at Old Navy andVictoria's Secret and Kohl's and
all these places.
Those are the credit cardswhere I'm like, really stay away
.
Like those APRs are so high.
The benefits do not outweighthe payments.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Also.
The thing is too like.
This is when you also hearabout the difference between,
like, a soft pull and a hardpull for checking your credit
score, and you don't want tohave too many hard pulls because
then that can affect yourcredit score negatively.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, a hard pull is, you know, those car loans,
personal loans, mortgages, softpulls, depending on the type of
credit card, is typically like astore credit card, um.
So sometimes you'll see offerswhere it's like this is not a
hard pull, you know, no dings toyour credit score.
This is why they're saying that, because if you have too many
of those, it will negativelyaffect your score.
(15:23):
So just be mindful.
Yes, and then the last thing isyour credit mix, which comes in
at another 10%.
So, 10% credit mix.
This is what kind of availablemoney do you have to you?
Is it on credit cards?
Is it personal loans?
Do you have a mortgage?
Do you have a car loan?
All of those loans are set updifferently.
A personal loan is set updifferently than a credit card.
(15:45):
A credit card is different froma mortgage.
A mortgage is different from acar loan.
They want to show that you havelike a mixed bag of loans.
Again, not too many.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, and once again, this is the game portion of it
that you kind of have to playthe game to make things easier
for yourself in the long runBecause, like I said, you could
be someone that just has.
You're doing well, you have agreat income and you're like why
don't I just pay everything forcash?
This is where it can negativelyaffect you.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Right.
One thing that I really like todo and this is just me kind of
being neurotic, but I reallylove paying off our credit cards
throughout the month, so Idon't wait until the payment due
date.
Some of our credit cards areset up on automatic payments,
especially the ones where wedon't typically spend, so maybe
there's like a randomsubscription that's still on
(16:35):
there for 30 bucks or something.
I'd rather that automaticallypay and may not have to think
about it.
But for the cards that we usefor our daily spending, which
end up being several thousanddollars a month, I like to just
pay that as I think of it, I'llopen my app, I'm looking at our
points, our miles, et cetera,and I just make a payment.
(16:55):
Because, again, all of that isgoing to factor into that
utilization, right?
If I pay off my card two weeksbefore its due date, well, guess
what?
My utilization of what I haveavailable versus what I'm using
has now been processed, and sothose are ways where you can
make smaller payments throughoutthe month, to kind of gamify
(17:17):
this score.
And a lot of times, if you'remaybe going through a credit
repair program, something likethat, they'll tell you make
multiple payments throughout themonth instead of waiting for
you know the actual due date.
There's also a differencebetween the due date and the
statement date.
So those are things that youneed to look at, because that is
a rolling calendar whensomething is due and the
(17:39):
statement close date is notnecessarily the date that your
actual bill is due.
So looking at those and gettingahead of the payments from the
statement close date versus thedue date can be a very positive
thing for your credit score.
Yeah, all right.
So, as a quick recap, 35%payment history, that's are you
(18:01):
making your payments on time?
Don't be in default, don't bedelinquent, don't be late.
Pay on time Absolute bareminimum.
Pay the bare minimum instead ofbeing late.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
One extra call out there is also there is a
difference on your credit scoreif you are 30 days late compared
to 60 days late, compared to 90days late.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And you'll see that on your statement.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So like 30 days late is not as bad as 60 or 90.
But just don't be late.
Yes, that's the idea Don't belate, but just letting you know.
If it happens, if you hit that31st day, go ahead and pay it.
So it's only 30 days late andnot 60 days late.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that's true.
30% is credit utilization.
So again, how much of the moneythat you have available to
borrow are you actually using?
Try to keep that as low aspossible, preferably under 30%,
but the lower the better.
15% is your credit history.
So how long have you hadavailable credit to you?
(18:55):
10% is new credit.
How often are you opening upnew lines of credit for yourself
?
And then, 10% is that creditmix.
Is it a mix of mortgage,personal loan, credit cards, car
loans?
We want to see that there are avariety of loans or assets
available to you, moneyavailable to you.
So keep that in mind the nexttime you you know open a credit
card, get a loan, start payingoff your things.
(19:15):
That there are these fivefactors that go into your credit
score.
Now, these next two things we'vetalked about often.
We cannot stress them enough,especially with all of the
online shopping.
Most of us have our cards savedto various portals or Amazons
or you know whatever.
It is Shopify.
You need to make sure that yoursocial security number on
(19:38):
Experian, transunion and Equifaxis stored as a freeze, so you
can go into TransUnion, equifaxand Experian and basically
freeze your credit, and whatthat means is that somebody else
cannot open a new line ofcredit in your name.
(20:00):
So this is where we're talkingabout having your identity
stolen, right?
We don't want that.
We don't want to see thatpeople are opening accounts in
our name, and so the easiest andfastest and freest way that you
can do that is to freeze yourcredit bureaus.
You can thaw them or unfreezethem at any time.
(20:22):
So when I just talked aboutopening those two credit cards,
I actually had to go in.
Yes, it's a little bit of apain in the butt, but guess what
?
I'm never tempted to open arandom store credit card or, you
know, get got at the counter tosave 10%, because I have to go
through a whole process to thawmy credit in order to open up my
bureaus so that my credit canbe pulled.
(20:44):
So this is one of the best waysthat you can safeguard yourself
from fraudulent activity, aswell as people opening credit in
your name.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, this is the easiest way, because when your
identity is stolen, one of thefirst things they're going to do
is try to open up a new creditcard.
Yep, because that's the easiest, because none of it has to be
done in person.
Nothing of that nature could doit all online, and so freezing
your credit bureaus completelyprevents that from occurring.
So, you know, it's like I said,like just as you have to set up
an online profile for each ofthe separate bureau bureaus, and
(21:17):
then you can go ahead andeasily take a button.
You just click, go ahead andfreeze it all.
It is so simple, simple and somany people don't do it.
It is crazy, like honestly, todo all three.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
take the maybe 20, 30 minutes to set them all up to
set them all up and have themfrozen I've had mine frozen for
so long that, like I still havethe paper copies of it because
they didn't always have anonline portal.
Now on Experian, TransUnion andEquifax, you have an online
portal.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
You can literally do it on the app.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I mean, there's no excuse.
So if you are still gettingaccounts open in your name, your
identity is stolen.
That's on you, Honestly.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Also one additional thing that we do outside of that
is, with our credit cards.
We have alerts set up to let usknow when purchases are made.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
And the reason for that is, like I'm going to say,
like a year or so ago I got analert that I had made like two,
three purchases back to back atWalmart, while I was just
sitting on the couch watching.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
TV.
Not even that was yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
And I was like you know, I had the alert set up and
thankfully went ahead and sawthat.
So once I saw the alerts, what Iimmediately did is I froze the
card itself so that no morespending could be done on it,
went ahead and called into mycredit card company and let them
know.
Hey, you know these last threepurchases.
They were not me, that's not,and they were all taken care of.
But all that happened was allthat was.
(22:40):
That was able for me to catchit so quickly because I had the
alert set up.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, and I'll take it even a step further, because
I have so many credit cards andmost of them I don't use.
I either lock those or I havevery, very low spend limit set
for notifications.
So for most of them I have anotification that any purchase
over $20, I get a text message.
So I can tell you right now, ifsomebody were to try to use one
(23:06):
of my cards that I don'tactively keep in my wallet, I
don't actively use it I wouldinstantly get a text message
saying you know, this amount ofmoney was spent $21 was spent
and I would know that somebody'strying to do something.
Because typically what peoplewill do, especially if they're
trying to steal your identity orsteal your credit, is they'll
(23:27):
make small transactions first.
They're not going to go out andbuy thousands of dollars,
they're going to test it,they're going to go to the gas
station, they're going to buy aCoke, they're going to buy some
snacks, whatever.
And so setting up those alertsfor the small limits helps you
stay alert to what's going on.
So in most cases you canactually lock those credit cards
(23:48):
so that they can't be used atall, but then definitely set up
the spending alerts.
And then, for the cards thatyou're using frequently.
You can do the same thing, rightAny purchase over $100, any
purchase over $500, whateveryour spend patterns are, try to
figure out what's outside ofthat pattern so that you're
alerted very quickly.
I can tell you, because I veryrarely shop at Walmart, that if
(24:12):
I, if there's a charge atWalmart, I always get a text
message from that credit cardsaying was this you?
Because it's outside of mynormal spending pattern.
So there are things that youcan do that are completely free
of charge.
Only take you a few minutes toset up so that you can stay safe
.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And once again, this is also another layer of
protection when it comes tousing credit cards that is not
available to you on a debit card.
So in my scenario, somebody gotmy credit card number trying to
make purchases.
I was able to stop it, call itin.
No money was taken out of mypocket.
Now, if I had been the personwho always used my debit card
out and about going to a storeand swiping it and someone got
(24:50):
that number, that would havebeen actual cash out of my bank
account, so it would have beengone and it would have been a
much longer process for me toget it back if I actually did
get it back.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, because the bank is not as incentivized to
get your money back versus theirmoney.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
They're way more incentivized to get their money
back.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, and then really the last thing, aside from
understanding what goes intoyour credit score and how to
properly maintain your creditcards so that you're not a
victim of identity theft, is toalso check your annual credit
report.
So you can do that once ortwice a year at least.
I don't know if the rules havechanged, but at least once now a
(25:30):
year you can do it completelyfor free, I know, during COVID
times they did it twice For afew years.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
it was like you got at least two times a year free
yeah, bare minimum check yourfull credit report.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
This has nothing to do with your score.
Typically, you have to pay anadditional amount to actually
get your score.
Most of your credit cards, evenyour banking institution, will
now give you a roundabout figureof what your score is.
You know your FICO score, so Iwouldn't worry about that.
What you're looking for in yourannual credit report is what
are the accounts that are onthere yours, yours?
(26:03):
Are they opened in your name?
Are you aware of them?
Is there something that shouldhave been closed that's now
still showing open?
Are you owing money somewherethat you completely were unaware
of?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Or if it's showing like you missed payments and you
know you didn't miss anypayments.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Right.
So there's a dispute processthat you can go through, because
all of those things again aregoing to impact your credit
score.
You want to make sure that whatis on your credit report is
yours and unfortunately, youknow, in this day of social
media, I constantly see peopleyou know on threads and on
Instagram saying, hey, I foundout that my cousin opened a
(26:38):
credit card in my name, myparent opened a credit card in
my name.
It's rampant.
So unless you are activelyprotecting yourself, you are not
protected.
Don't assume that people aren'tout here opening your mail,
getting your credit card offersapplying in your name.
You don't know unless you lookat your annual credit report.
(27:00):
So don't be a victim.
Be proactive.
Lock your credit bureaus tomake sure that nobody can open
anything without your permissionand then check your annual
credit report so that you knowwhat is on there.
Is it correct?
Do you need to make a dispute?
Even Brandon found two thingslast time that he needed to
dispute that now we're kind oftracking to resolve.
(27:22):
So it can happen to all of us,especially, you know, us in this
elder millennial age range.
Most of us open credit cards inour 20s and so if you've just
been living life and notchecking on these things.
It's been probably 20 plusyears.
It's time to check.
So, all right, share thisepisode with a friend.
(27:43):
Hopefully this has been helpfulto you.
Remember the five factors thatgo into your FICO credit score.
Lock those credit bureaus onExperian, transunion and Equifax
.
It's completely free.
It'll only take you a fewminutes and make sure that you
are checking your credit reportat least once a year.
We'll talk to you soon, don'tforget.
Benjamin Franklin said aninvestment in knowledge pays the
(28:06):
best interest.
You just got paid Until nexttime.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
We are so glad to have you aspart of our Sugar Daddy
community.
If you learned something today,please remember to subscribe,
(28:27):
rate, review and share thisepisode with your friends,
family and extended network.
Don't forget to connect with uson social media.
At the Sugar Daddy Podcast, youcan also email us your
questions you want us to answerfor our past, the Sugar segments
at thesugardaddypodcast atgmailcom, or leave us a
voicemail through our Instagram.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Our content is intended to be used, and must be
used, for informationalpurposes only.
It is very important to do yourown analysis before making any
investment, based upon your ownpersonal circumstances.
You should take independentfinancial advice from a licensed
professional in connection with, or independently research and
verify any information you findin our podcast and which you
rely upon, whether for thepurpose of making an investment
decision or otherwise.
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