# Mastering Your Money: Fix Your Credit, Learn Fraud Protection, and gain Financial Freedom with Experian.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 30 Oct 2024, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/dc66c747-6ac8-4b58-ad46-b2180153385c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Rod Griffin. Senior Director of Public Education and Advocacy at Experian. 🎯 Purpose of the Interview To educate listeners on fraud prevention, identity theft, credit management, and financial literacy. The conversation aims to empower individuals—especially those in underserved communities—to take control of their financial health using tools and resources provided by Experian. 🗝️ Key Takeaways 1. Fraud & Identity Theft Awareness • Identity theft is increasingly sophisticated, often driven by AI. • Quote: “The currency of today isn’t necessarily cash—it’s information.” 2. Experian’s Role • Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus. • Offers tools for fraud detection, identity verification, and credit monitoring. • Quote: “We help protect people from fraud and identity theft… and help them improve their financial lives.” 3. Understanding Credit Scores • Credit scores range from 300 to 850, with categories from “Poor” to “Excellent.” • Key factors: payment history, credit utilization, length of credit history, types of credit, and recent activity. • Quote: “Banks like people who are boring. Just pay the bills on time and keep balances low.” 4. Free Resources • Free credit reports available weekly via AnnualCreditReport.com. • Experian offers free monitoring, alerts, and FICO scores. • Quote: “There’s no real reason to pay for a credit report today.” 5. Establishing & Rebuilding Credit • Tools like Experian Go and Experian Boost help users build or rebuild credit using non-traditional data (e.g., rent, utilities, streaming services). • Quote: “You can go from no credit history to having a report and score in the 630 range—in minutes.” 6. Financial Savviness • Being financially savvy means controlling your money, not letting it control you. • Use credit cards strategically for rewards and pay balances in full. • Budgeting and goal-setting are essential. • Quote: “Start from a goal perspective… What do you want to do in life?” 7. Insurance Savings • Experian’s auto insurance marketplace helps users compare and save. • Average savings: ~$800/year. • Quote: “We’ll monitor for you… and tell you if we find a better rate.” 8. Practical Tips • Audit monthly bills for hidden charges. • Use loyalty programs and coupons to save on groceries and gas. • Quote: “I shop so much I get free food… $6, $8, $9 savings add up.” 🧠 Final Message Rod Griffin emphasizes that financial literacy is about empowerment. By understanding your credit, using available tools, and setting clear goals, you can take control of your financial future. #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business…

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
[0:06] Speaker 2: I am Rashwan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
[0:10] Speaker 2: where we encourage.
[0:11] Speaker 1: People to stop reading other people's success stories and start
[0:14] Speaker 1: planning their own. Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs.
[0:18] Speaker 2: From around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them
[0:21] Speaker 2: how they are running their companies, and speak with non
[0:24] Speaker 2: profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now,
[0:28] Speaker 2: sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to
[0:30] Speaker 2: their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I am
[0:35] Speaker 2: Rashaan McDonald, our host this weekly Money Making Conversation.
[0:38] Speaker 1: Master Class show.
[0:39] Speaker 2: The interviews and information that this show provides off for everyone.
[0:43] Speaker 2: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
[0:45] Speaker 2: start living your own. I'm here to help you reach
[0:48] Speaker 2: your American dream. My guest is the senior director of
[0:51] Speaker 2: Public Education and Advocacy for Experience. He leaves experienced national
[0:55] Speaker 2: consumer education programs and works with consumer advocates, financial education,
[1:00] Speaker 2: media and others to help consumers increase their ability to
[1:03] Speaker 2: understand and manage their personal finances and protect themselves from
[1:08] Speaker 2: fraud and identity there please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
[1:13] Speaker 1: Rod Grifforth, how you doing.
[1:14] Speaker 3: Rock fantastic, glad to be here.
[1:17] Speaker 2: Well, thank you for coming on the show, because I'm
[1:19] Speaker 2: gonna tell you some broad my email. My phone is
[1:23] Speaker 2: being inundated with messages that I don't know if it's
[1:28] Speaker 2: real or not. It looks like it may be a bank,
[1:31] Speaker 2: it looks like it may be a credit card. Tell
[1:33] Speaker 2: me what's going on, because I want to start our
[1:36] Speaker 2: conversation with what you said right here, educating us about
[1:40] Speaker 2: fraud and identity there.
[1:42] Speaker 3: Yeah, so we all get the notices of data breaches,
[1:46] Speaker 3: we all get the emails. I get them too, and
[1:49] Speaker 3: sometimes phone calls as well. And you know, fraud is
[1:53] Speaker 3: something that everybody's after today. I sometimes tell people that
[1:58] Speaker 3: the currency for today of today isn't necessarily cash. It's information,
[2:03] Speaker 3: and a lot of times it's personal information. It's your identity.
[2:07] Speaker 3: Because if they can steal your identity, they can use
[2:10] Speaker 3: it to do all sorts of things. They can use
[2:11] Speaker 3: it to try to apply for frauduct credit accounts, they
[2:15] Speaker 3: can use it to apply for IDs, for government benefits,
[2:19] Speaker 3: for all sorts of things. So the identity thieves are
[2:24] Speaker 3: busy trying to trick us into giving them our information.
[2:28] Speaker 3: Our personal and private information, our financial information, so that
[2:31] Speaker 3: they can use it to their gain and against us.
[2:34] Speaker 3: So it's a huge problem and they're getting more sophisticated
[2:39] Speaker 3: about it. And artificial intelligence is something that's actually something
[2:44] Speaker 3: we're even more concerned about today because you may not
[2:48] Speaker 3: even be talking to a person now or getting an
[2:50] Speaker 3: email from a person. It could be a machine that
[2:53] Speaker 3: is posing as someone you know and playing on those
[2:56] Speaker 3: emotional heartstrings to get you to give them and from
[3:00] Speaker 3: and that's what they want. So we have to learn
[3:02] Speaker 3: to kind of recognize those and to know when it
[3:07] Speaker 3: probably isn't someone that we know or love, or someone
[3:09] Speaker 3: we shouldn't share information with. One example, if the bank
[3:12] Speaker 3: asks you for your account number, it's not your bank right.
[3:16] Speaker 2: A call you asking for anything in a past word,
[3:19] Speaker 2: asking for an account number, that's not legit. But again, experience.
[3:26] Speaker 2: I'm a guy who is tries to keep my credit
[3:28] Speaker 2: score right. Tell it everybody, what exactly is experience and
[3:33] Speaker 2: how does it benefit mean?
[3:35] Speaker 3: So yeah, experience. We're best known as one of the
[3:38] Speaker 3: big three credit reporting companies, so the experience trending equifacts.
[3:42] Speaker 3: So we collect and share in accordance with the fair
[3:46] Speaker 3: credit reporting act. Of course, the credit information, so the
[3:49] Speaker 3: accounts that you have and how you're repaying those debts,
[3:52] Speaker 3: So that's one piece of our business, tell about fraud,
[3:55] Speaker 3: identity theft. We also have a business that helps companies
[3:58] Speaker 3: identify attempts to steal their information or help them recover
[4:04] Speaker 3: when they've had a breach. We also help protect people
[4:06] Speaker 3: from fraud and identity staff so we use information to
[4:10] Speaker 3: help business and lenders, for example, recognize when someone's trying
[4:14] Speaker 3: to use information that they've stolen to get your information.
[4:18] Speaker 3: We have monitoring services that can alert you when something
[4:22] Speaker 3: pops up in your credit history that could indicate your
[4:24] Speaker 3: victim of fraud, so we help make you aware of
[4:27] Speaker 3: potential attempts for fraud. We also have a business that
[4:32] Speaker 3: is an identity verification service. For example, if you're working
[4:36] Speaker 3: with a Social Security administration and you go in to
[4:38] Speaker 3: get your social Security account information, so how much money
[4:42] Speaker 3: you get paid when you retire, which at long way
[4:45] Speaker 3: from but hope to get there's some day that we
[4:48] Speaker 3: have an identity service, so they're using experience information so
[4:51] Speaker 3: when you go in, they're matching it to information that
[4:54] Speaker 3: helps them ensure you are you and not someone who's
[4:57] Speaker 3: trying to access your account fraudulently. So we are working
[5:01] Speaker 3: on a number of fronts to help protect people from
[5:04] Speaker 3: product identity, to have to help them improve their financial lives,
[5:07] Speaker 3: to help them gain access to information that can help
[5:10] Speaker 3: them be more successful.
[5:13] Speaker 2: Now, it is really interesting, and I've heard the word
[5:15] Speaker 2: savvy and then the word financially savvy.
[5:18] Speaker 1: Now I don't know what that means.
[5:20] Speaker 2: So help me and help my audience gain a grip
[5:23] Speaker 2: on what financially savvy means.
[5:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, when I think of being financially savvy, it's when
[5:30] Speaker 3: you control your money and it doesn't control you. So
[5:33] Speaker 3: you understand how many works you use financial tools to
[5:37] Speaker 3: your advantage. So credit is a financial tool of debts,
[5:41] Speaker 3: the financial problem, and if you can use credit well,
[5:44] Speaker 3: it can give you a financial advantage. For example, if
[5:47] Speaker 3: you have a credit card and you get cash back,
[5:50] Speaker 3: or you get airline miles and you make charges with
[5:52] Speaker 3: that card discounts on purchases and then pay the balance
[5:55] Speaker 3: in full, you're not taking on debt, but you are
[5:58] Speaker 3: getting a financial advance. And that's a financially savvy thing
[6:02] Speaker 3: to do. You know, when you understand investing, which I'm
[6:05] Speaker 3: sure you talk to your listeners about often or saving
[6:08] Speaker 3: and having that emergency savings account when you budget. We
[6:12] Speaker 3: all hate that word, but it's really a tool to
[6:15] Speaker 3: help you be in control of your money rather than
[6:18] Speaker 3: it controlling you. And that's what financially savvy. Being finished
[6:21] Speaker 3: with seventy is all about to me.
[6:22] Speaker 1: I'm speaking with Rod Griffin.
[6:24] Speaker 2: He's the senior director of Public Education and Advocation for Experience.
[6:28] Speaker 2: You know, I'm gonna tell you this. When the credit score.
[6:31] Speaker 2: You know, my daughter, she's so proud she has an
[6:33] Speaker 2: eight hundred plus. You know, Dad, he's kind of wore down.
[6:37] Speaker 2: I got some credit. My hangs between high sixty and
[6:40] Speaker 2: middle seven hundreds. You know, high six, middle seven hundreds.
[6:44] Speaker 2: So she laughs at me a lot. I said, but
[6:46] Speaker 2: you know you're not living a life yet. Now when
[6:49] Speaker 2: you say credit score, I'm just read it out tomorrow, audience.
[6:51] Speaker 2: They aren't aware what credit score is. Poor is three
[6:54] Speaker 2: hundred to five seventy nine. Fair is five eighty to
[6:59] Speaker 2: six six nine. Good is six seventy to seven three nine.
[7:04] Speaker 2: Very good is seven to seven ninety nine. Excellent is
[7:08] Speaker 2: eight hundred to eight fifty. Now excellent. Everybody wants to
[7:13] Speaker 2: be there, like I said, I hang in that at
[7:15] Speaker 2: seven hundred mid seven hundred range.
[7:19] Speaker 1: How does this score put together?
[7:21] Speaker 3: Rod? Yeah, and it's and it's just to complicate things further,
[7:26] Speaker 3: there isn't just one score, so there's lots of different
[7:29] Speaker 3: score and so there are three credit reports and that's
[7:35] Speaker 3: where we have to start. Every credit score uses the
[7:38] Speaker 3: information from your credit report to do the calculation. If
[7:42] Speaker 3: you're buying a car, they have a credit score that
[7:45] Speaker 3: just to surprise you, I Fico has a score for
[7:48] Speaker 3: buying a car auto landing score that goes to nine hundred,
[7:51] Speaker 3: not just eight fifty. So if if you want to
[7:53] Speaker 3: win a bet that you have the best scorer, get
[7:56] Speaker 3: your auto score, you might have a better than eight
[7:58] Speaker 3: fifty or win every time. But the thing to understand
[8:02] Speaker 3: is they're all looking at the same stuff. They're all
[8:04] Speaker 3: the information for credit report, and they're all looking at
[8:06] Speaker 3: number one, how you're paying your bills and you're paying
[8:08] Speaker 3: your bills on time or are they late, so like
[8:11] Speaker 3: payments are going to hurt your scores. The second thing
[8:13] Speaker 3: they're looking at is are your balances on your credit
[8:16] Speaker 3: cards really high compared to the credit limits. So if
[8:19] Speaker 3: you can keep your credit card balances down and you
[8:22] Speaker 3: pay your bills on time, you're going to have good
[8:24] Speaker 3: credit scores because everything else builds on those two things.
[8:27] Speaker 3: They look at the length of your credit history, so
[8:29] Speaker 3: how long have you been paying bills and paying them
[8:31] Speaker 3: on time. They look at the mix of kinds of
[8:33] Speaker 3: accounts you have, said you have car loan or own
[8:36] Speaker 3: credit cards, so on. That sort of happens with time
[8:39] Speaker 3: as you use credit, and they'll develop that. They look
[8:42] Speaker 3: at what's happened recently, So if you applied for new accounts,
[8:45] Speaker 3: have you reduced your debts? Have you taken on more debt?
[8:48] Speaker 3: So if you're paying your bills on time, keeping your
[8:50] Speaker 3: balance as little, you will have good credit scores. It's
[8:53] Speaker 3: just behavior over time. You sell people banks like people
[8:57] Speaker 3: who are boring. They don't want anything surprising. Just pay
[9:01] Speaker 3: the bills on time, keep the balances low. Do that
[9:03] Speaker 3: over and over and over you'll have good credit scores.
[9:06] Speaker 3: So there's no real secret. The important thing get your
[9:10] Speaker 3: credit report, know what's in it. It's free. You can
[9:13] Speaker 3: get it once a week from each of the three
[9:15] Speaker 3: bureaus at annual credit report dot com. You can get
[9:18] Speaker 3: a free monitoring service from Experience we'll give you a
[9:21] Speaker 3: free report every thirty days along with a Fiko eights ware,
[9:24] Speaker 3: and most importantly, the factors that are driving that score.
[9:27] Speaker 3: So when you get a credit report and score from Experience,
[9:30] Speaker 3: we give you at least four and sometimes five risk
[9:33] Speaker 3: factors that explain what is having the most negative effect
[9:37] Speaker 3: on the score, so that you can look at your
[9:39] Speaker 3: credit report and pay at what you need to work on. So, yeah,
[9:43] Speaker 3: the thing I tell people is the number doesn't matter,
[9:45] Speaker 3: and they look at me like I'm crazy, because it does.
[9:48] Speaker 3: Of course it does, YEA, yeah, well yes it does
[9:55] Speaker 3: when you're talking to the bank and they're trying to
[9:57] Speaker 3: get a loan. But if we're just like we're talking
[9:59] Speaker 3: right now, right, you know, the number doesn't tell you much.
[10:03] Speaker 3: But if you get your credit report and a number,
[10:05] Speaker 3: then you have something to work on. You have context
[10:07] Speaker 3: around it, so you can look at the risk factors
[10:11] Speaker 3: that go with it, and look at your credit report
[10:13] Speaker 3: and say, okay, it says my balances on my credit
[10:16] Speaker 3: cards are too high. Well, here's the credit cards that
[10:17] Speaker 3: have high balances. That's what I need to focus on.
[10:20] Speaker 3: So it empowers you to act. If all you have
[10:23] Speaker 3: is a number, you can't do anything. You know, if
[10:26] Speaker 3: I said you know, I would to bet that you're
[10:28] Speaker 3: about a seven to eighty. What do you do about that?
[10:31] Speaker 3: But if I said, you know, your balances are about
[10:34] Speaker 3: thirty percent of your credit credit limit on a card,
[10:38] Speaker 3: now you know what you can do to reduce the
[10:39] Speaker 3: bount and to what you need to focus on. So
[10:41] Speaker 3: that's what we want to do, is try not to
[10:42] Speaker 3: focus too much on the number, focus on the credit history.
[10:46] Speaker 3: The number gives you a place to start from.
[10:48] Speaker 1: I'm Jason Brod. You've already told me some information.
[10:51] Speaker 2: I didn't know the word free reports are free and
[10:55] Speaker 2: you say alerts are free.
[10:57] Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Why.
[11:00] Speaker 2: I just got to ask you, why don't I know,
[11:02] Speaker 2: Rushan MacDonald know that experience you can register for free
[11:07] Speaker 2: to get free reports, free alerts, and free scores send
[11:11] Speaker 2: to your email box on a regular basis. Help me
[11:14] Speaker 2: educate me because I'm sure a lot of people listening
[11:17] Speaker 2: didn't know that either. Because I'm being inundated with all
[11:21] Speaker 2: this fraudulent stuff and experience having stuff that can bring
[11:25] Speaker 2: value to me help me become financially savvy and improve
[11:29] Speaker 2: my financial health.
[11:31] Speaker 3: Yeah, so there we have. Of course, different levels of
[11:35] Speaker 3: service with our business, but we have at the base level.
[11:38] Speaker 3: You go to our app, so you can download our
[11:41] Speaker 3: app on your phone or your mobile device, or you
[11:44] Speaker 3: can go to experience dot com and enroll in a
[11:46] Speaker 3: free monitoring service. And you do, you get a free
[11:49] Speaker 3: credit report once a month, You get a free Fyco
[11:51] Speaker 3: eight score and the respectors that go with it. So
[11:54] Speaker 3: the exchange is will offer you potential access to credit cards.
[11:59] Speaker 3: You might qualif five four you can tell us. Here's
[12:01] Speaker 3: the things I'm trying to do. The most powerful word
[12:04] Speaker 3: in credit and finance in general, I think is no
[12:06] Speaker 3: too little letters. So if you get offers, you don't
[12:10] Speaker 3: want them to say no, and that will inform you
[12:14] Speaker 3: with your credit score or your credit report and give
[12:17] Speaker 3: you the power to act on it. The annual credit
[12:19] Speaker 3: report dot com is the free government required site, and
[12:23] Speaker 3: you can get a free report from each of the
[12:25] Speaker 3: three credit bureaus once a week, so you get more
[12:28] Speaker 3: than one hundred a year if you want them. I
[12:30] Speaker 3: guess I mean quite that many, but you can get them.
[12:35] Speaker 3: They typically don't include a credit score, so you can
[12:38] Speaker 3: get free credit reports. If you're a victim of fraud,
[12:41] Speaker 3: you can get free credit reports. So if you got
[12:43] Speaker 3: to experience dot com fraud, if you believe you're a
[12:45] Speaker 3: victim or or are may have been or are, will
[12:49] Speaker 3: give you a free report along with the ability to
[12:51] Speaker 3: at a free fraud alert, and then you can get
[12:54] Speaker 3: reports and take additional actions if you need to. So
[12:57] Speaker 3: there's no real reason to pay for a credit report.
[13:00] Speaker 3: So today you can get free reports. And I always
[13:04] Speaker 3: tell people you should get a report. Why don't they
[13:07] Speaker 3: Usually they tell me they're afraid to see what's in it,
[13:09] Speaker 3: So don't tell me. I asked people, you get your
[13:11] Speaker 3: credit report and raise your hand. I'm talking to the audience,
[13:13] Speaker 3: and you see the heads drop you head, Why you
[13:17] Speaker 3: don't be afraid.
[13:20] Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[13:23] Speaker 4: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[13:34] Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaun McDonald.
[13:38] Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you this.
[13:40] Speaker 2: My identity was told and so that's frightening because you're helpless.
[13:47] Speaker 2: You see these credit card bills coming down, and there
[13:49] Speaker 2: was a several stores. They brought a computer over here,
[13:52] Speaker 2: they brought food over here, and it was just shocking.
[13:56] Speaker 2: But the only way I could get it back. Was
[13:59] Speaker 2: I'm gonna just tell you are in save my credit?
[14:01] Speaker 2: You know, with the alerts. I went to you guys,
[14:03] Speaker 2: I told you I fraud was happening. You reacted immediately,
[14:09] Speaker 2: and then the alerts saved me and they start blocking
[14:12] Speaker 2: and it will call me and contact me, is hey,
[14:15] Speaker 2: is this you?
[14:16] Speaker 1: Is this you make a setting up this account? Is
[14:18] Speaker 1: this you? To get it cleaned up?
[14:20] Speaker 2: It took about about a year, but I got back
[14:23] Speaker 2: back on my feet, And so that goes to my
[14:26] Speaker 2: next question. Establishing your credit rod and rebuilding your credit.
[14:31] Speaker 1: There are two different things.
[14:32] Speaker 2: How those ones establish their credit and then how do
[14:35] Speaker 2: they rebuild it?
[14:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're right, two different things, and having access
[14:40] Speaker 3: to credit history. Having a credit report is really important
[14:44] Speaker 3: in the financial world. It's one of the first things
[14:47] Speaker 3: that people will often look at. So for example, people
[14:52] Speaker 3: don't know that when you apply for an apartment lease,
[14:54] Speaker 3: they look at a credit report. If you're applying for
[14:56] Speaker 3: utility service, they'll look at a credit report. When you
[14:59] Speaker 3: get a self, they're going to look at your credit report.
[15:01] Speaker 3: So we know about credit cards, are getting a home
[15:04] Speaker 3: on that sort of thing, but it's other parts of
[15:06] Speaker 3: their life too. So establishing credits very important. Several ways
[15:10] Speaker 3: you can do that. One you can have a family member,
[15:13] Speaker 3: friend and you as an authorized user to an account
[15:16] Speaker 3: and then that account would be reported as part of
[15:18] Speaker 3: your credit report. You could apply maybe get qualified for
[15:21] Speaker 3: a small loan and have that reported, but that often
[15:25] Speaker 3: is difficult to do. So experience also is created something
[15:29] Speaker 3: we call Experience Go. When you enroll in our app,
[15:32] Speaker 3: if you do not have a credit report with us,
[15:34] Speaker 3: we'll ask you some questions and we'll actually create a
[15:37] Speaker 3: credit report for you. So you name your address, self
[15:40] Speaker 3: scary numbers, some other details. I'll ask you for a
[15:43] Speaker 3: live selfie, so if you wink or smile so we
[15:46] Speaker 3: know it's you, we'll create a credit report and all
[15:48] Speaker 3: that will have in it is your identifying information. From there,
[15:53] Speaker 3: we have something we call Experience Boost. Experience Boost actually
[15:56] Speaker 3: lets you add your cell phone payments of information, not
[16:00] Speaker 3: negative only positive information, but your positive cell phone payments,
[16:04] Speaker 3: positive utility payments, positive streaming services things like Netflix, Zulu,
[16:09] Speaker 3: your rent potentially, so we work with a number of
[16:13] Speaker 3: property management companies, your insurance payments, and we can capture
[16:19] Speaker 3: up to two years in information. Add that to your
[16:21] Speaker 3: credit report. So it's possible that if you don't have
[16:24] Speaker 3: a credit report at all, with experience, to go from
[16:27] Speaker 3: no credit history to having a credit report plus a
[16:30] Speaker 3: number of accounts credit scores, not having a report to
[16:33] Speaker 3: have a score to scores in the six hundred and
[16:36] Speaker 3: thirty range we've seen in some instances just in a
[16:38] Speaker 3: matter of minutes. So get you started, not a great score,
[16:41] Speaker 3: it's going to get you going. And so that's critical
[16:46] Speaker 3: is just having that credit report, because that's.
[16:48] Speaker 1: Going to saying but consistent payments. If you have a
[16:52] Speaker 1: debit call, that debit.
[16:53] Speaker 2: Call, you have your gas bill or your rent or
[16:57] Speaker 2: your Netflix account tied to that debit call, that shows
[17:00] Speaker 2: assistant payments. That's what you're talking about, and that in
[17:02] Speaker 2: turn can be inputed into your experiment account.
[17:05] Speaker 1: It starts building a base.
[17:08] Speaker 3: Right, and so with Experience Boosts, we connect to you
[17:11] Speaker 3: give us your permission, so it's permission based and tell
[17:14] Speaker 3: us I want to add these accounts and this is
[17:17] Speaker 3: the savings account or checking account, so academic card, checking
[17:20] Speaker 3: account or credit card you pay it with, and we're
[17:24] Speaker 3: able to then capture those payments and for each of
[17:26] Speaker 3: them you tell us you want to add, will add
[17:28] Speaker 3: an account to your credit report, so, and then we'll
[17:31] Speaker 3: immediately show you your score result too. So we give
[17:34] Speaker 3: you another free report and a score when you start
[17:36] Speaker 3: the process, and then we give you a importance score
[17:38] Speaker 3: when you finish in rolling. And you can see if
[17:41] Speaker 3: there's a difference if you are beginning to build credit
[17:44] Speaker 3: or you're working to rehabil it. But I think it's
[17:46] Speaker 3: rehabilitate your credit or rebuild it for most people, that's
[17:50] Speaker 3: when they see the most impacts. If you have thin
[17:51] Speaker 3: credit file, fewer than five accounts, or you've add scores
[17:55] Speaker 3: of less than six hundred eighty or so on a
[17:58] Speaker 3: fi COO eight score, that's who will typically see the
[18:01] Speaker 3: most benefit because there's just not much history there to
[18:05] Speaker 3: calculate score with. And so, and it's free. Again, it's free,
[18:08] Speaker 3: and it's permission based. If you don't want to continue,
[18:11] Speaker 3: you can tell us to stop. We'll remove the accounts.
[18:14] Speaker 3: So again we're trying to give people control of that
[18:16] Speaker 3: information and to make sure that they have a full
[18:19] Speaker 3: picture because those companies might report the negative information if
[18:23] Speaker 3: you don't make those payments, but they don't typically report
[18:25] Speaker 3: the positive information.
[18:26] Speaker 2: Now, as you're building your account, are rebuilding your account.
[18:29] Speaker 2: What are there any additional steps that I've missed in
[18:32] Speaker 2: here in your conversation.
[18:34] Speaker 3: Yeah, so several things. So experience boosts might help in
[18:36] Speaker 3: that regard as well. You know, if you've had some
[18:39] Speaker 3: issues and life happens. We all know and have had
[18:42] Speaker 3: those experiences and some things, and so you take steps
[18:46] Speaker 3: to start to recover, get your report know it's there.
[18:49] Speaker 3: Experience boosts might help in those instances because you're adding
[18:52] Speaker 3: positive history. And then it's about you know, having a
[18:57] Speaker 3: small account, making the payments on time every single time,
[19:00] Speaker 3: and that's critical. Work with experience to help you identify
[19:05] Speaker 3: what needs to be take care of. If you've been
[19:07] Speaker 3: a victim of fraud, I was too. I actually had
[19:10] Speaker 3: my tax forms were stolen and so there was a
[19:15] Speaker 3: tax file of my name.
[19:19] Speaker 2: It's really you like me, you know, that's like when
[19:22] Speaker 2: it happens raw, it's like you just feel so helpless
[19:26] Speaker 2: and then you start trying to figure out how it happens.
[19:29] Speaker 1: And I think another thing.
[19:30] Speaker 2: That people need to do is, like I use my
[19:32] Speaker 2: credit card a lot, and you really should audit your
[19:35] Speaker 2: monthly billy. Sometimes they'll drop little low payments monthly like
[19:41] Speaker 2: twenty five dollars or fifteen dollars and they'll just build
[19:44] Speaker 2: up over time and you don't know.
[19:46] Speaker 1: I've caught that on.
[19:47] Speaker 2: My credit card statement because I run a business and
[19:50] Speaker 2: so because people will sell your credit card information off
[19:54] Speaker 2: and people will start charging monthly low monthly charges that
[19:58] Speaker 2: you might not recognize, but it's so low that you
[20:01] Speaker 2: don't have time to go back and worry about trying
[20:04] Speaker 2: to identify because give her any charge off of a
[20:07] Speaker 2: credit card is not credit card bill is not easy. Now,
[20:11] Speaker 2: rock you know, I'm trying to maintain a financial savvy behavior.
[20:19] Speaker 2: My health, I'm going to use the word health. You know,
[20:22] Speaker 2: we're in the fourth quarter twenty twenty four, going into
[20:25] Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Should we prepare or can we prepare
[20:29] Speaker 2: the prior year before you go into the new year
[20:32] Speaker 2: being financially healthy?
[20:35] Speaker 3: Absolutely? And you know it's about setting goals. And I
[20:39] Speaker 3: always tell people, you know, talking about money can be hard,
[20:42] Speaker 3: and so I use my personal life. My wife and
[20:46] Speaker 3: I talk about money all the time, but we're usually
[20:50] Speaker 3: not talking about money when you think about it later.
[20:53] Speaker 3: So a money conversation doesn't have to be you know,
[20:58] Speaker 3: a confrontational sort of thing for us It could be
[21:02] Speaker 3: do we want to go out to dinner tonight or
[21:04] Speaker 3: do we want to wait until the weekend because we
[21:07] Speaker 3: want to do something later? So where are we going
[21:10] Speaker 3: to spend that money? It's the real question. But it's
[21:13] Speaker 3: a goal setting. Do we want to have a vacation
[21:15] Speaker 3: in next year? So we start talking about personal goals
[21:19] Speaker 3: and goals we have together rather than the money itself.
[21:23] Speaker 3: And so I tell people start from there because it
[21:25] Speaker 3: makes start from a goal perspective. What do you want
[21:28] Speaker 3: to do in life? And that could be this month,
[21:31] Speaker 3: it could be next year, it could be in five years,
[21:34] Speaker 3: and set those goals and then start looking at what
[21:37] Speaker 3: is the money equation? How do I make sure I
[21:40] Speaker 3: have the financial resources to achieve those goals? And it
[21:43] Speaker 3: helps set up more positive approach instead of letting money
[21:46] Speaker 3: become a problem and then having to figure out how
[21:49] Speaker 3: to recover from a problem. Set a goal and start
[21:52] Speaker 3: looking forward and head check your credit report, make sure
[21:56] Speaker 3: that you're setting aside savings. Build a budget, call us
[21:59] Speaker 3: spending plan if you like. I have a college professor
[22:01] Speaker 3: friend who does that. So it doesn't like budget. Okay,
[22:04] Speaker 3: I'm from Texas, some kind of stubborn it's a budget.
[22:06] Speaker 3: I'm gonna call it.
[22:10] Speaker 2: No state income taxes Texas. Your good brother over there
[22:14] Speaker 2: in Georgia, they're killing me there. They're killing me, Rob.
[22:17] Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you this, Rob, you know, and just
[22:19] Speaker 2: listening to you, and I hope everybody's listening to just
[22:23] Speaker 2: when you're doing.
[22:24] Speaker 1: If you if you're buying groceries and they got.
[22:27] Speaker 2: A grocery account, a loyalty plan, get it.
[22:31] Speaker 1: I do that. I get discounts on my gas.
[22:34] Speaker 2: If I buy groceries on a Friday, I get triple
[22:37] Speaker 2: points which go to my gas. I have a credit
[22:41] Speaker 2: card where if I buy charges on my credit card,
[22:45] Speaker 2: it gets me faster on my Frequent Flyer plan. And
[22:48] Speaker 2: then on my freaking fly plan, I got membership miles.
[22:50] Speaker 2: That's what you was talking about, being savvy when it
[22:53] Speaker 2: comes to how you dealing with your finances and things
[22:56] Speaker 2: like that. And I think the big takeaway and I
[22:59] Speaker 2: are and hearing you talk about experience as this. Just
[23:02] Speaker 2: look at what's out there, you know, and make sure
[23:06] Speaker 2: you're aware of the advantages, because you there are some
[23:08] Speaker 2: things that can be saved with You're in car insurance.
[23:11] Speaker 3: Right, yeah, and so exactly right, you're living my life
[23:15] Speaker 3: because I just bought gas yesterday. I say ninety cents
[23:17] Speaker 3: a gallop because a grocery card, right, So you know,
[23:21] Speaker 3: so the same thing. And when it comes to car insurance,
[23:25] Speaker 3: same issue. You know it's insurance is expensive. We've seen
[23:28] Speaker 3: what inflation has done over the last couple of years.
[23:30] Speaker 3: Insurance rates are up more than twenty percent over the
[23:33] Speaker 3: last year. And Experience actually has introduced another we're talking
[23:37] Speaker 3: about what experience does. We've introduced an Experience Insurance auto
[23:40] Speaker 3: insurance marketplace, and we help you shop for better insurance.
[23:44] Speaker 3: We work with forty of the largest insurance providers in
[23:48] Speaker 3: the country and we help find the best rates based
[23:53] Speaker 3: on where you live, what you need, kind of insurance levels,
[23:56] Speaker 3: you know, meeting the minimum requirements, and try to help
[23:59] Speaker 3: you shop apples apples. What we found is for people
[24:03] Speaker 3: that are working with their marketplace, they save on average
[24:05] Speaker 3: about eight hundred dollars a year, so not just a
[24:09] Speaker 3: small amount of money. And the other thing that we'll
[24:12] Speaker 3: do is help shop for you because shopping for insurance
[24:16] Speaker 3: can be difficult. You want to make sure you're getting
[24:17] Speaker 3: the same offers for the same coverages. I want to
[24:20] Speaker 3: make sure you're meeting your state minimum requirements for auto insurance,
[24:23] Speaker 3: for example, and it can be difficult and confusing. So
[24:27] Speaker 3: we will monitor for you. If you change insurance providers
[24:30] Speaker 3: with us, we'll monitor for you. If we find a
[24:32] Speaker 3: better rate, we'll tell you and you can decide whether
[24:34] Speaker 3: you want to then shop for change providers and get
[24:38] Speaker 3: you an even better rate as they come along, so
[24:40] Speaker 3: you don't have to continually shop yourself.
[24:44] Speaker 1: Wow. He's a senior director Public Education Advocacs of Experience.
[24:48] Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you, I want to thank you
[24:49] Speaker 2: for coming on money making conversations. My big takeaway is
[24:53] Speaker 2: now one more audiz because some people I don't want
[24:56] Speaker 2: to do coopon.
[24:57] Speaker 1: I don't want to shop like that. I shop with coupons.
[25:03] Speaker 2: I we shopped so much that I get free food
[25:07] Speaker 2: right there, said to be a coupon saying hey, here's
[25:09] Speaker 2: some free this, here's some free this, here's some free this.
[25:12] Speaker 2: Because they want my business and so and some things
[25:16] Speaker 2: you know will be six dollars eight dollars nine dollars
[25:19] Speaker 2: savings on that particular sale if I didn't come in there.
[25:23] Speaker 2: And I think the big walk away is just be
[25:25] Speaker 2: financially savvy. Just let's see what's out there. Because, like
[25:29] Speaker 2: you said, when you got that ninety cents off off
[25:32] Speaker 2: your gas bill and filling up, that when I get
[25:35] Speaker 2: three cents off or I get ten cents off, I
[25:38] Speaker 2: get forty cents off per gallon. Now per gallon, that
[25:41] Speaker 2: goes a long way. Thank you for coming on money
[25:43] Speaker 2: making conversation, masterclof Brob.
[25:45] Speaker 1: But I hope you enjoyed it.
[25:46] Speaker 3: I did very much. Thank you for having me, and
[25:48] Speaker 3: if I can ever join again, let me know. I'm
[25:50] Speaker 3: happy to clearly happy to talk. I love it. Well.
[25:52] Speaker 2: You know I'm gonna have you back in the first
[25:53] Speaker 2: of the year because you know it's always patterns. You know,
[25:56] Speaker 2: people right now they're shopping, They're gonna go out there
[25:59] Speaker 2: and by gifts they can't afford buy food for these
[26:03] Speaker 2: big Thanksgiving spreads.
[26:05] Speaker 1: When we come back in January February with me.
[26:08] Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking about there's charges that you that
[26:11] Speaker 2: you raised and now is impacting your credit score. How
[26:15] Speaker 2: do we fix it? So Rob, we have a relationship.
[26:17] Speaker 2: My brother and I appreciate you taking the time to
[26:20] Speaker 2: come in the fall before it starts. So when we
[26:22] Speaker 2: talk to them in the spring after.
[26:24] Speaker 1: They've done their little run awesome. Appreciate you, brother, talk
[26:29] Speaker 1: to you soon.
[26:30] Speaker 3: Man than you.
[26:31] Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
[26:35] Speaker 2: posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
[26:38] Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
[26:41] Speaker 2: If you want to listen to any episode I want
[26:43] Speaker 2: to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversations
[26:46] Speaker 2: dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
[26:50] Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
[26:53] Speaker 2: your gifts. Keep winning.

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