Quick.
Off the top of your head, what's your credit score?
You're not sure?
You're not alone.
Most of us just don't know what our credit score is or how to
find out.
What's worse, lots of us don't really understand why a credit
score is so important.
Well, all that's about to change this morning.
We're going to welcome Scott Lascelles, Chief Marketing
Officer for SpringLeaf Financial.
Good morning.
Good morning, Olga.
So let's talk about credit score and why it's important.
I'm already talking to my children about it and they're
only 11 and 13.
Your credit score impacts so many parts of your life people
aren't aware of.
Everyone knows it will impact you getting approved for a loan.
You apply for a credit card, a car loan, you get a yes no
decision based on your credit score.
It also impacts the rate you'll pay.
The lower your credit, the higher our rate, but what people
don't know is that it actually impacts whether a landlord is
going to charge a larger deposit or not.
When you get a cell phone, they ask for your social security
number, because they're puling a credit bureau report.
Utility companies, even insurance companies in
determining your premium use your credit score.
It's like a background check, and when I was growing up, my
mom always used to say if you can't afford it, don't buy it.
You don't want to be up to here in credit.
You don't want to have a bad credit score, and I've lived by
that rule, and I think I've got a pretty good one.
It's empowering for me to have a good score because I feel like I
can go out there, get that loan, and be trusted.
Absolutely.
But, the reality is for most Americans 50% of them can't
raise $2000 in a month, so they need access to credit, and to
get good credit, you need to make sure you know what your
credit score is, and you take control of it.
So, let's say I want to know my credit score today.
How would I find out, Scott?
Actually, there's a really good website the government had the
credit agencies do.
It's called annualcreditreport.com and as
you can see, if you go there, you can actually get your credit
report once a year from TU, Equifax and Experian, so a good
strategy is to go to the website every four months, and you can
actually check three times a year, to see what's going on
with your credit report.
So, I just plug in my information and for free, I get
my score and how I'm doing.
Absolutely.
It's free.
You just have to enter your name, address, and social
security number, and then when you log in, you can check to see
if that credit card was actually opened in your name, if there's
any reporting errors, and if you're delinquent on any cards
you weren't aware of.
So, let's say the credit score is bad.
You've been late on some payments, some tragedy has
occurred.
I'll give you an example: I have a family member that just got
divorced, credit has gone down the drain.
Then what?
Bad credit happens to good people.
Life happens.
It's not that it happens, it's how we deal with it.
So, there's five things that really impact your credit score
that you can do to focus on to improve it.
The first is your payment history.
Paying your bills on time.
I'd recommend enrolling yourself in on-time bill payments.
So, it's the min-due is automatically paid on your
bills, so you're not late.
That's difficult with managing your finances, but it's very
important.
The second is how much debt or utilization you have.
The third is how long is your credit history.
The fourth is credit mix.
If you have an auto loan, a credit card.
You want to have a few different types on your credit bureau, and
the last is how many inquiries you have.
In other words, you don't want to go out when you need credit
and apply for three or four loans at a time.
That actually will hurt your credit score.
And what are my options if I need to apply for a loan and I
have bad credit.
There's a lot of options.
People have more options than they think.
They don't have to take whatever is offered to them.
So, you have options like using your car as collateral.
Getting a secured loan.
What we do at SpringLeaf is we sit down with our customers.
We have 800 branches.
Over 5000 employees in the field.
They sit down with you and they'll do a budget to see what
you can afford and what type of loan is right for you.
And to make sure you can pay it back.
Absolutely.
We want to do business with people that can pay their bills,
and that can pay us back, so we make sure you do have the
ability to pay.
The other thing we do is have a 7-day money back guarantee on
your loan.
There's no high-pressure sales with us.
When you come in, if the loan wasn't right, you can return it
within a week.
The second thing is, in every branch, we have a prominently
displayed customer bill of rights, so you know that we're
going to treat your properly and fairly, as we should.
So, the bottom line.
If you've got bad credit, and you can do a 180 and turn it
back into good credit.
Absolutely.
Do business with a reputable company you trust.
Thank you so much, Scott.
I appreciate your time.
If you would like to learn more, and learn more about your credit
score, or learn about loans, log onto TheBalancingAct.com.
We've got all the information there.
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